The FIFA World Cup 2026, to be played in 16 North American cities next summer, is expected to draw spectators from around the world. For the billions watching at home, Telemundo will be there to capture all 104 games.
“This World Cup has the opportunity to be a transformative moment for the sport of soccer here in the United States,” said Miguel Lorenzo, Telemundo Deportes senior vice president of sports content. “On Telemundo, people should expect to see the most comprehensive coverage of a World Cup, ever.”
NBCU Academy spoke with the Telemundo Deportes team and toured their production facilities in Miami to get an up-close view of how they are prepping for coverage. Watch the video above, and read the team’s interviews below, to see what it takes to put on the World Cup.
What is Telemundo Deportes doing to prepare for these games?
Alexis Sweeting, Telemundo Deportes sports operations director: We’re going to be everywhere. We’re going to have coverage on the field, outside the stadiums in the 16 cities, learning their different cultures, learning about every player and every team. Having 48 teams is historic.
Chris Suarez, Telemundo Deportes content operations senior vice president: It’s been a long road to get to where we are today, and we still have a long way to go. It takes a lot of planning, a lot of research, a lot of surveying. We’ve gone to all of the cities, we’ve seen almost all of the stadiums and surveyed as much as we can to make sure that we’re in a great position to do what we need to do.
To put things in perspective, when we look at the manpower needed to pull off this particular event in Russia in 2018, we had about 400 people. Then in Qatar, we had about 600 people. We estimate this time around, anywhere between 1,800 and 2,000 people will actually touch the content related to the World Cup.
Julio Sonino, Telemundo Deportes sports content production vice president: We’re going to have more than 100 talent calling the games and reporting — color experts, former players and former coaches. We have already started designing the different virtual sets that we are going to use during the World Cup.
What is the impact of the World Cup on the North American Latino community?
Lorenzo: Since the last time the World Cup was here, in 1994, soccer fandom has grown tremendously in the United States. You can see that in the amount of youth that play soccer, in the amount of viewership of soccer across platforms, and it’s also no coincidence that at the same time, U.S. Hispanic populations have grown tremendously. Hispanics love soccer, and the growth of soccer in this country is in large part because of their passion for the sport.
Sonino: The most important thing from a storytelling perspective is the social story of our community. And the Hispanic community is very, very linked to the world of soccer.
What are some of the production difficulties in covering these games?
Suarez: We’re going from the smallest country to ever host a World Cup in Qatar to an entire continent — three countries, border crossings, 16 cities, thousands of flight hours and a million moving parts that we have to make sure are in sync at all times. We have to make sure that everyone is safe, sound and able to do their job.
Sonino: The main thing that’s new here for logistics is that we have three different countries with different immigration laws and two borders. This is a huge World Cup with a huge footprint, so we are trying to be sustainable in our production.
Sweeting: My main concern is, say, one person is at a game one day, their flight’s delayed. How do I get a team to the next country to call the game on time? That’s what drives me into a twirl of like, “How am I going to get all these teams traveling at the same time?” We hope to have eight crews traveling, with 20-30 people in each crew, running around the country, around the world, to cover games every day for 40 days. That’s what keeps me up. [Laughs]
What are you most excited about?
Suarez: There’s only a handful of people in the world who get to touch the World Cup the way that we do, and I consider it an honor to be part of that community.
Personally, the significance of the World Cup coming back to North America is that I started my career with ‘94 USA World Cup, and now I get the privilege of working on the ‘26 World Cup. So, 32 years later, I’m back where I started.
