CUNY Celebrates World
Cup With Fans Across NYC

Game On! CUNY Joins 2026 FIFA World Cup Craze  

University’s Soccer Experts Share Their Takes and Favorite Squads 

CUNY Community’s Most Loved Teams are Mexico, Uzbekistan and Ecuador, Survey Finds 

 CUNY Hosts Watch Party, Unveils TV Ad & Limited-Edition Soccer Jersey

The most popular sporting event in the world is set to electrify the global spirit of the country’s most diverse university. The City University of New York community is gearing up to celebrate the 2026 FIFA World Cup, an international event that kicks off this week and will energize fans in every corner of the globe over the upcoming five weeks. 

The University’s lineup includes some of its experts — a college president, political science professor, athletic director and journalist — weighing in on what the World Cup will mean for the region. The tournament runs from June 11 to July 19 with games to be played in 16 cities across the United States, Canada and Mexico. 

At a university where the student body encompasses more than 200 ancestries and over 144 spoken languages, the soccer enthusiasts are many. In a poll of CUNY students, the top pick for fans was Mexico (16%), Uzbekistan (13%), Ecuador (9.5%), the United States (7%), Brazil (6%) and Argentina (5.7%). The full results reflect support for 20 participating teams. 

The University’s first World Cup advertisement will run on Fox 5 New York throughout the games and will feature Sara Rodriguez, a player on The City College of New York’s women’s soccer team whose family has Salvadorian and Colombian roots.

In the ad, filmed with the 120-year-old neo-Gothic campus of City College as the backdrop, Rodriguez wears a limited-edition CUNY-branded soccer jersey specially designed for the tournament. Rodriguez, a biomedical engineering honors student, was profiled on the University’s CUNYverse student blog, sharing her love for the sport and how she balances it with her future career.

CUNY will also host a watch party at LaGuardia Community College for the finals on July 19, and an episode on CUNY TV’s “A Slice of New York” features players from John Jay College of Criminal Justice women’s soccer team and Baruch College’s men’s team sharing their excitement for the World Cup. 

“The World Cup will show off the great love for el fútbol that exists across the New York area, a passion that has also sparked great excitement across our 26 campuses at CUNY,” said CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez. “With world-class experts, talented student-athletes and ardent fans from nearly every country among our community, it’s only natural that we do our part to make sure that New Yorkers and visitors can appreciate everything that the sport has to offer.” 

As the games begin this week, CUNY's leading experts bring their knowledge of culture, economics, politics and sports to discuss the impact of the World Cup on the region. Here is a look at some of their perspectives: 

• Fernando Delgado 
  President, Lehman College

Prior to serving as president, Fernando Delgado taught a course called “Soccer and Society” and has written about and presented on the impact of soccer and World Cup politics. 

Why is the World Cup important to so many cultures and countries? “The national rivalries — Mexico-U.S.; Netherlands-Germany; Argentina-Brazil; England-Scotland — are an outgrowth of regional competition but sometimes, as in Iran-U.S. or England-Argentina, the result of real geopolitical disagreements. This has long been the case, such as when Spain’s dictator, Francisco Franco, did not want to see his team compete against, and possibly lose to, the Soviet Union team in the 1960 European Nations’ Cup. People take their football very seriously in the rest of the world.” 

Who is he rooting for? “My parents were born and raised in Mexico and Spain, respectively, so I always cheer for them while also rooting for the U.S. ” 

• Adam Luedtke 
  Associate Professor of Political Science, Queensborough Community College

Adam Luedtke researches how national identities are constructed through sports, the political economy of the global soccer market and how these are impacted by migration issues. 

What do you expect for this World Cup? “Politically, this World Cup comes at a tricky time. The skeptic in me says that pulling off a successful, inclusive World Cup that brings the globe together and changes America’s image for the better will be nigh impossible. But football, as the most important of the least important things, has happily surprised me before! All eyes will be on America, and the (temporarily renamed) New York/New Jersey Stadium, to see how much we can achieve, together, in these turbulent times.” 

Who is he rooting for? “The United States to do as well as possible, France to win and all the underdogs just for being there!” 

• Carl Christian 
  Director of Athletics and Recreation, York College 

Carl Christian is a college athletics administrator who has coached soccer teams at two CUNY colleges and previously served as interim executive director of the CUNY Athletic Conference. Christian played in the U.S. Open Cup Final and on the men’s soccer team at Queens College, which he attended on a soccer scholarship. 

How can hosting the World Cup make soccer more popular in the U.S.? “The World Cup comes at a perfect time for soccer in the U.S. with the continued growth and expansion of the professional soccer leagues [Major League Soccer and United Soccer League] and the recent boom in investment and viewership of women’s sports, including the [National Women’s Soccer League].” 

Who is he rooting for? “England, where I grew up.” 

• Jay Mwamba 
  Editorial Manager, The City College of New York 

Jay Mwamba is a journalist and longtime soccer columnist who covered the 1994 World Cup for The Irish Echo, a New York-based newspaper where he still authors a soccer-focused column. A former sports reporter for the Zambia Daily Mail, he also recently published "Crash of the Buffalo,” a book chronicling the 1993 plane crash which killed much of the African country’s soccer team as they were travelling to a World Cup qualifier game. 

What impact will the World Cup games have on New York? “The impact should be tremendous. New York City is the capital of the world with vibrant communities from practically every country on the planet – countries where, with rare exceptions, soccer is the No. 1 sport. Culturally, New Yorkers with immigrant roots, old and new, will be in Nirvana.” 

Who is he rooting for? “I don’t root for one team, but I think France is likely to win.” 

About CUNY

The City University of New York is the nation’s largest urban public university, a transformative engine of social mobility that is a critical component of the lifeblood of New York City. Founded in 1847 as the nation’s first free public institution of higher education, CUNY today has seven community colleges, 11 senior colleges and eight honors, graduate and professional institutions spread across New York City’s five boroughs, serving 247,000 undergraduate and graduate students and awarding 50,000 degrees each year. CUNY’s mix of quality and affordability propels almost six times as many low-income students into the middle class and beyond as all the Ivy League colleges combined. More than 80 percent of the University’s graduates stay in New York, contributing to all aspects of the city’s economic, civic and cultural life and diversifying the city’s workforce in every sector. CUNY’s graduates and faculty have received many prestigious honors, including 13 Nobel Prizes and 26 MacArthur “genius” grants. The University’s historic mission continues to this day: provide a first-rate public education to all students, regardless of means or background. To learn more about CUNY, visit https://www.cuny.edu.