Make Football Great Again

Why this summer's World Cup is destined to fail

Donald Trump’s blossoming friendship with FIFA president Gianni Infantino is turning international football into a Key & Peele skit. Whether he’s inviting the Argentina squad to the Oval Office, taking his own winner’s medal at the Club World Cup, or accepting the sycophantic ‘FIFA Peace Prize,’ Trump is making this year’s tournament all about himself. But beyond the antics, domestic tension and war with Iran — who have already pulled out of the tournament — have cast serious doubt over this Summer’s World Cup. 

FIFA is no stranger to controversy. Before a ball had even been kicked at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, much had been made of the host nation’s LGBTQ+ rights, a country in which homosexuality was, and still is, illegal. FIFA’s assurance to fans that everyone was welcome at the World Cup felt as disingenuous as it did unlikely. When you have official ambassadors of the competition calling homosexuality “damage in the mind” twelve days before the opening ceremony, you can forgive the scepticism.

In addition, there were the appalling conditions in which the construction of the seven new stadia had been undertaken. In 2022, Anti-Slavery International estimated that over 6,500 workers had died across the different sites in Qatar. The report goes on to reveal that those who did survive the ordeal were subjected to “extortionate” recruitment fees, despite typically earning under £1 per hour. The numbers are as harrowing now as they were at the time.

As is so often the case in football, however, the outrage was short-lived. The same people who had been slating the competition were on the edge of their seats just two weeks later as they watched Japan beat Germany in dramatic fashion. The level of football at the last tournament — culminating in perhaps the greatest final of all time — somehow managed to pave over the gaping cracks in Qatar. 

Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino pledged to make the 2026 iteration “twenty times bigger and better” than in Qatar — whatever that means. This obviously fictitious number can’t be referring to ticket prices, as this year’s fees are only around three times more expensive. We must look, then, at the controversies outside of the tournament to find what it is exactly that will be so much ‘bigger’ in the US.

At the time of writing, a reported forty-six people have died in ICE custody and detention facilities, and the resulting riots have been tearing cities apart. Los Angeles, which is supposed to host eight games in the SoFi Stadium, has seen the most significant unrest of the host cities, with thousands taking to the streets in protest. If a country’s inhabitants are fighting against their own ‘Immigration and Customs Enforcement,’ can it really be deemed fit to host an international sports tournament, where fans from overseas will be arriving in the thousands? 

Even if fans still want to go, tight restrictions in the US will make travel impossible for some. For the first time, fans of one host nation (Mexico) will require visas to watch games from another host nation (the US), and many fans of participating countries face partial or strict travel bans to America. To make matters worse, Iran announced that it would be boycotting the tournament after their request to play their games in Mexico was denied. These restrictions are unprecedented for a World Cup, and cannot be swept under the rug.

The World Cup, like the Olympics, was once a symbol of unity in the sporting community. Whether it was the first post-war World Cup in 1950 or Africa’s first time as hosts in 2010, the tournament has always carried a profound, sometimes unspoken significance. In recent years, FIFA has demoted the competition to nothing more than a cash cow, churning out billions of dollars every four years. Should they take the same approach this summer, which they most definitely will, this will likely be the worst World Cup that we’ve ever seen.

Image from Wikimedia Commons