World Cup 2026: Spain v Argentina final

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1:25Hello and welcome to NewsHour live from the BBC World Service in London. I'm Rebecca Kesby and it's finally here. It's World Cup final day and after England beat France 6-4 in a thrilling bronze medal match last night, now to the final match and the only one that really matters. Reigning champions Argentina take on Spain. Can Lionel Messi's team successfully defend their title or will Spain, undefeated in their past 37 matches, excluding penalty shootouts, survive to claim the trophy? As with all World Cups, there have been some controversies on and off the pitch. We'll dig into that in a moment with a former FIFA insider.

2:08First, let's assess the teams tonight and what's at stake for the players. Earlier, I spoke to Ossie Ardiles, former Argentine footballer who played in and won the 1978 World Cup final. So how will the players be feeling now and how are they preparing for the match? You are doing as many things as possible, trying not to think about the game. Because whatever you are trying to do, maybe playing cards or whatever, the game can come back to you. And because of that, you start to feel very nervous and you start to lose energy and so on. So the main, main thing is to think about anything else but the game.

2:47And there's always a lot of pressure on the Argentine team because the fans are just so enthusiastic about it. And of course, they are the reigning champions as well. How do you think Argentina is going to get on tonight? It's going to be a great, great game. I believe that Spain has shown so, so far to be the best team in the tournament. The way they play football is my way. I absolutely love the way they do. They completely paralysed France. A lot of people said that France was the favourite to win the World Cup and so on, but they were completely superior to France. Spain is the best team, yes, but it's only one team that can beat them.

3:27And that team is Argentina, yes. And how are they going to do that? Because the Argentine team has kind of left it a bit late in various matches in this tournament. You know, suddenly making a comeback against Egypt, for example. And a lot of that has been down to Lionel Messi, who everyone keeps saying is 39 and on the brink of retirement. Can he do it again tonight? I think he can do it again, yes, of course. He's playing extremely well. He doesn't show any sign of getting tired and so on. Sometimes he runs a lot, sometimes he doesn't run. He just walks a little bit. But he's going to be very interesting.

4:00I believe that the game is going to be like Uruguay. When Uruguay against Spain, Spain was the most complicated game, to be perfectly honest. They only won in fact because, of course, they were the better team, but they won because of a big mistake from the Uruguay goalkeeper. But, of course, Argentina is Argentina. They have a lot more quality than Uruguay. Yeah, and Messi, I mean, people say he's the greatest living footballer. Some people say he's the greatest of all time. Why is he so good? What is it that he's got that others just don't have? You need me to explain? Tell us, tell us. Messi is like somebody is going to come and burglar your house, for example.

4:43And you're not going to come. So before, you talk with a lot of people that had the same problem before. You talk with Mourinho. You talk with Ancelotti. You improve your alarm. You improve the lightning. You improve everything. And Messi comes and rob your house the same. The same. So there are players in the history of the game. For me, there are only three. One is him, of course. The other one is Maradona. And the other one, the third one is Pelé. When they are OK, when they are not injured and so on, it's kind of impossible to stop them. There's a chance that Argentina could win again tonight.

5:20I think that would be the fourth time. But what stands in their way? You've already said Spain is the best team in this tournament. What do they need to do to get past Spain? Argentina have a, I would say the best thing they have is a very, very strong mentality. You've seen it in some of the games, not playing at their best, even against England, not playing at their best. But when they need to be, they improve their game incredibly, in an incredible manner. So that made them very, very dangerous. And what does it feel like to actually get your hands on that trophy? Well, of course, it's very nice.

5:56It's the maximum that a football player can aspire. I mean, of course, this is what you want all the time. You want to play first in the first team in your country. Then you want to play in the national team. Then you want to play in the World Cup. And then, of course, you can win the World Cup. So when you have a trophy in your hand, it's unbelievable. It's a unique, unique experience. There's a man who knows what that experience is like. Former Argentine World Cup winner, Ossi Ardiles there. Well, let's get a view from Spain now. Borja Montejo Moraga is a Spanish superfan. So how is he feeling ahead of the game?

6:33I'm feeling OK now. It will be different in some hours to come. I will be probably very nervous. I think we can do it if they play as they've been playing the whole tournament as a team and enjoying themselves and being loyal and composure. And I think we can do it if we are like that. And what would it mean for Spain to win tonight? Well, it would be amazing. and it will be just we've always played really, really well. So hopefully we can win and enjoy ourselves again like 2010. Well, there have been some standout moments of fabulous football over the tournament and some controversies. I've been speaking to Miguel Maduro from Portugal.

