The 2026 World Cup: A Hostile Environment Dressed as a Celebration

In 2018, the United States, Canada and Mexico won their bid to host the 2026 World Cup. No issue here—FIFA rotates hosts at the continent level and it was their time. Behind the scenes, FIFA, and more directly its president, Gianni Infantino, has for decades cultivated relationships with political figures, including Donald Trump.

Infantino made it his business to seek business ties with Trump. In 2020, FIFA leased space in Trump Tower. In January 2025, he attended Trump's inauguration rally. In March, he gifted Trump with the original Club World Cup trophy (the actual winners, Chelsea FC, received a replica). Infantino has frequently visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and in October 2025, he was personally invited by Trump to attend a Gaza peace summit in Egypt.

In 2025 the USA, under Donald Trump's command, bombed Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Nigeria. The US provided bombs to Israel (2000lbs bombs) to flatten Gaza. He threatened to annex Greenland and Canada, resulting in Europe and Canada having to re-examine their relationship with the USA. Donald Trump claimed that he brokered a ceasefire between Pakistan and India, and asked India to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize. When India refuted his claims and said NO, he imposed draconian tariffs against India. This led to India turning to its longtime rival, China, and currently India and China are exploring their new relationship. The list goes on and on. However, in Dec 2025 FIFA awarded Donald Trump with their "Peace Prize".

The World Cup has officially started. Somali referee Omar Artan, recognized as the greatest referee from Africa—EVER—was detained, interrogated, accused of terrorist links, and denied entry. The US carried out a Britney Griner on the Iraqi team, detaining their captain for seven hours, searching his phone, interrogating their photographer for ten hours before deporting him, and making everything extremely difficult for Iran—forcing them to relocate to Mexico, denying 15 staff visas, and restricting players to match-day-only entry.

Amnesty International noted travel bans barring fans from Senegal, Iran, Ivory Coast, Haiti, and elsewhere, proposals for social media vetting, and over 500,000 deportations in 2025 alone. Nor were European allies spared. Scottish fans had their ESTAs revoked at the last minute. German citizens have been detained. A climate of fear in the Netherlands led to a 174,000-signature petition calling for a boycott.

The United States, under Donald Trump, created an environment that was fundamentally hostile to the very idea of a global sporting event. Meanwhile, Mexico and Canada offered a stark contrast—Mexico sheltering the displaced Iranian team in Tijuana, Canada preparing for the tournament without mass detentions or ICE patrols, both co-hosts remembering that the World Cup is supposed to be about welcoming the world, not intimidating it.

Don't watch it and don't really care. There are so many more ways to entertain yourself than watching sweaty men play with balls.

It's the sport of foreigners. Americans watch football and ninja warrior

To be fair, Panama is the only team that requested a base in Canada. Pretty easy to be hospitable to foreign teams when you have none heh

This is original football, and what you call football is gay rugby in full protection gear. No fun.

Soccer is a great sport for people who never learned how to catch.

It's football after all. Not handball.

Handegg is a great sport for fat people that need to take a breather every 20 seconds

Let the Holy War begin!

The above posts are a good benchmark for US sentiment for the World Cup. The US does not consider soccer a national sport compared to baseball or American football. Therefore, the World Cup does not create the same kind of atmosphere as it does in countries like Brazil or Germany, which have a far stronger cultural attachment to soccer than the US does.

While Donald Trump sees the World Cup as another feather in his cap, America's treatment of the global community serves as a reminder to the world that the US is hostile to them. People are far more likely to remember how they were treated in the US than the score of any football game. Ultimately this World Cup is highly politicised and I would argue that in the decades to come it will be looked back on as another example of the decline of US soft power.

This post was edited by ferdia on Jun 12 2026 08:34am