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Spain were crowned FIFA World Cup 2026 champions after defeating Argentina 1-0 in a gripping extra-time final at New York New Jersey Stadium. Ferran Torres emerged as the hero, scoring the decisive goal in the 106th minute to hand La Roja their second FIFA World Cup title and bring an end to Argentina’s reign as world champions.

The final lived up to expectations as two of world football’s biggest nations battled through 90 minutes without finding a breakthrough. Spain dominated possession, dictated the tempo, and created the better opportunities, but Argentina’s experienced defence and goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez repeatedly denied them. However, Spain’s relentless pressure finally paid off in extra time when substitute Nico Williams delivered a superb cross that Ferran Torres calmly finished past Martínez, sparking wild celebrations among the Spanish players and supporters.

Argentina’s hopes suffered a major setback late in normal time when midfielder Enzo Fernández was sent off after receiving his second yellow card, forcing Lionel Scaloni’s side to play the entire extra-time period with 10 men. Despite the numerical disadvantage, Argentina fought bravely, but Spain’s control in midfield eventually proved too much to handle.

The defeat marked a heartbreaking end to Lionel Messi’s remarkable FIFA World Cup journey. The Argentine captain, widely expected to be playing in his final World Cup, was unable to inspire another magical comeback as Spain’s disciplined defence successfully contained one of football’s greatest players. Although Argentina finished as runners-up, Messi once again showcased his class throughout the tournament with another outstanding campaign.

Spain’s triumph was built on exceptional teamwork, tactical discipline, and defensive excellence under head coach Luis de la Fuente. Throughout the tournament, La Roja conceded just a single goal, setting a new benchmark for defensive dominance by a World Cup-winning team. The Spanish midfield, led brilliantly by Rodri, controlled matches with remarkable composure, while young stars such as Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsí announced themselves on the biggest stage in world football.

Individual awards

Spain’s midfielder and captain, Rodrigo Hernández Cascante, was deservedly awarded the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player after producing consistently outstanding performances throughout Spain’s unbeaten title-winning campaign. The Manchester City midfielder controlled games with his passing, positioning, and leadership, proving once again why he is regarded as one of the world’s finest midfielders.

Despite France finishing fourth, Kylian Mbappé claimed the Golden Boot after finishing as the tournament’s leading scorer with 10 goals, once again underlining his status as one of football’s deadliest forwards. Argentina captain Lionel Messi finished second in the scoring charts, while England’s Jude Bellingham secured the Bronze Boot.

Spain completed an impressive collection of individual honours as goalkeeper Unai Simón received the Golden Glove for his outstanding performances between the posts, while teenage defender Pau Cubarsí was named the Best Young Player of the tournament following a series of mature displays far beyond his years.

Spain’s historic achievement

Spain’s victory marked their second FIFA World Cup title, following their famous triumph in South Africa in 2010. It also confirmed their dominance in international football after recently winning the UEFA European Championship. The triumph further cemented Luis de la Fuente’s reputation as one of the game’s leading coaches, with Spain extending their remarkable unbeaten run through disciplined, possession-based football and an exciting generation of young talent.

For Argentina, the defeat ended an extraordinary era that included winning the 2022 FIFA World Cup and reaching another final four years later. Although they fell just short of defending their crown, Lionel Scaloni’s side once again demonstrated resilience, determination, and championship character throughout the tournament.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be remembered as the tournament where Spain re-established themselves at the summit of world football. Blending experienced leaders like Rodri with exciting youngsters, including Lamine Yamal, Nico Williams, and Pau Cubarsí, Spain showcased a perfect balance of youth and experience.

As the celebrations began in New York and continued across Spain, La Roja once again stood proudly on football’s biggest stage, lifting the FIFA World Cup trophy and writing another glorious chapter in the nation’s football history. For Argentina, it was a painful ending to an unforgettable journey, while, for the football world, the final symbolised the passing of one generation and the rise of another.

