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‘His greatest shame’: Dark shadow hangs over World Cup
Updated . First published at
Sport and politics are increasingly intertwined in the modern world, and one of the most prominent examples is the FIFA World Cup.
A damning indictment proving this is that the next edition of the tournament is just two days away, yet all people are talking about are issues off the field caused by a turbulent political climate in the United States.
Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino have become close, though the motives for why remain questionable. Jim Watson
The country is co-hosting the tournament with Canada and Mexico, but several controversies in the USA are threatening to tarnish the tournament before it has even begun.
The Donald Trump and Iran factor
The first and most glaring is that the USA is actively at war with one of the nations competing in the World Cup, Iran.
US President Donald Trump was unable to get them booted out of the tournament - that is a decision only FIFA can make - but they have made it as difficult as possible for the team and its fans to get into the country.
A woman holds up a peace sign during a protest in reaction to FIFA's ban of Iran's pre-revolutionary flag inside World Cup stadiums Benjamin Hanson
A ticket allocation set aside for Iranian fans was pulled last week, and there was uncertainty as to whether members of the team would be granted visas to enter the USA, a problem given that all of Iran’s group games are being held there; Iran moved their base camp from Arizona to Mexico, wanting to minimise the time they have to spend in the USA.
All players eventually received visas, but some staff were denied; they are not the only ones to be denied entry to the country at the last minute.
FIFA has also banned fans waving the pre-revolutionary flag of Iran, which has been met with protests.
This week, Somali referee Omar Artan was barred from entering the country despite being a FIFA official.
US Customs and Border Protection claimed “vetting concerns” were behind Artan’s ban from entering the country, though President Trump has imposed a travel ban on Somalia.
Denying entry to a FIFA-accredited referee is an unprecedented move and adds to the political tension present in the country, which has seen an immigration crackdown since Trump’s return to the White House.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino, right, presenting US President Donald Trump with the inaugural FIFA Peace Price during the draw for the 2026 World Cup. Evan Tucci
Trump has loomed large over the tournament, and his relationship with Infantino has been scrutinised, especially when he awarded President Trump with the FIFA Peace Prize, recognising Trump’s “exceptional actions for peace.”
It has been met with condemnation, with Norway’s Football Federation lodging a formal complaint, claiming Infantino breached his own organisation’s neutrality rules.
Sky-high ticket prices risk empty World Cup stadiums
These controversies have left a bad taste in the mouths of many fans, which could be why around 180,000 tickets still remain unsold.
That could also be because of the exorbitant cost of tickets, with the use of dynamic pricing seeing the average cost of a ticket to the final in New York reaching US$11,790 (AU$16,775).
The attorneys general of New York and New Jersey claim FIFA increased the price of tickets for most of the World Cup matches between October last year and April by around 34 per cent.
The World Cup is usually played in packed-out stadiums regardless of who is playing, but FIFA is staring down the barrel of many games being played to swathes of empty seats if rumours are to be believed, and it is a disaster of their own making.
Infantino is no stranger to cosying up to world leaders. Alexei Nikolsky
What this means for Infantino’s World Cup dream
It is damning on the part of Infantino, who has used this tournament as a project of his own to curry favour with the United States and President Trump, if the comical Peace Prize awarding didn’t already make that apparent.
What Infantino wanted to be his crowning glory after years of planning, including approving an expansion of the tournament from 32 to 48 teams, could instead be his greatest shame and an embarrassment in the making.
It would be some achievement that it was the actions and involvement of the USA that have truly dragged the crown jewel of world football into the mud.
It’s a staggering prospect given the previous two tournaments were hosted in Russia and Qatar, who had their own dubious political motivations for holding the tournament, which were both held in a backdrop of human rights abuses and open warfare.
Infantino was criticised for his role in both of those tournaments and for his justification surrounding several key issues, but like Icarus, his dalliance with a turbulent, unpredictable and unstable United States may see him fly too close to the sun.