7:12He was the chair of FIFA's Governance Committee for 10 months back in 2016 under current FIFA president Gianni Infantino. But since he left that role, he's been critical of both FIFA and Infantino's leadership. And I asked him first about that controversial red card reversal for US star striker Florian Balogun. What was his take on it? It's a particularly obvious and explicit example of the way FIFA normally operates, whereby rules are often applied in a selective manner according to what FIFA considers to be its commercial or political interests and not so much what the rules themselves will determine.

7:57I think that's a case that outraged a lot of people, but particularly because it was so obvious and it took place in a stage like the World Cup, but is nothing new regarding the culture according to which FIFA works. Gianni Infantino, in response to the criticism over the overturning of that red card, had this to say. He said FIFA's judicial bodies are independent. They operate autonomously and their independence is essential to the credibility and integrity of football. And this must always be respected. He is right just at the end of what he says. The independence of these bodies is crucial for the credibility of football.

8:41But these bodies are not independent. They have no guarantee of independence. When imagine that you have a Supreme Court in the UK, for example, or a Supreme Court in the United States or in any country, and that these judges are all appointed by the government and can be dismissed by the government at any moment. You wouldn't call this an independent court. This is unfortunately what independence means for Mr. Infantino, that if he's not happy with the decisions of the bodies, it can replace the people there. So those that are in those positions know that they are not really independent because continuing or not in their positions depend on those whom they are supposed to control.

9:27There's been other decisions which have also caused controversy. The way the Iranian team, for example, had to fly in on match days. They weren't allowed to stay in the United States. Did that affect their game? There was a Somali ref that was banned from arriving in the country altogether. Well, what that highlights is the extent to which FIFA has double standards in how it applies what itself claims to be the principle of political neutrality and how it uses the power it has in negotiating with hosting countries of its events, such as the World Cup. because on the one hand, FIFA often almost threatens those states with withdrawing the competition, for example, if they don't give it a special tax status and other advantages.

10:19But then when it comes to issues like those, it prefers to those states, and in this case to the United States and President Donald Trump. It's another example, I'm afraid, of that culture of governance that I was mentioning. And basically, as I've said this many times, FIFA is a system of rules without the rule of law. And what all these cases and this selective application of the rules, invoking the principle of political neutrality one day to prevent any form of regulation by a state, for example. And in the other day, developing a very close relationship with political persons like Donald Trump and others.

11:04They are all examples of, unfortunately, of this culture of governance where FIFA is dominated by, dominates its actions by what it considers and what it perceives to be its commercial interests or its political interests. Well, you say that, but I mean, FIFA is in the business of making football successful internationally, isn't it? And you say, you know, the commercial interest, but the truth is it does have to make money in order to plough it back into the game. And I guess FIFA would say that that's what they've done. Around$10 billion has been made from this World Cup. And, you know, perhaps FIFA would say that they plough that back into grassroots level sports in poorer countries, which has allowed those countries to, you know, front up some really quite spectacular teams this tournament.

11:56I wish it was as simple as that. And in fact, if we look even at the status of FIFA, FIFA is not only in the business of making money. FIFA is in the business of regulating football. It regulates who can play, it regulates athletes, it regulates the contracts of players with teams. It regulates the competitions that take place. In fact, and this is one of the fundamental problems in the governance of football and in FIFA. FIFA sits at the heart of a systemic conflict of interest because on the one hand it is supposed to regulate football and on the other hand it's the main commercial actor in that market that itself regulates.

12:39I know of no other economic market where that happens. And that systemic conflict of interest creates these problems. These problems are aggravated because as you say FIFA does make money, does need to make money But often this culture of making money ahead of all the other regulatory values that it ought to pursue regarding the different stakeholders in the world of football, putting money ahead of everything, it's the product of how power is organised in FIFA. But, I mean, you must admit that this particular tournament has been really successful in terms of the standard of football that we've seen.

13:22And not just from the big teams, but from some of the underdogs as well. I mean, really outstanding performances, which ultimately is good for the game, isn't it? And good for the fans, good for the world feeling about, you know, coming together in a sporting way. Yes, and that only makes it sadder that then we have to see the other sides of the world of football and FIFA. But certainly on the pitch and on the stands, the enthusiasm of fans and outside the stadiums, because those many of them that couldn't afford it, but that enthusiasm and the quality of football on the pitch is something that is amazing and is always amazing.

