As an Official Partner of the FIFA World Cup 2026™, Visa has launched The New Game Plan, a cross-border travel campaign created by Serviceplan Middle East, rolling out across 15 countries and 13 languages throughout the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) region.
The best moments of any trip are rarely the ones you planned. No holiday goes exactly to plan. Plans change. Routes shift. A quick stop turns into the best part of the trip. But during a global cultural moment like the FIFA World Cup, that spontaneity is amplified on an entirely different scale. While summer is the busiest travel season in the CEMEA region, this season the world begins to behave like a stadium. Cities rewire themselves around the energy of the game. Quiet restaurants erupt because of a match playing somewhere nearby. Watch parties replace dinner reservations. Fan zones emerge where markets once stood. Even taking the wrong turn can lead you somewhere unforgettable.
Built on this insight, Visa’s campaign celebrates the kind of travel that happens beyond the itinerary. The spontaneous moments that make a trip feel truly alive. With the confidence and flexibility of Visa, travellers are empowered to lean into the unexpected, moving one step closer to where they want to be. Because during the World Cup, travel doesn’t pause for football fever, it transforms because of it.
“Our challenge from the outset was to bring three worlds together — travel, Visa, and the FIFA World Cup. Most stories during the World Cup season are told through games, players and stadiums, but we saw a more human one: the tournament doesn’t stay in the host cities, it travels. So we built ‘The New Travel Game Plan’ around the fan on the move, with Visa right there in every moment.” Vineeta P Vasisht, Head of Client Servicing, Serviceplan Middle East.
The campaign is Visa’s pep talk to these travelers. Stay flexible. Be spontaneous. Keep moving. Visa payments are simple, accepted around the world and secure, so nothing gets in the way of the moment. Pep Guardiola’s cameo serves as a playful nod to the campaign’s premise: that while planning matters, some of life’s most memorable moments happen when you’re willing to embrace the unexpected.”
“The New Travel Game Plan only works if you’re willing to say yes to it. So we started by asking: what are the moments every traveler recognizes? The seat you didn’t choose. The bus you just missed. The restaurant you booked that couldn’t compete with the noise coming from across the street. We didn’t invent those situations. We just found the Visa in them.”- Thomas Nicolae Gheorghiu and Shalisa Hira, Associate Creative Directors, Serviceplan Middle East