Help your children enjoy the 2026 Football World Cup without idolising it

The 2026 World Cup is expected to be the largest sporting event in history. If you’re reading this you may have the wall chart up, diarised the matches and be getting bizarrely optimistic that this year could be the one (as a Scotland fan that optimism relates to us maybe getting out of our group!) 

For a few weeks this summer, the World Cup will dominate conversations, screens, schools, and family life. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Children learn what matters by watching what excites us, what upsets us and what we spend our time discussing

Sport captures the full range of human emotions in just a few hours. It gives us moments of joy, disappointment, belonging and wonder. It brings people together like little else can in our broken world. In many ways, sport is a wonderful gift from God to help us delight in him and his creation.

But every four years the World Cup also reminds us how powerful sport can be. Children learn what matters by watching what excites us, what upsets us and what we spend our time discussing. The World Cup is not just entertaining us, it is shaping us and those we spend time with.

Few events reveal the power of sport - or the loyalties of our hearts - quite like the World Cup

So the question for Christian parents, is not whether our children will be discipled by the World Cup, but whether we will enjoy it in a way that points them to Jesus.

Every four years then, billions of people invest their emotions in this global tournament. Few events reveal the power of sport - or the loyalties of our hearts - quite like the World Cup.

When fandom becomes worship

Children are remarkably perceptive. They notice what makes us happy, what makes us angry and what we make sacrifices for.

If our mood all weekend depends on a football result, our children notice. If we never miss a match but regularly miss church, they notice. If we speak rudely about players, referees or rival fans, they notice. Without intending to, we can teach our children that football matters most.

One simple diagnostic question might be: what would excite our family more this month—a World Cup victory or seeing someone come to faith and be baptised at church? Our answer reveals something about our loves.

The danger comes when sport begins to occupy a place in our hearts that belongs to God alone

Like all good gifts, sport is designed to point beyond itself to the God who gives every good gift. The danger comes when sport begins to occupy a place in our hearts that belongs to God alone.

The World Cup therefore provides a wonderful opportunity to model something different: passion without obsession, enthusiasm without idolatry, enjoyment without losing perspective.

What healthy fandom looks like

If those are the dangers, how then can a Christian still enjoy the World Cup this summer?

1. Enjoying sport gratefully

One of the best things parents can do during the World Cup is help children connect the gift to the Giver. When you’re watching a dramatic match together, celebrating a goal, or enjoying time with friends and family, pause occasionally and thank God for it. Help your children see that these moments of joy, belonging, and shared celebration are gifts of common grace.

The World Cup is impressive. Heaven will be better

They’re also signposts. The excitement of being part of something bigger than ourselves points toward an even greater reality: the day God’s people from every nation will gather together in worship of King Jesus. The World Cup is impressive. Heaven will be better.

2. Enjoying sport in proportion

One of the healthiest lessons we can teach our children is how to care deeply about something without making it ultimate. Celebrate the victories. Feel the disappointments. Wear the shirts. Collect the stickers. Learn the players’ names. Enjoy the tournament. But don’t allow football to become the centre of family life for six weeks (the time difference might help with this!) Sport is a wonderful gift, but a terrible god. It simply cannot carry the weight of our identity, hope, or happiness. Only Christ can do that.

Read more:

Sport, faith, and friendship: Evangelism for the everyday parent

Why God invented the game: Five faith‑filled reasons sport matters to your family

How to raise children who know they are loved by God - and you - even when they don’t “perform”

3. Speaking differently

This is perhaps the most challenging thing to think about. The World Cup offers countless opportunities to teach and model how we should speak.

Whether online, in the living room, or in the stands, our words should reflect the fact that every player, referee, pundit, and opposing fan is made in God’s image. Paul challenges us to say, “only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Ephesians 4:29).

Children need to see that following Jesus shapes how we watch football

The easiest thing in sport is to join the crowd. The harder thing is to model grace, self-control, and kindness when emotions are running high. Children need to see that following Jesus shapes how we watch football just as much as it shapes every other area of life.

Enjoy the tournament

The World Cup is one of the great shared experiences of our age. Christian families do not need to feel guilty about enjoying it. I can’t wait to get my 7-year-old into it - filling in the wall chart, memorising the flags and the kits, working out the permutations as the tournament goes on.

Watch the matches. Cheer loudly. Learn the stories. Enjoy the gift. But remember that your children are learning about worship as much as football. This summer, don’t leave Jesus outside the tournament. Bring him into the living room, into your conversations, into your celebrations, and even into your disappointments. Because the greatest opportunity the World Cup offers Christian parents may not be teaching their children about football at all. It may be teaching them what it looks like to love sport deeply without loving it most.