The winners and losers from World Cup 2026

Winners: Cape Verde tourism board

Piers Morgan raised eyebrows by claiming he'd never heard of the islands of Cape Verde before this summer. As implausible as that sounds, they were hardly going to be a top answer on Family Fortunes. Their battling performances against both World Cup finalists won them fans across the world. And for a nation that derives 25% of its GDP from tourism, the boost in fame won't go amiss.

Loser: Gianni Infantino

£11 billion. That’s the windfall FIFA’s president has secured for his organisation over the course of this tournament. He’ll have to ask himself if it was worth it to become the most hated man in sport. Hydration breaks, half-time shows, pandering to Trump, those trainers at the medal ceremony… Truly impressive to make people miss Sepp Blatter.

Winners: Wayne Rooney and Joe Hart

Rooney and Hart were deservedly promoted to the BBC's A-team for this tournament. Rooney hasn't exactly been known for his oratory, but he’s clearly had some media training kicked into him (but not too much) and was insightful and straightforward. Similar can be said of Joe Hart. Goalkeeping punditry is usually reserved for outfield players muttering ‘he should be saving that’ with a confidence that belies their knowledge. So it was welcome to hear some actual expertise.

Losers: Argentina

Argentina disgraced themselves at this World Cup. They proved themselves as graceless in defeat as they did in victory, attacking worthy Spanish winners at full-time and just being general bastards all tournament. Twice they tried to abuse a rule invented to stamp out racism to get an opponent unfairly sent off. They deservedly carry the humiliation of being the only World Cup finalist not to have a single shot in 90 minutes.

Winner: Erling Haaland

It was a big off-field victory for the Haaland brand, as the prolific Norwegian won over the home crowd. As well as taking to America like a Viking to a pointy helmet, Haaland showed class in a defeat that must have been difficult to take. If Sørloth had passed to him he might have won a proper award, not a fake one being divvied out in this article.

Losers: (Some) referees

Completely failed to get to grips with South American teams fouling and cheating for fun. It was obvious the game plan Paraguay and Argentina would be rolling out, yet referees seemed completely shocked and unprepared when countless fouls rained down in the opening minutes of their games. The lack of punishment only encouraged them and opponents were lucky to avoid serious injury.

Winner: Football

See: Losers, Argentina.

Loser: ITV’s set design

Emma Hayes' tactical analysis was a creative and valuable use of the much maligned hydration breaks. But it was badly let down by a minimalist set that made it look like she was lecturing the nation from a kitchen. Putting her in there on her own also felt a bit like it was an opportunity for the other pundits to put their feet up.

Both: The USA

The Americanisation of the World Cup will have gotten the backs up of football's purists - as will the constant 'just saying' suggestions to improve the world's most popular sport. But America does seem to have been gripped by 'soccer' this summer. And that's dangerous for nations that want to win the biggest prize in sport. An amazingly rich and well resourced country with 350 million people... taking football seriously? If it works, they'll start being competitive before you know it.

Loser: Neil Diamond

Sweet Caroline was noticeable in its absence at this year’s edition, having been a staple of English sport for what feels like forever. Wonderwall is hardly an out-there replacement, but that’s expected given the reason it was sung at all was because the PA presumably whacked on a playlist of ‘songs English people like’.

Winner: That Ghanaian witch doctor

Harry Kane has scored 73 goals this season. So if you're the lowest ranked nation in your group you might be a bit wary to come up against the best striker in world football. Not if you're Nana Kwaku Bonsam. And when his gamble paid off and his 'curse' appeared to work, I'm certain demand for his 'services' will have risen faster than you can say 'penalty to Argentina'.

Loser: Scottish bank holidays

I'm sure at the time it was a very welcome surprise. But if you're going to celebrate a narrow win with a bank holiday, make sure you don't get knocked out on goal difference. Locked into a tricky group, Scotland really needed to give Haiti a bit of a pasting. But an underwhelming 1-0 win followed by two defeats saw them miss out at the expense of Cape Verde, who didn't win a game all tournament. The good news is with a further expansion of the tournament ahead, the Scots will almost certainly get another chance to finally get out of the group stages in 2030.