The Chamber of Mineral Exporters (CME), representing exporters and explorers of quartz, graphite, mineral sands, and mica, said the recently unveiled National Mineral Policy is a welcome first step but argued that policy announcements alone will not unlock investment.

Instead, it said the real test lies in how the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB) and the Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Ministry implement the policy through regulations, licencing reforms, and institutional change.

Sri Lanka’s mineral exporters have launched to set out a detailed set of reform proposals governing the country’s minerals sector, highlighting that unless the GSMB evolves into a more commercially aware and responsive regulator, the country’s ambitions to become a competitive supplier of strategic minerals will remain largely aspirational.

The Chamber estimates its members currently generate directly and indirectly around $ 100 million in annual exports and believes the industry could comfortably double that if longstanding regulatory constraints are removed. Yet it argues the sector’s biggest challenge today is not a lack of mineral resources but an investment climate characterised by delays, administrative uncertainty, and inconsistent regulatory execution.

Industry representatives said their frustration extends well beyond the pace of policymaking. While acknowledging that the Government has held consultations with the private sector, they contend that engagement has largely become a box-ticking exercise, with industry views rarely reflected in policy implementation. They noted that although exporters had actively participated in developing earlier drafts of the Mineral Policy over several years, they were excluded from subsequent revisions and from the preparation of the standard operating procedures (SOPs) that will ultimately determine how the new framework functions.

The Chamber also questioned whether technical advice informing policymaking adequately reflects commercial realities. It argued that regulatory thinking often leaps directly to high-profile products such as graphene, semiconductors, and electric vehicle (EV) battery materials while overlooking the commercial, technical, and scale constraints that determine whether such investments are economically viable. Exporters said each mineral follows a distinct value chain and that commercially successful industries are built progressively rather than by attempting to leap immediately to the highest-value end products.

According to the Chamber, this disconnect has at times resulted in policy decisions that favour ambitious proposals over commercially proven businesses. It cited previous mineral allocation exercises where companies with established processing facilities and export operations lost access to deposits to proposals promising sophisticated downstream manufacturing that ultimately failed to materialise. The Chamber argued that such experiences have weakened confidence in the credibility of regulatory decision-making.

Exporters also expressed concern over what they described as the slow pace at which strategically important deposits are being brought into production. They pointed to major quartz deposits that have remained largely idle for years despite repeated policy announcements and changing administrations, even as existing processors struggle to secure sufficient raw material to expand operations. While welcoming recent Ministerial attention to the sector, they said businesses continue to await concrete action rather than further policy statements.

Licencing uncertainty emerged as another major concern. The Chamber said exploration and mining companies have invested millions of dollars, recruited staff, and completed geological work only to find projects effectively frozen while the Government finalises new procedures. Companies with exploration licences, mining licences, or renewal applications remain uncertain about when approvals will resume, while investors have received no clear timelines for projects placed on hold pending implementation of the new policy. Exporters warned that prolonged regulatory pauses risk damaging Sri Lanka’s reputation among international investors, particularly when companies have already committed capital in good faith.

The Chamber further argued that the existing licencing regime itself discourages long-term investment. Mining projects require substantial upfront expenditure and often take years before generating returns, yet investors continue to face relatively short licence periods and uncertainty over renewals. Such conditions, it said, inevitably increase project risk and reduce Sri Lanka’s attractiveness relative to competing jurisdictions.

Another issue highlighted was the fragmented approval process, where companies may obtain mining licences from the GSMB but remain unable to commence operations because approvals from other Government institutions remain pending. Exporters said projects have in some cases been delayed for years due to land administration issues or approvals outside the regulator’s control, only for companies to later face questions over why production has not commenced.

The Chamber therefore welcomed proposals to establish a single-window approval mechanism through the GSMB, describing it as one of the strongest features of the new Policy if implemented effectively.

