The 2026 World Cup will be a tournament of firsts; hosted by three nations (United States, Canada and Mexico) for the inaugural time and with the number of teams expanded to 48 from the previous 32. There is a wealth of publishing available to enhance and complement viewing of this summer's festival of football and we've rounded up the very best below.
If you're looking for a comprehensive guide to the forthcoming tournament, bursting with facts, stats and high-quality photographs, then look no further than the official Fifa guide. Helmed by the indefatigable Keir Radnedge, this full-colour volume is the perfect armchair companion to all the games and will answer burning questions about everything from host cities to star players as well refreshing your memory of those all-important qualifiers. Essentially, your bible for World Cup '26.
For those looking for more insight into the current state of world football, its economics and infrastructure, the fully revised and updated edition of Kuper and Szymanski's touchstone classic is your go-to. Debunking commonly held misconceptions and pulling no punches when it comes to detailed analysis of the not-always-so-Beautiful-Game, Soccernomics will give you an unparalleled grounding in the off-field antics of the World Cup.
Kuper pops up again in our run-down with his latest book World Cup Fever, in which the veteran sports journalist recounts his personal experience of covering every tournament since Italia '90, thirty-six years ago. A fascinating and highly entertaining exploration of how the World Cup has changed and evolved over the decades - from half-empty stadia to international political protest - Kuper is the perfect guide to this ethically complex and ever-more glamorous competition.
There have been many histories of the World Cup over the years but it takes a writer of the calibre of Jonathan Wilson to broaden the scope of the traditional chronicle and place the tournament in its socio-political as well as sporting context. In The Power and the Glory, the celebrated author of Inverting the Pyramid, effectively tells the history of the world since 1930 through the lens of the World Cup and the result is both endlessly enlightening and wonderfully readable.
Whichever manager wins the coveted World Cup Trophy this summer, they will join a very exclusive club of just twenty coaches to secure football's ultimate prize. In his thought-provoking and rigorous book, sports journalist Chris Evans draws from a wealth of interviews with legendary coaches and players such as Luiz Felipe Scolari, Geoff Hurst, Carlos Alberto Parreira and Pierre Littbarski to ascertain the tactics, strategy, fitness regimes and bizarre rituals that have led to success in the past.
It might be a painful statistic but, to paraphrase Frank Skinner and David Baddiel, it will be sixty years of hurt if England fail to triumph at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on 19 July. The image of Bobby Moore aloft his teammates clutching the Jules Rimet trophy is preserved in aspic for all football fans of a certain age and in this excellent and nostalgic book esteemed sports writer Michael Calvin looks at the wider context of the iconic win. From the civil rights movement to the Cultural Revolution, 1966: A Moment in Time puts arguably England's greatest sporting achievement in historical perspective.
After a practically flawless qualifying campaign, England head to North America as one of the tournament favourites. Northcroft and Draper's forensic account of Thomas Tuchel's side's journey to the World Cup benefits enormously from the extraordinary access the two journalists were granted and consequently Inside England feels like you're practically on the pitch and in the dressing room with the players.
Tuchel may have guided England through World Cup qualifiers but the groundwork had been laid by one of the national team's most successful managers in Gareth Southgate. Two finals, a semi-final and a quarter-final in four international tournaments isn't bad going and neither is the cultural transformation the side underwent under Southgate's stewardship. Much of this infuses Dear England, Southgate's memoir-cum-leadership guide, in which the former international coach passes on his advice and wisdom from one of the toughest jobs in the modern game.
It took two stunning injury time goals from Kieran Tierney and Kenny McLean to finally kill off the Danish threat and seal Scotland's place in their first World Cup in 28 years. Andy Bargh's full throttle account of how Steve Clarke's side managed the seemingly impossible makes for riveting reading and perfectly sets the scene for the next stage of the adventure this summer.
For generations of schoolchildren, the word Panini is synonymous with the World Cup (hell, with domestic and international football full stop) and the daily trades for desperately desired stickers were a high-stakes playground ritual. This jaw-droppingly beautiful volume collects all the sticker albums from Mexico '70 to the forthcoming tournament in lovingly reproduced facsimiles for the sweetest nostalgia hit imaginable.
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