At the World Cup, What Are We Really Consuming?
How the FIFA World Cup turns football passion into a product, and whether we notice.
গ্যালারি থেকে ড্রয়িংরুম, মোবাইল স্ক্রিন থেকে সোশ্যাল মিডিয়া—২০২৬ বিশ্বকাপ ঘিরে কোটি কোটি মানুষের উন্মাদনা। কিন্তু এই উচ্ছ্বাসের আড়ালে কি আরও কিছু আছে? ফুটবলের প্রতি আমাদের আবেগ কি পণ্য হয়ে উঠছে? আমরা কি তা আদৌ টের পাই?
Nearly five billion people, well over half the planet, engaged with the last FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the most-followed event in sports history. As the 2026 tournament unfolds across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, that vast audience is once again watching, celebrating, posting, purchasing, and showcasing its passion for football. Yet, as a social scientist, I find myself asking a different question: what exactly are we consuming, and are we aware of this consumption?
Football, or soccer, as it is known in North America, is widely regarded as the world’s most popular sport. But the modern World Cup has become much more than a sporting tournament. It is one of the largest global consumer events ever created, supported by an immense economic ecosystem, broadcasting rights, sponsorships, merchandise, tourism, digital platforms, betting markets, music, fashion, and advertising, altogether worth billions of dollars. FIFA alone projects some $8.9 billion in revenue from the 2026 tournament, up from the $5.8 billion the 2022 Qatar edition generated, and even that captures only the money flowing to the governing body, not the far larger economy of tourism, betting, and merchandise built around it.
This transformation invites us to see football not only as a sport but as a space where culture, identity, emotion, and commerce increasingly intersect. The question is no longer whether football has been commercialized, but how authentic cultural experiences become woven into global markets.
The French social theorist Guy Debord argued that modern societies increasingly experience reality through images and representations rather than through lived experiences, what he called the “society of the spectacle.” The World Cup illustrates this remarkable shift vividly. Audience engagement extends far beyond the 90 minutes played on the field. Long before the opening match, millions watch the opening ceremony, anticipate the official World Cup song, follow celebrity performances, and engage with promotional campaigns. Each time that song is released, fans around the world organize flash mobs, dance challenges, and social media videos inspired by it, transforming a promotional song into a global cultural event of its own.
Throughout the tournament, enthusiastic consumers of the sport scroll through highlight reels, debate controversial referee decisions, share memes, follow trending hashtags, purchase official merchandise, decorate their homes, and publicly perform their identities as supporters. Increasingly, the event is not simply played on the pitch; it is lived across television, smartphones, streaming platforms, and social media.
Another social thinker, Pierre Bourdieu, offers a useful perspective: cultural preferences are never simply matters of personal taste but expressions of identity, belonging, and social distinction. Supporting a national team, demonstrating football knowledge, collecting jerseys, or taking part in World Cup rituals allows people to communicate who they are and which communities they belong to. Football fandom is therefore more than entertainment; it is a form of cultural participation through which identities, values, and social relationships are constructed and negotiated.
Jean Baudrillard pushes this argument further still. In The Consumer Society (1970), he argued that people increasingly consume signs and symbols rather than the practical usefulness of objects, sign-value over use-value. Football is a vivid case. A national flag becomes an emotional symbol circulating through media; a star player becomes a brand as much as an athlete. Football itself increasingly exists as a stream of narratives, images, statistics, and branded experiences, less a game one watches than a set of signs one consumes.
Digital technology has accelerated this transformation. Today, fans do not simply consume football; they produce, circulate, and reshape it through reaction videos, TikTok clips, Instagram stories, fantasy leagues, podcasts, and online debates. In doing so, they become consumers, producers, and promoters at once, participants in a global attention economy.
Taken together, these perspectives suggest that the FIFA World Cup is much more than a football tournament. It is a global cultural institution where sport, media, identity, and commerce continuously negotiate one another. Yet acknowledging this should not be read as a criticism of football or its supporters.
The passion surrounding the World Cup is authentic, rooted in deep emotional, cultural, and national attachments. The thrill of a last-minute goal, the heartbreak of defeat, the pride of supporting one’s country, the joy of celebrating with family, friends, and even strangers, these are profoundly human experiences. Football creates memories that last a lifetime and builds communities that cross national, linguistic, and cultural lines. Such emotions cannot be dismissed as mere products of advertising or marketing.
The question, then, is not whether these emotions are real, but what becomes of them within contemporary capitalism. Corporations do not create people’s love for football; that passion already exists. What they do is recognize it, organize it, and channel it into profitable markets. National pride becomes licensed merchandise, community becomes sponsored fan festivals, celebration becomes branded content. In the process, even fans’ attention, excitement, and participation acquire economic value, the very energy that unites millions becomes a commercial resource.
Perhaps this is one of the defining features of contemporary consumer society. Consumption is no longer confined to buying physical goods; increasingly, markets organize themselves around people’s identities, relationships, and traditions. Fans rarely celebrate without buying something, subscribing to a service, sharing content, or joining a branded experience. Birthdays, weddings, religious festivals, concerts, and global sporting events now unfold alongside carefully designed systems of consumption, commerce embedded in the very rituals through which we express love, belonging, and joy.
None of this makes fans passive victims of consumer culture, or their devotion misguided. Supporting a team, singing anthems, wearing the jersey, celebrating a win — these are meaningful practices that strengthen social bonds and collective identity. Recognizing that capitalism profits from that devotion takes nothing away from it. Fans are not dupes; they are participants who know exactly what the ritual means to them, even if not always what it means to the market.
As World Cup fever spreads across stadiums, living rooms, and screens, the question is not whether football has been commercialized. That much is settled. The question this essay began with is harder, and more personal: what are we actually consuming, and do we notice?
None of this means we can simply opt out. In an age of global consumer capitalism, few collective celebrations remain entirely outside the marketplace, and the World Cup is no exception. But the answer is not guilt, there is nothing false about the jersey, the flag, or the last-minute goal that brings a room to its feet. The answer is attention. We can celebrate fully and still see the machinery around the celebration: notice that our pride is also a product line, our community also a sponsorship, our joy also a metric. That double vision, feeling the passion and recognizing what is made of it, is, perhaps, the most honest way to watch the game. So: what are we consuming? Football, and ourselves consuming it. The only real question is whether we are paying attention.
About the Author
Dr. Sherin Farhana is a communication and media scholar. Her research centers on social movements, ethical business communication, and the role of digital communication in advancing social change. She can be reached at sherin.moni@nicholls.edu.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect The Insighta's editorial stance. However, any errors in the stated facts or figures may be corrected if supported by verifiable evidence. | A guest post by
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