The Chamber also challenged the way mineral royalties are administered. It argued that royalties are effectively calculated on the final export value, capturing costs associated with processing, electricity, labour, and logistics rather than simply the value of the mineral extracted from the ground. Exporters further questioned the practice of requiring royalty payments before export proceeds have been received, despite provisions in existing legislation permitting periodic payments. They also called for greater transparency over how royalty revenue is utilised, arguing that a meaningful share should be reinvested into geological exploration, resource mapping, accredited laboratories, and applied research instead of flowing almost entirely into the Treasury.

Research and testing infrastructure was identified as another structural weakness. The Chamber said Sri Lanka still lacks internationally accredited laboratories capable of testing many industrial minerals for higher-value applications, forcing companies to incur significant costs sending samples overseas. It also argued that while universities and public institutions possess considerable scientific expertise and equipment, research funding should be directed more deliberately towards solving commercial processing challenges in partnership with industry rather than remaining largely academic.

Despite its criticism, the Chamber acknowledged several positive developments under the new Policy.

It welcomed the transfer of the GSMB from the Environment Ministry to the Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Ministry, arguing that mining should be managed as an industrial sector while remaining subject to robust environmental regulation.

It also endorsed the Policy’s recognition of the distinction between mineral rights and land rights, describing it as an important step towards resolving one of the industry’s longest-standing legal and administrative obstacles.

The Chamber was equally emphatic that stronger industry participation should not come at the expense of environmental stewardship. It accepted that not every mineral deposit should be developed and argued that the Government must make transparent, science-based decisions on where conservation should prevail and where extraction can proceed under strict environmental safeguards and mandatory rehabilitation. International experience, it noted, demonstrates that properly regulated mining can coexist with environmental restoration and subsequent agricultural, tourism, or commercial development when supported by long-term planning and effective enforcement.

Ultimately, the Chamber agreed that the State should focus on creating a stable regulatory environment rather than attempting to direct commercial outcomes. In its view, the Government’s role is to establish clear rules, uphold environmental standards, and provide investment and policy certainty, while allowing businesses to determine where commercially viable value addition can occur.

As global supply chains increasingly diversify away from traditional sources of strategic minerals, it warned that Sri Lanka risks missing a narrowing window of opportunity if regulatory reform continues to lag behind policy ambition.

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce recently convened “Energy Transition in Sri Lanka: Strategic Insights from Global Markets,” bringing together stakeholders from Government, industry, academia, and the energy sector to discuss the policies, investments, and reforms needed to accelerate Sri Lanka’s transition towards a more secure, affordable, and sustainable energy system.

The discussion focused on the growing role of renewable energy in meeting Sri Lanka’s rising electricity demand while reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels. Solar energy was identified as a priority area for expansion, with participants highlighting the importance of purchase tariffs, procurement mechanisms, and distributed renewable energy development to encourage private investment, strengthen grid stability, and reduce transmission losses.

Participants also examined the barriers that continue to slow renewable energy deployment, including policy inconsistency, lengthy approval processes, land acquisition challenges, grid constraints, and delays in project implementation. The need for a stable and predictable policy environment, streamlined regulatory processes, and stronger institutional coordination was identified as essential to improve investor confidence and accelerate project delivery.

The dialogue explored the role of procurement frameworks, financing mechanisms, and electricity sector reforms in supporting future investment. Net metering and feed-in arrangements were recognised as important tools to encourage commercial and industrial users to adopt solar power by enabling them to sell surplus electricity back to the grid. Participants also stressed the importance of improving access to financing, developing more bankable project structures, and addressing financial sustainability issues, including timely payments to renewable energy developers.

Energy storage systems emerged as a key area of discussion, with participants highlighting their importance in supporting greater renewable energy integration, improving grid stability, and enhancing system flexibility. Global experiences in deploying solar-plus-storage solutions were examined, alongside the need for clear technical standards, safety frameworks, financing mechanisms, and market structures to support the adoption of energy storage technologies in Sri Lanka.

The discussion also considered the wider economic implications of the energy transition. With electricity demand expected to increase alongside digitalisation, artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, and data centres, participants emphasised the need to modernise the country’s energy infrastructure through intelligent grids and emerging technologies to support long-term economic competitiveness.

