OPINION – Lessons from the 2026 FIFA World Cup and Macau’s international sports positioning
By José Luís de Sales Marques
Economist
Spain deservedly won the 2026 FIFA World Cup, beating title holders Argentina 1-0 in the final match. Although the Spanish started slowly — drawing with first-time sensation Cape Verde — they built their presence at the tournament based on two major pillars: their collective strength and spirit as a team, notwithstanding great world-class individual players in the squad, and their active game control, with direct vertical attacking and mixed high-intensity counter-pressing, much in contrast with the forgettable passive or negative game control of Portugal at the tournament. They had two outstanding players selected by FIFA as the best in the event: 31-year-old Rodri, the playmaker and strategist at the centre of the park, and 19-year-old central defender Pau Cubarsí, who took the Young Player Award.
Luis de la Fuente, the winning coach, has had a long career as a national youth coach and, since taking over from Luis Enrique in 2022, has served as senior national head coach. He has just won the treble — the 2023 UEFA Nations League, UEFA Euro 2024, and now the World Cup, the major glory for any team or individual in the football world — without ever coaching a famous football club. It means that knowing the players since their youth, de la Fuente has had the privilege of building a team identity that prevails, no matter how many individual stars are featured in any particular team selection, without being constrained by that external pressure. Altogether, three major pillars emerge for success in an organisation: team spirit, the right strategy, and collective identity. Individuals are important if they sparkle for the group, not the other way around.
At a time when the MSAR is seeking new strategies and practices to reach out to the world, it must consider reviving the Lusofonia Games and decisively hosting them in Macau and in the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin
Commercial gains and local costs of a mega-event
This year’s FIFA World Cup, officially co-hosted by the US, Mexico, and Canada — but in reality very much an American event with Donald Trump at centre stage — featured a record participation of 48 national teams, expanded from the 32 of the previous edition, and a total of 104 games. It is widely considered a massive sporting and financial success, although with an uneven distribution of results. With FIFA grossing in excess of US15 billion from direct sales, betting volumes up to US50 billion, and global television viewership of over 6 billion, with extra generated revenues yet to be released, the sheer logistical and security scale of this public event also had a major cost. The brunt of it fell on host cities and municipalities, with huge bills often exceeding US$100 million per city for security and transit upgrades.
Fans who were unable to pay the highly inflated ticket prices and had to bear the cost of very expensive travel to and from major stadiums located in outlying areas — such as the New York New Jersey MetLife Stadium, host of the final game — as well as millions of commercial enterprises that saw their businesses diverted to World Cup-related endeavours, including Macau’s own integrated resort companies, will also feel they were not on the winning side of this mega global event.
However, looking at the national level, it is quite obvious that the US, Canada, and Mexico have all benefited internationally from this World Cup, FIFA and other major companies gained great financial returns, and Spain and football lovers got their fair share of glory and excitement. Beyond Spain, the other major winner of FIFA 2026 is Cape Verde. Its outstanding performance, the individual brilliance of some players — highlighted by goalkeeper Vozinha, the gentleman of this tournament — and its sporting results serve as the best example of how a great team can be built, even with humble resources, if there is a will. Sport showed, once again with flair, that it is able to unite people all over the world, notwithstanding religion, ethnicity, politics, gender, and geography.
Sports as an indetity a builder for Forum Macao
This second take on sports comes from reading the excellent writing of Manuel Silvério on the Lusofonia Games as a strategic investment for Macau (Macau Business, 20/07/2026). Mr Silvério, who was at that time presiding over the Macau Sports Institute, was a driving force behind those games.
With his vision and persistence, he put together a formidable team that learned through experience how to run huge sports events such as the 4th East Asian Games in 2005, the 1st Lusophone Games in 2006, and the 2nd Asian Indoor Games in 2007. Although we have nothing to add to his expert opinion, which we fully support, it is nevertheless rather important to stress that the first edition of those games happened just three years after the inception of Forum Macao in 2003. Thus, it played a significant role in establishing a new club identity among the countries and regions of Forum Macao, uniting countries, regions, and peoples in a new form of international cooperation.
Reviving the Lusofonia Games for wider outreach
A research article by Célia Gouveia, published in 2022, argues that “the right to host the 2006 Lusophone Games gave Macau the opportunity to truly consolidate its position in the Portuguese-speaking world. Chief Executive Edmund Ho was committed to ensuring the success of the Games”. Founded by ACOLOP — the Association of the Portuguese Speaking Olympic Committees — the Lusofonia Games have the potential to be an event joining sports and culture, embracing hundreds of millions of people in one single gesture of humanity. For several reasons, yet to be fully disclosed, the Games were discontinued after 2013 following the last edition in Goa, India, but the legacy remains very much alive. At a time when the MSAR is seeking new strategies and practices to reach out to the world, it must consider reviving those games and decisively hosting them in Macau and in the Guangdong-Macao In-Depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin.
The games, once reactivated, should be extended to the Spanish-speaking world when the time is ripe — with adjustments to the name and format, without losing identity, to adapt to a much wider and culturally diverse participation. From a cultural viewpoint, it would fulfil Macau’s role as a stage for cultural dialogue between China and the world. From a sports and economic diversification perspective, it will unleash synergies in several directions, including the important opportunity for Macau’s athletes to participate in another large-scale international event.
Last but not least, the games could leverage Macau’s specialisation in sports medicine and research, promoting dialogue and cooperation between Western medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and other established traditional healing methods from around the world. That would provide the perfect setting for a niche industry that fits perfectly into the MSAR’s integration into the Greater Bay Area and wider national development.
It is of the greatest importance to get it right. Following the long history of Macau as a free trade region and open city, international sports and cultural events fit perfectly into its profile and economic diversification
The position of the MSAR in the international sports and cultural context
The merger between the Cultural Affairs Bureau, the Sports Bureau, and the Cultural Development Fund was announced early this year and is currently taking place through top staff movements and jointly announced events, such as the Culture and Sports Carnival, Women’s Volleyball Nations League, and the Macao International Children’s Arts Festival. The structural merger of the entities will take place later in the year, alongside the personnel announcements for its top tier of management. However, while this structural reorganisation is an ongoing streamlining process, it also contains elements of alignment with existing government organisational models across the Greater Bay Area. Moreover, it comes at a time when there is renewed ambition and a strategic vision for the MSAR’s external dimension, namely projecting its presence across a wider geography.
Aligning global outreach with the Five-Year Plan
Having said that, it is crucial that Macau’s positioning in the cultural and sports fields reflects that overall orientation, with the aim of attracting cooperation in both areas with the Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking worlds and, within or outside their networks, extending reach to the Global South. For instance, it would make a lot of sense for the new Macau Contemporary Art Museum to permanently host exhibitions featuring Latin American and African artists — world regions that are not so frequently represented in surrounding territories. That does not mean cooperation with traditional Western and Asian geographies is not important or even crucial; it is simply a matter of making the right choices when it matters and establishing a practical guideline to avoid redundancies and repetitions within the Greater Bay Area.
The Macau 3rd Five-Year Plan will be enacted in August, covering the 2026–2030 period. These are crucial years during which the foundations of future economic development and integration into the Greater Bay Area will be defined. Therefore, it is of the greatest importance to get it right. Following the long history of Macau as a free trade region and open city, international sports and cultural events fit perfectly into its profile and economic diversification. As sports and cultural infrastructure is upgraded or planned for construction, the next step is to find the ideal set of programmes to maximise utility and service towards the goals of Macau’s long-term development.
Crédito: Link de origem