14:02And that's why football continues to be the extraordinary thing that is. This is the deep contradiction in which we live. Miguel Maduro, their former chair of FIFA's governance committee, speaking to us a short time ago.

14:21Coming up later, there's a new fashion trend for nails. It's called bare nails. It's supposed to be very stylish, but we'll hear about the underlying politics of whether to apply nail polish or gel or not. When people talk about bare nails, they often use language around it. So they'll often conflate class and taste with that bareness. They're often called elegant or tasteful. And these are often usually euphemisms that perpetuate white supremacist standards beauty. What it comes down to is respectability politics, which women of colour often face a ton of scrutiny for. More on that to come. Our headlines this hour.

14:59Iran has intercepted vessels in the Strait of Hormuz and attacked targets in Bahrain and Kuwait after an eighth night of US strikes and a ferry with more than 100 people on board has sunk off the coast of Guyana. About half the passengers, though, are reported to have been rescued so far. This is Rebecca Kesby with NewsHour live from the BBC.

15:33Wildfires across the province of Ontario in Canada continue to rage with over 900 of them now affecting people. It was announced on Saturday that the Canadian military was stepping in to try to evacuate more citizens. Smoke has travelled as far as New York and New Jersey with the US stadium hosting the World Cup final being surrounded by a cloud of it. President Trump has hit out at Canada over the health risk. even threatening to slap tariffs on its neighbour for spreading filthy air, he said, across the border. While speaking in Thunder Bay, Ontario's Premier Doug Ford had this to say in response to the president's complaint.

16:12You don't get on and start threatening and criticising because guess what? One day it's going to be your turn. But to make the comments they did through the administration, unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. We're trying to get through this. and maybe I got an idea. I got an idea for President Trump. Why don't you get rid of the softwood lumber tariffs? Because 30 percent, 33 percent of the lumber that you use in your building, guess what? It comes from Canada. You want us to clear the forest? Well, open up the gates. Well, Eleanor Ozzevsky is the Canadian Minister of Emergency Management and Community resilience.

16:53We have a really challenging and evolving wildfire situation in parts of our country and particularly right now in the province of Ontario. And the situation there is that there are a number of wildfires that are out of control. A lot of those fires are affecting northern and remote and First Nations communities. And those fires are particularly challenging because of the area that they're in. You know, some of the communities are, they're not accessible by road. And so they are very challenging, not only in terms of fire suppression, but in terms of evacuations as well. One man who was caught up in a wildfire in the province is Wilfred King.

17:40He's chief of the Gull Bay First Nation community, and he fled his home and is now in an evacuation Center. He told us what happened. There was virtually no help from the federal government and there was no help from the provincial government. All the agencies that are charged with the responsibility of evacuations and emergencies failed our communities. The communication was very sparse. The agency that is supposed to look after wildfires and the suppression of wildfires, we had no contact with them. They didn't give us any warning systems or nothing. And that's the, seems to be the common thread with other First Nation communities.

18:18They were given no warning and people were literally running on their feet and jumping in boats to flee from their communities. And the other community I talked to, they were given the time to evacuate on the 11th hour and they barely had time to get out. And thank God that they managed to get out of that community as well. And the fire was right very at their doorstep. and seeing that and we said we weren't going to take any chances and we decided to declare a state of emergency and leave. But the process for this was completely flawed, lack of communication. The emergency response teams that are supposed to look after these situations failed us miserably.

19:01That was Wilfred King there, Chief of the Gull Bay First Nation Community in Ontario, Canada. don't forget if you can't manage to catch news hour live you can always download the podcast edition available twice a day always updated with the very latest you can just do a search for bbc world service news hour and you can sign up to get a free download so you can listen whenever you like wherever you are

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20:31Welcome back to News Hour. Now, it's holiday season here in the Northern Hemisphere, a chance to get away and see a different part of the world perhaps. But in Spain, the getaway destination for many in Europe, local residents have become increasingly annoyed by the annual influx of tourists. Some say they drive up prices for locals, including property prices. And there have even been anti-tourism protests recently in Barcelona, where protesters squirted holidaymakers with water pistols and chanted, Tourists Go Home. Paul Henley has been speaking to William Colm Monteiro from the University of Glasgow.

