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A Luncheon and Discussion on: “The World Cup 2026 in Atlanta: Can it Rise Above Domestic and Geopolitics?” with CNN International Anchor Don Riddell
March 12 at 11:30 am – 1:30 pm
The FIFA World Cup is returning to the United States, in a tournament sprawling across three continents and 16 cities, Atlanta is going to be front and center of the action. In every way, FIFA’s flagship tournament is bigger than ever before, a record 48 teams will now compete for the most coveted sporting trophy on the planet. However, the sport’s world governing body is also now entangled in world politics in a manner that threatens to undercut its own mantra that “football should take center stage.”
Join the Atlanta Council of International Relations for a luncheon to discuss the growth of the World Cup from modest beginnings almost a century ago to the behemoth it has become today. Learn why the game has the potential to unite people globally in ways that the United States has not yet truly experienced with football, while highlighting how this tournament might be overshadowed by geopolitical concerns and the tense political situation in its main host nation.
Will the 2026 World Cup showcase the beautiful game at its brightest and best? Or will it be dimmed by corruption and manipulation to further a domestic political agenda?
Don Riddell
Anchor and Correspondent for CNN International’s World Sport Program
Don Ridder is an award-winning anchor and correspondent for World Sport, working out of CNN’s global headquarters in Atlanta.
After joining CNN in 2002, Riddell has become one of the network’s longest-serving and most versatile anchors, having also presented the long-running feature show Living Golf as well as news programs World News and CNN Today. As such, his interest lies at the intersection of sport, culture, technology, and politics.
From match-fixing in football to competition manipulation, athlete abuse, and ‘sports washing,’ Riddell’s brief at CNN extends far beyond simply the results and the highlights.
Soccer lies at the heart of his passion; he covered the controversial buildup to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and a successful tournament on the ground. He attended the draw for the 2026 tournament in Washington D.C., and will be heavily involved in covering FIFA’s expanded tournament across North America this summer.
Riddell works across platforms, broadcasting on television and writing complementary coverage for CNN.com. He has reported on stories from dozens of countries, speaking to many of the world’s top athletes and profiling stories as diverse as match-fixing and the emergence of eSports. He has covered the Olympics, the Super Bowl, all four golf majors, the Ryder Cup, various ‘fight nights’ in Las Vegas, Wimbledon, the Rugby World Cup, the Tour de France, and many Champions League Finals.
In addition to sports, Riddell has also covered many diverse news stories, from the Chapecoense plane crash in Brazil to the Royal Wedding in London. From the studio, he has covered earthquakes, terror attacks, and the obituary coverage of Muhammad Ali. He has profiled a variety of personalities from astronauts to prime ministers, holocaust survivors, and even the world’s tallest man.
Riddell has a bachelor’s degree with honors in Public Media/Communication and Cultural Studies from Leeds University.
