FIFA agreed to include Spanish in the press conferences prior to the 2026 World Cup matches. Until now, only questions were allowed in English and the languages of the two participating teams. The measure closes the controversy unleashed when players like the Moroccan Achraf Hakimi and the Brazilian Vinicius Júnior could not respond in Spanish due to lack of translation.
Luis García Montero, director of the Cervantes Institute, celebrated the decision. “It is positive that FIFA has reconsidered its position, because Spanish is an international reference language and is the official language of Mexico, one of the host countries,” he told the media.
“Spanish football has been scoring goals for a long time, and it was very sad that FIFA conceded an own goal,” added Montero.
The director of Cervantes recalled that more than 60 million people of Hispanic origin live in the United States, of which more than 43 million have Spanish as their mother tongue. FIFA’s decision recognizes the demographic and cultural weight of the language in the tournament that Mexico, the United States and Canada will share.
