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Explore the latest developments concerning A World Cup.

A World Cup guide for new football fans

It's difficult to miss the buzz and excitement surrounding the Fifa World Cup.

Football (or soccer, as they call it in North America) is the world's most popular sport and the World Cup is the most prestigious prize of them all.

For the first time in the tournament's nearly 100-year history, it will be jointly hosted by three countries – Mexico, Canada and the United States.

The opening match will be played in Mexico City on 11 June. And the final is in the US state of New Jersey on 19 July.

For anyone new to the beautiful game, here's what you need to know:

Don’t have time to watch 72 World Cup group games? Here are 10 not to miss

Watching 108 hours of football is not for everyone but there are some crackers in the group stage, including Scotland v Brazil, Netherlands v Japan and France v Senegal

The days of watching every game at the World Cup are long gone for most of us. The expansion to 48 teams means 72 group games will be played just to narrow the competition down to 32 sides – the number we have had at the last seven tournaments. Fans will have to sit through 108 hours of group-stage football – plus a lot of injury time and drinks breaks – just to get to the number of teams we have become accustomed to since 1998.

Everything You Need To Know About The 2026 Men's FIFA World Cup – Behind The News

FIFA WORLD CUP The 2026 Men's FIFA World Cup kicks off very early tomorrow morning. It's the biggest competition on the planet for a single sport. Over 39 days, 48 countries will battle it out in huge stadiums across North America. The World Cup only happens every four years, much like the Olympics. This year, more than 5 billion people are expected to watch at some point, that's more than half of all humans on Earth. Australia's World Cup hopes rest on these guys, the Socceroos, who will first clash against Türkiye on Sunday during what's called the group stage. The week after they'll take on the US, then Paraguay a week later. But what happens next is anyone's guess. The teams then filter through to the knockout stage where the stakes will get higher and higher building up to the final, when the world will be glued to their screens anxiously riding the highs and lows to find out who gets the glory, more than 70 million dollars in prize money and of course the World Cup trophy. This spectacle has already had plenty of controversy, there's been concerns about super high ticket prices, threats of boycotts and some competing countries are literally at war with each other. But many soccer fans are hoping to put all this aside, uniting the world for an epic tournament.DOCTOR WHO FUTUREThere seems to be a bit of uncertainty over the future of Doctor Who. The BBC announced last year that there'd be a Doctor Who festive special in 2026, but have now said that's not going to happen. Meanwhile, the show's showrunner, Russell T Davies, has shared in an Instagram post that he'll be leaving the program just four years after returning. The BBC say they're looking at getting other production companies to help co-produce the next series and a lot of fans have been sharing their concerns that the show could be no more.SAGRADA FAMILIAA big church in Barcelona, which is famous for being incomplete, has reached a new milestone and the Pope was there to celebrate the occasion. Five million people from around the world step through its gates of the Sagrada Familia every year. It's known for being the tallest church in the world at 172.5 metres. Oh and it's been in construction for the past 144 years. The church began construction in 1882 with the first design by Francisco de Paula del Villar. But then got flicked over to architect Antoni Gaudi. His plans were a lot more ambitious, but he died in 1926 before he could see it through. His designs were then destroyed during the Spanish Civil War in 1936. That made things pretty tricky and pretty slow because of the church's super complex design and funding the construction relied heavily on donations. But now the church has just reached a new milestone with the completion of the centre pinnacle, the Tower of Jesus Christ. To celebrate, Pope Leo XI was there to inaugurate it, and commemorate the 100th anniversary of Gaudi's death during his week long trip to Spain which saw 120,000 people line the streets. While the goal was to have the church completely finished this year, that's now been pushed back to 2035.UNEARTHED HIGH Triple J has announced the winners of this year's Unearthed High competition. This year it's Trophy Wyfe who were named the winners. The band hails from Newcastle in NSW and they were pretty stoked with the news.HOBBIT BATTLEHundreds of people in the Czech Republic have gathered in a forest dressed as Elves, Dwarves and Orcs for an annual re-creation of a battle from The Hobbit.PYGMY HIPPOA baby Pygmy Hippo that was born at Berlin Zoo last month has just been given the name Brotchen, which is a German word that translate to Bread Roll.

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