FIFA’s Technical Study Group says that while set pieces are becoming increasingly important in club football, dead-ball dominance is unlikely to be a defining feature of the upcoming 2026 World Cup. Speaking at a FIFA media roundtable about a month before the tournament—expanded to 48 teams and hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico—FIFA attributed the expectation to limited preparation time for national teams. The group’s assessment suggests that teams may not have enough opportunity to fully develop and fine-tune set-piece strategies at the international level within the lead-up period. The message is positioned as a technical outlook rather than a prediction about outcomes, emphasizing how differences between club and international schedules can affect tactical development. Overall, FIFA’s view is that set-piece advantages that emerge in regular club competition may not translate directly into consistently decisive returns across the World Cup, given constraints on training and preparation for the national squads.