21:06He's an expert on tourism in Europe. It is actually a controversial theme, the protest of the summer of 2024 in Barcelona and Mallorca, which were a deep turning point in the history of tourism in Spain, in the sense that from then onwards, the conversation has actually shifted from increasing tourism number to managing over tourism as a challenge. It's something, it's an idea that it's accepted by authorities but tourism stakeholders etc but the solution and the balance is very complex because it's a matter of a scale the scale of tourism has expanded so much in Spain but also across many European cities even even here in in Scotland in Edinburgh it's a clear case of tourism as well so how to manage that is difficult but what is very clear is that in 10 years, the conversation has totally shifted from welcoming tourism as an industry and as an activity to managing the challenge that tourism is bringing to the cities and regions.

22:07Yeah, restricting the number of Airbnbs, introducing tourism taxes, tried in many parts of the world. Do those measures work? Do they reduce tourism? What happens? It's very complex. It's actually, I mean, as you were saying, there are restrictions to Airbnb style apartments, what are known as short-term rentals, being developed across many cities in Europe, but that's not really reducing the tourism numbers. One of the challenges or one of the issues that a lot of community activists mention is that while there are new regulations introduced, there are no controls that the regulations are being followed.

22:43And there is not any kind of collaboration by Airbnb and similar companies to check whether illegal flats are being offered there. So that's one of the challenges in the sense that it is very difficult to control this activity. Then a key change that is coming actually from Spain is the case of Barcelona. Barcelona has tried to engage in conversation with Airbnb, which have been fruitless. Barcelona has tried to restrict short-term rentals across many areas of the city, and that has not actually transformed the situation or decreased tourism numbers or decreased the fact that locals are being priced out of the housing market.

23:20So what Barcelona is moving towards is a full-out ban. Airbnb or short-term rentals will be totally banned in Barcelona from 2028 onwards. That is a deep change of the trend, not only in Spain, but across Europe, because in the end this is a European challenge. The European Union is actually trying to manage also this challenge. So what the discussion is moving towards is, Is it possible to manage this, especially in urban centres? Is it possible to manage short-term rental in urban centres, to control them so that they devolved to the population, or a full-out ban? Guilherme Colin-Montero from Glasgow University.

24:01You're listening to NewsHour Live from the BBC. I'm Rebecca Kesby. Let's get the latest now on Russian airstrikes on the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, overnight. At least one person has been killed. 14 others have been injured. Ukraine has also carried out more attacks on the Russian oil industry. Drones hit three oil depots in Stavropol, causing a fire in the city's industrial zone. This resident of Kiev told us she and her family narrowly escaped a Russian ballistic missile in a residential area. we barely got out we escaped through the first floor smashing everything because it was impossible to leave through the entrance that's it everything burned down the car burned down everything what for christopher miller is chief ukraine correspondent for the financial times and joins us live from kiev christopher i mean this does sound like quite a large-scale attack overnight.

25:00President Zelensky called it one of the most massive ballistic attacks on Kyiv since the start of the full-scale invasion. Yeah, that's right. It was terrifying. You know, the buildings here in central Kyiv where I am shook, windows were rattling and there were upwards of 40 ballistic missiles and cruise missiles that came exploding down into targets, you know, very close to the city center here. It was terrifying. And as the president said, and the acting foreign minister, this was certainly one of the largest attacks with ballistic missiles that Russia has launched against Kiev since the full-scale invasion.

25:39But it's just one of several really devastating and deadly attacks in the last three or four weeks when we've seen Russia escalating its airstrikes on the capital here. It does seem as if Ukrainian air defences managed to intercept, well, about 18 missiles, we heard, and many drones. But, I mean, air defence is always an issue for the Ukrainians. Is there anything on the horizon in terms of optimism that that can be bolstered? You're right. Air defense is the most important issue and challenge facing Ukraine right now. And Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pleaded with his Western partners and the United States for more air defense, particularly these interceptor missiles for its American-made Patriot interceptor systems.

26:27We heard some patriot systems working last night, and I know from speaking with military and political officials here that there was recently a shipment of Patriot interceptor missiles provided to Ukraine in recent weeks. And so Ukraine does have a stockpile of them. They're just not enough to take down every ballistic missile. We know that – your listeners will recall the NATO summit recently in Ankara where Zelensky met with U.S. President Donald Trump. They agreed that the Americans would provide a license for the Ukrainians to start producing Patriot interceptor missiles, but that's not expected to come for many months, if not some years' time.