Human capital development was another important theme, with participants calling for closer collaboration between industry and academia, expanded technical training opportunities, and stronger local expertise in renewable energy and energy storage technologies to support the sector’s continued growth.

The dialogue concluded by emphasising that achieving Sri Lanka’s renewable energy ambitions will require coordinated action across policy, regulation, financing, and infrastructure development.

The Planters’ Association of Ceylon (PA) yesterday said that it has called on the Government to treat the systematic theft of high-value agricultural crops as a serious economic threat, warning that unchecked losses are deterring investment, eroding export competitiveness, and putting the livelihoods of farmers at risk.

Across Sri Lanka’s plantation districts, the organised theft of pepper, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, vanilla, avocado, and other high-value crops has reached a scale that the industry says can no longer be dismissed as an isolated or manageable problem, the PA said.

Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) and smallholder growers have reported increasing losses that wipe out entire seasons of work and companies are spending tens of millions of rupees on security that cuts directly into their ability to compete internationally. The Association said in several cases, farmers and estate managers have abandoned expansion plans for high-value crops entirely after concluding that the returns cannot justify the risk.

The Association estimates that crop losses across the sector may be running into millions, though it is now seeking formally verified data from members to establish the true figure. What is already clear, the Association said, is that the financial damage extends well beyond the stolen harvest itself.

Theft operations are organised and deliberate. Association members report that incidents cluster around the full moon, when natural light allows groups to work through fields without torches. A well-coordinated team can strip a section of cinnamon in two to three hours, clear a cardamom plot in a single pass, or harvest 40 to 50 kilos of pepper from a single vine before dawn. Once the crop leaves the field and enters informal supply channels, it is effectively untraceable.

The PA said that one company is currently spending approximately Rs. 20 million to protect a single crop over a three-month period. Those costs do not appear in any Government measure of agricultural competitiveness, but they are real and recurring and they fall entirely on the producer. For estates already competing against lower-cost producers in Vietnam, India, and Kenya, this adds further strain, with RPCs losing revenue and the State losing tax income as a result.

The PA pointed to pepper as a crop where the damage to investor confidence has been most visible. Several growers who had begun trialling pepper, a high-value crop with strong export potential, have pulled back from expansion after sustained theft on their plots. Cardamom has been similarly affected. One company that committed to planting 18 hectares spent several years deploying watchers and security personnel before concluding that the cost was unsustainable. The project was not extended.

The Government has publicly committed to growing Sri Lanka’s agricultural exports and attracting investment into the sector. The Association’s position is that this goal cannot be achieved while the conditions on the ground make high-value crop production an unacceptable risk for growers.

Agricultural theft is a criminal offence under existing Sri Lankan law. The Association’s concern is that the penalties attached to that offence bear no relation to its economic consequences. In many cases, a fraction of the value of what was stolen provides no meaningful deterrent to repeat offenders. When the punishment is cheaper than the crime, the law becomes ineffective.

Technology has so far failed to fill the gap. CCTV systems are defeated by power cuts. Fingerprint entry controls have been circumvented. Drones face practical obstacles in shade-grown and wind-exposed terrain. The infrastructure installed to protect crops, including fencing and other equipment, has itself become a target for theft.

Accordingly, the PA called on the Government to revise and effectively enforce the penalties for agricultural theft so that fines and sentences reflect the actual value of the crops stolen and create a genuine deterrent. The PA also called for the development of a traceability framework for high-value produce within informal supply chains, so that stolen crops can be identified and prosecuted once they leave the field. Lastly, the Association called for the formal recognition of crop theft in national agricultural policy and the allocation of resources to enforcement accordingly.

The PA is also collecting verified data from its members on the scale of losses across both smallholder and estate operations, and intends to present this to the relevant Government Ministries.

“Sri Lanka has the climate, the land, and the agricultural knowledge to be a serious player in high-value crop exports. But we cannot build that future if a farmer can spend nine months on a crop and lose everything the night before he is paid. This is not a minor inconvenience. It is a structural problem that needs a structural response,” the PA said.