There has arguably never been a more compromised World Cup than this year’s, and Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s approach is not helping.
The 1934 World Cup was held in Benito Mussolini’s fascist Italy. The 1978 one was in the Argentina ruled by a military junta.
Russia, the venue of the 2018 World Cup, was controversial for the country and ruler Vladimir Putin’s human rights record and recent warring record. In 2022, Qatar’s treatment of migrant workers, restrictions on LGBTQ+ rights and the allegations of bribery in winning their bid created much bad press.
So yes, the Fifa World Cup and the global body that rules it have a long association with controversy in its choice of host nation, never mind the body’s notable record in the modern era of alleged scandal and corruption.
There has, however, never been a World Cup where a host nation has been actively at war with a participating nation.
The US and Israel’s conflict with Iran might even continue past the kickoff of the 2026 World Cup ― being co-hosted by Mexico, Canada and America ― when Bafana Bafana meet Mexico in the opening game in Mexico City on June 11.
The Middle East conflict has spilled over into at least 14 countries and territories. Some Gulf teams still playing the late qualifiers, like Iraq, are having those matches under threat from the war, the legalities of which in the attack by the US and Israel, another participant in the World Cup, are highly questionable by international law.
Perhaps, when Fifa announced the US as one of the co-hosts in 2018, during Donald Trump’s first term, they did not envisage the B-movie script of events that would see him lose in his 2020 re-election bid, lie about the result, allegedly spur an insurrection, be convicted as a felon, then against all odds somehow succeed in being elected back in 2024.
Still, the selection of the US as one of the co-hosts when Trump ― the race-baiting, racist, extreme right-wing, divisive, now allegedly warmongering convict/businessman/politician ― was president and America tarnished by the Maga movement, now seems confirmed as another in Fifa’s line of poor choices.
Infantino might not have envisaged Trump being back in the White House when the US co-hosts the 2026 Fifa World Cup. That development has left the Fifa president having to tread the same difficult line around Trump that global leaders — including Cyril Ramaphosa — have not always managed to walk successfully
Infantino’s fawning of and cowing to Trump has not found even the slightest balance. The awarding of the “inaugural Fifa Peace Prize” to Trump at the World Cup draw in Washington in December has been the subject of mockery and derision since, especially given the military actions in Venezuela and now Iran. It will go down in history as a stain of collaboration against the body that has a 1930s and 1940s feel to it.
There are more controversies in the hosting of this World Cup. Trump’s expressed desire that Canada become the US’s 51st state and famous promise to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it make relations between the co-hosts a perplexing story.
Trump and his administration’s coveting of Greenland and lukewarm support for Ukraine in the war against Russia, which have angered Europe; global tariffs; destruction of USAID; threats to China, Brazil, Cuba and other countries; and his bullying global policy mean there is scarcely a country that will travel to the World Cup without a major gripe against the US.
America’s backing of what Amnesty International has concluded was a genocide committed by Israel in Gaza under Trump and predecessor Joe Biden adds to the controversy of the venue.
The globally unpopular ICE agency’s brutish anti-immigrant actions, travel restrictions to the US and allegedly random detention of travellers, or tourists turned away due to social media comments critical of Trump, seem likely to be relaxed during the World Cup, but still make the country not a favoured destination at present.
Bafana will take part in their first World Cup since 2010 ― playing two matches in Mexico (the other is against South Korea) and one in Atlanta, Georgia, against a European qualifier still being finalised.
Trump’s pushing of the white genocide myth, taking in of white Afrikaner South African “refugees”, the administration’s appointment of right-wing Leo Brent Bozell as ambassador, expulsion of this country’s ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, disagreement with this country over its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and other issues, see US-South African relations at an all-time low.
In this light, the response of sports minister Gayton McKenzie, who has at times expressed support for Trump’s ideas, to calls from figures including EFF leader Julius Malema for Bafana to boycott the 2026 World Cup, might have been seen as somewhat tone deaf.
“The problem with people like Malema is they just wake up and decide: what nonsense can I talk today? How do you boycott the World Cup?” McKenzie said last week.
Infantino’s actions have made him seem less tone deaf, less simply cowing, and perhaps even a fan of Trump and Maga. He allegedly donned a Maga-style hat at the first meeting of Trump’s “Board of Peace” in Washington last month. Such actions make a mockery of Fifa’s anti-racism campaigns, which have long been criticised as window dressing.
World Cups can be held in controversial destinations, but almost always, in the end, the action on the field takes the spotlight. This time it could be really hard to ignore the events taking place in one of the host countries, its president and his conduct.
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