The Only Real Guide to World Cup 2026 in Berlin

Russia, Qatar, the USA. At this point, it is becoming hard to remember the last World Cup that wasn't mired in controversy. Which was the last host nation that didn't immediately stand out as politically troublesome? Brazil, maybe? Even there, the country was in the midst of a protest movement that would ultimately lead to the installation of far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro. Perhaps it is no accident that trouble seems to follow the Cup, since the right to host the games is awarded by an organisation as openly corrupt as FIFA.

And yet even by those miserable standards, this year's tournament has managed to find new depths. This is a tournament in which one host country has launched an offensive war and assassinated the leader of another competing nation; in which a Somali referee — Omar Abdulkadir Artan, named Africa's best male referee last year — was denied entry at Miami airport and will not officiate at the tournament; in which players and team staff from multiple nations have been questioned or turned away at the border; in which ticket prices are untenable and climate goals have been abandoned; and where before it even began FIFA president Gianni Infantino saw fit to invent a "peace prize" and award it to the man responsible for all of the above. 

But here we are. Like a flatmate you can't get rid of, this tournament is bloated, ugly and up in the middle of the night. There are plenty of reasons not to like it, and only one real argument in favour: it's the World Cup. No matter how much you might want to, it is always going to be hard to look away from the beautiful game. Plus, the increased 48-team lineup means that several countries are playing for the first time ever: Africa’s Cape Verde, the tiny Caribbean island nation of Curaçao, Jordan (after several years of near misses), and Uzbekistan, the first Central Asian country to reach the Weltmeistersschaft. 

So, in an effort to give Berliners the best possible viewing experience amid the murky reality, we've created the HEIST guide to watching the World Cup in Berlin. We've focused only on the games starting at 10pm or earlier, and tried to find one place for each country where you can watch with a home crowd.

There are some cool spots – little Balkan restaurants, smoky bars, Australian chicken shops. Some countries (Brazil, notably) aren't here because all of their games start in the early hours of the morning, so we’ll return with an update once the group stages are over. And if you can’t make it to any of these, just find your local Späti – that’s often the best spot anyway.

Here's our schedule for the most watchable games in Berlin: