A 2026 FIFA World Cup group stage match between Belgium and Egypt, at Lumen Field in Seattle, Washington. Photo Wikipedia.
The football has been brilliant, because football is brilliant. But the 2026 World Cup—hosted across the US, Canada, and Mexico—mainly in America—is the most corrupt, polluted tournament in the tournament’s 96-year history.
Let’s start with discrimination: Omar Artan, the first Somali referee ever invited to officiate at a World Cup, was refused entry at Miami airport—having been issued a US visa—based on spurious claims of “terrorist connections.” He flew home to a hero’s welcome, celebrated for his dignified response to a humiliating ordeal.
Palestinian Football Federation President Jibril al-Rajoub was denied entry to the US; fifteen members of Iran’s delegation were refused visas, and the Iran national team was forced to commute from Mexico for matches in the US.
Iraqi striker Aymen Hussein was detained for nearly seven hours at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, his mobile phone confiscated and searched; Iraqi team photographer Talal Salah was deported after more than ten hours in detention; Brazilian journalist Karine Alves was racially profiled and subjected to a strip search upon arrival at a New Jersey airport.
Senegal and Ivory Coast fans were barred by Trump’s travel bans. The Ivory Coast supporters’ group president stated: “the US government does not want to see supporters from certain countries, including Ivory Coast, on its soil.”
Dozens of Moroccan supporters were denied entry into the US. Many had purchased match tickets of around $500 each, with some buying three-match packages totalling $1,500, and paid visa fees of $180, with total individual losses reaching up to $2,000, plus flights and hotel costs.
The exclusion of African and Muslim-majority nations was the pattern, a level of discrimination that makes a mockery of FIFA’s claim that this was the “most inclusive World Cup in history.”
Corruption and Greed
It is the financial exploitation of supporters that stands out as the crudest, most visible form of corruption. From FIFA’s eye-watering ticket prices to inflated air and train fares in the US, visceral greed has polluted this World Cup.
Less than 2 per cent of tickets have been made available at the much-trumpeted “budget” $60 price point (for the worst seats in the stadium), and even these were commanding resale prices averaging $1,600. The cheapest ticket for the final exceeds $2,600; the top category, originally priced at $6,730, rose to $32,970—an increase of 417 per cent—thanks to “dynamic pricing,” a demand-based system designed to maximise FIFA’s revenue.
US airlines operating flights to host cities bumped up fares by an average of 42 per cent. Public transport to stadiums has been similarly exploited: a standard $13 journey from New York to MetLife Stadium rose to $98 on match days.
FIFA’s ticket pricing has been so extortionate that prosecutors in New York and New Jersey have launched legal investigations into FIFA’s tariffs, citing “unreasonably high” ticket costs.
Total revenue for the 2022–2026 cycle is projected to be FIFA’s highest ever—hitting $13 billion—virtually double the $7.57 billion generated in the previous period, and a 73% increase on the 2019–2022 cycle.
The 2026 World Cup is the perfect union of filth and greed: the major host, America—a country led by the most corrupt president in US history—and FIFA, an unethical, unaccountable organisation led by a sycophantic megalomaniac—Gianni Infantino—who appears to see himself as the head of a nation state, rather than football’s governing body.
As Reboot FIFA states: “FIFA isn’t fit to govern world football and needs to be rebooted as an organisation so that it runs the global game in the interests of players, supporters and communities, rather than the interests of corrupt football elites, big business and authoritarian states.”
FIFA’s institutional cowardice was revealed in the starkest way on 5 July, when the US forward, Folarin Balogun, who had been given a red card in the match with Bosnia-Herzegovina, miraculously had his automatic suspension lifted—just before the knock-out game against Belgium.
It turned out that Trump, who admits to not knowing anything about football, had telephoned Infantino and asked FIFA to review the red card decision. Infantino agreed and the one-match ban was swiftly suspended, allowing Balogun to play against Belgium. Trump later boasted: “I’m the one that got them to do it.”
To the delight of football fans around the world, who were outraged by the injustice of FIFA’s actions, Belgium hammered the USA 4-1. By playing Balogun, the US team revealed itself to be devoid of principles, complicit in the corruption of Trump and Infantino.
Poisoning everything
All of this filth—the manipulation of the rules, the discrimination, and the corruption—reveals two entwined issues, pervasive and polluting: the total disregard for the law by the rich and powerful, particularly Trump and other demagogues; and the socio-economic doctrine of greed and division, which affects the lives of everyone everywhere. An unjust reductive system that reduces everything to a commodity and everyone to a consumer.
This is the American way: a world without substance, where money and winning are everything. A crass, materialistic world in which wealth and power buy impunity, and the vulnerable and marginalised can be ignored and exploited. It is loud and hollow, and it poisons everything it touches.
In spite of all the ugliness, and to the utter credit of the players and the fans, the football has been brilliant—because football is brilliant, uniting people across cultures, creating moments of collective joy and drama that will live long in the memory.
