A Calendar Without Breaks
Just weeks after the 2026 World Cup concluded, the Scottish Premiership, the Dutch Eredivisie and England’s Carabao Cup kicked off their new seasons, while European club competitions such as the Champions League and the Conference League already had qualifying rounds underway.
The tournament itself was expanded to 48 teams, a 50 percent increase that gave more nations a chance to compete on football’s biggest stage. FIFA has even floated the idea of a biennial World Cup with 64 participants, a proposal that would make the global showcase even more frequent.
In contrast to the National Football League, which deliberately limits its product to preserve scarcity, soccer offers a near‑continuous stream of matches. Leagues around the world now start, pause, and resume almost without interruption, turning the sport into a year‑round spectacle.
That relentless schedule can feel overwhelming. Even preseason friendlies — such as Liverpool versus Sunderland or Wrexham against Leeds United — have struggled to attract full crowds, suggesting that the novelty of constant play is wearing thin for some fans.
When I grew up in Belgium, my exposure to international leagues was limited; we followed the big names on television but rarely saw matches live. Today, anyone with a streaming subscription can watch a fixture from any continent at any hour, a shift that has both broadened and diluted the sense of anticipation.
The World Cup still stands apart as a rare moment when nearly the entire planet watches the same games simultaneously, creating a shared cultural pulse that club football rarely replicates. Yet as the calendar fills with league rounds, cup ties and international dates, that once‑in‑four‑years unity feels increasingly distant.