On June 11th the time has finally come – the FIFA World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the USA will kick off. In addition to attractive live football, ARD offers comprehensive offerings in the ARD media library, background documentaries and technical innovations.
ARD will start broadcasting the World Cup on Das Erste on June 12th at 8:15 p.m. with the match between Canada and Bosnia-Herzegovina (kick-off: 9:00 p.m.). In the preliminary round, Das Erste will show two German games live, on Sunday, June 14th, the game against World Cup newcomers Curaçao (7:00 p.m.) and on June 25th, Germany – Ecuador (10:00 p.m.).
Other attractive ARD broadcasts in the preliminary round are: European champions Spain against World Cup debutants Cape Verde on June 15th (7:00 p.m.), world champions Argentina against Austria on June 22nd (7:00 p.m.) or England – Ghana on June 23rd (10:00 p.m.).
ARD sports coordinator Axel Balkausky: “We show everything this World Cup has to offer on our platforms and thus provide the audience with a varied, diverse and cross-media offering. We use synergies, our central ARD SportHub in Cologne and the most modern technical production solutions to make this possible in high quality.”
Sedlaczek and Schweinsteiger present “Match of the Day”
Esther Sedlaczek and Bastian Schweinsteiger present the respective “Match of the Day” live from the stadiums. Alex Schlüter is on site and very close to the German national team’s quarters. The remaining games of the World Cup will be moderated alternately by Lea Wagner and Malte Völz with an expert from the studio at the ARD broadcasting center in Cologne.
Live reporters for the TV broadcasts are Tom Bartels, Christina Graf and Philipp Sohmer. They are supported by co-commentators Almuth Schult and Thomas Hitzlsperger.
The ARD media library also offers an extensive range of information about the World Cup: Here you can find news, summaries, highlights, interviews and much more. All ARD and ZDF games are offered in live stream and as re-live.
What is new at this World Cup is that the user is offered various options via the statistics icon in the live stream, including the team lineups, tables, rankings and other tournament statistics. During highlight games, there is also the so-called tactical cam as a second screen option as an uncommented live stream.
Reportage trip through the USA – and more Background documentaries
In addition, before the start of the World Cup, the ARD media library is releasing three strong documentaries that approach the major topic of the World Cup in very different ways. “Elf Heroes – A Nightmare” will be released on June 2nd – the four-part documentary series traces the path of the German national team to and during the 1994 World Cup in the USA. On June 4th, “World Cup Madness and Title Dreams: Germany at the Mega World Cup” (reporting trip by Esther Sedlaczek and Thomas Hitzlsperger) and “Playfield of Power. The World Cup in Trump’s America” (Ingo Zamperoni & Philipp Awounou looking for clues in the USA), two background pieces that illuminate further facets of the tournament.
Cross-media reporters are traveling to the host countries and Germany with the topic “Your World Cup”. They meet special fans at special games. This creates individual and unique reviews of the opening game, the games of the German team and other selected highlights for the ARD media library.
More than 60 World Cup games as Full audio report and daily World Cup update on radio
Listeners also get a wide range of audio options. ARD produces more than 60 World Cup games as full audio reports, which are offered on sportschau.de, in the Sportschau app, on ARD Sounds and on radio as a magazine report, in addition to all the DFB team matches, including all three Turkey games in the preliminary round.
There will also be a varied offering with talks from the USA, articles, news and much more, especially for radio prime time in the morning. During the tournament, ARD also produces, among other things, the daily podcast “WM Update” – with the morning update on everything that happened on the World Cup night – and the storytelling and history podcast “Money as a guest with friends”. This tells the “true story” of the 2006 World Cup award in several episodes, including Beckenbauer’s trips, the aftermath and today’s award practice.
Live offers and Background reporting in the online offer
The World Cup is also a top priority on Sportschau.de, in the Sportschau app and in Sportschau’s social media offerings. In addition to extensive audio and video offerings, there are live tickers, background reports and much more, as well as reporting individually tailored to the various platforms. Südwestrundfunk is responsible for the ARD broadcasts of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
