The World Descends on an Inhospitable World Cup

The 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament is projected to break every conceivable record: It will likely be the most-watched sporting event ever—bringing in an estimated five million visitors to 16 host cities across Canada, Mexico, and the United States, atop a global viewership of six billion throughout the course of competition; more than one billion viewers are projected to watch the final match itself. And the coffers will be full to bursting: The global sport’s governing body is expecting a record $11 billion in revenue. But with hours before the first kickoff, there are problems afoot. FIFA’s ticket inventory remains vastly undersold (due in large part to its exorbitant prices), hotel block bookings have been canceled due to low visitorship, and other superlatives have all but overtaken any event excitement: This World Cup is expected to be the most expensive, the hottest on record, the most emissions-producing, and, potentially, the one that will be remembered for anything other than the game.For months ahead of the tournament, international human rights groups and U.S. civil society organizations alike had been sounding the alarm over the impending human rights nightmare that awaited, largely (if not entirely) perpetrated by the principal host: the United States, where most of the record 104 games will be played, including the final.Far from keeping politics out of play, the Trump administration has wasted no opportunity to use this global stage to debut a new American image, on the eve of the nation’s 250th anniversary, one that is exclusive, exclusionary, and vainglorious. As many had already anticipated, the political tenor of the U.S.-hosted World Cup is set to eclipse the tournament itself.“The prospects of this World Cup being remembered for reasons other than football are very high, and it should be that way,” said Shaista Aziz, co-founder of The Three Hijabis and a member of the U.K.-based Stop Trump Coalition’s “Football Against Fascism” campaign. But that doesn’t seem to be of particular concern to the tournament’s presiding host and FIFA head Gianni Infantino’s close friend, U.S. President Donald Trump, who stole the spotlight at last year’s Club World Cup and quite literally refused to leave the stage. Trump has already playfully rebranded this World Cup as the “MAGA-FIFA World Cup,” with FIFA’s passive consent, and rights advocates and fan groups expect him to host the event accordingly.The official FIFA fan zone in Washington, D.C., for example, will be co-organized by Freedom 250, a project by the Trump administration to celebrate the nation’s semiquincentennial, which is also the organizer for the “America is Back” rally on June 24 at the same location on the National Mall, in which the president will be the headliner.“Trump and the MAGA project are going to stamp themselves all over this tournament to burnish MAGA via soccer,” said Nicholas McGeehan, program director at the rights group FairSquare. “And given the power of the game and the way it’s going to be broadcast around the world, it’ll be effective.”It’s not the first time that the World Cup has been used for soft-power purposes, but seeing it done so flagrantly has rights advocates no less concerned for its consequences, not only in host cities but also abroad.Looming over the proceedings is the fact that the U.S., aided by Israel, is actively at war with Iran. The fact that Iran is competing in the World Cup hosted by its aggressor will not be lost on anyone, but hostilities that take place during the tournament might.“This cannot be used as an attempt to sportswash Donald Trump’s regime, and indeed all of [its] horrific foreign policy interventions (or lack of interventions),” said Aziza, who is particularly concerned that the tournament will be used to veil Israel’s ongoing assault on the occupied West Bank and Lebanon—as mega sporting events have been utilized as cover in the past—with the support of the U.S. “There should be no normalization of [it] in relation to this World Cup.”While Trump has previously stated that “fans from all over the world will be welcome,” few have ever actually believed that the first ever World Cup in which the host nation is at war with a qualified nation will be as hospitable as advertised. Currently, Iran’s national team has only been issued visas under express warning by U.S. officials that they do not “abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretenses,” while key staff have been denied entry. The team must also leave U.S. soil on the same day as their matches.