Fifa’s shamelessness is its superpower – it only has one goal in mind
Football’s governing body, Fifa, is no stranger to fostering ties with problematic world leaders and controversial governments – but the 2026 World Cup might just be its most flagrant fawning to date.
In a generically opulent kingdom, an emperor roams the streets wearing nothing but an irksome, complacent smirk. The plot of Don Juan Manuel’s El Conde Lucanor (1335) and, for more contemporary readers, Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale The Emperor’s New Clothes (1837), felt oddly pertinent when the president of Fifa, Gianni Infantino, presented the football association’s inaugural peace prize to US president Donald Trump on Friday. The award – calculated and flagrantly irrelevant – was indicative of an institution that has been consistently obsequious to illiberal powers. Just like the empty looms of Andersen’s swindling tailors, Fifa’s pretences to power confirmed that next summer’s World Cup, held between Canada, Mexico and the US, will serve one man’s vanity in pursuit of his nation’s wealth.
The 2026 Fifa World Cup draw ceremony was a gauche affair. Held in Washington, it was a protracted pantomime performed to an audience of one: the US president. Infantino played the hits: he led the crowd in chants of “USA, USA…”; he concocted a garish peace prize, including a trophy, gold medal and certificate; and he booked the Village People to sing Trump’s favourite tune, “YMCA”. The award – the creation of which was announced last month without approval from Fifa’s board – was designed by Infantino to soften the blow of Trump’s failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize. And while the commander in chief’s forces gathered off the coast of Venezuela, attendees to the ceremony nodded along and applauded à la the townsfolk before their imperious leader. The world’s sporting elite were never going to play the role of the truth-telling child in Andersen’s tale. Not when the sport’s governing body, like the fabled weavers, was so shamelessly plying Trump with transparent blandishments. Indeed, the only real difference between Andersen’s fraudsters and today’s obsequious CEOs and world leaders is that the presents and made-up accolades given to Trump are anything but invisible – that Boeing 747 gifted by Qatar in May being a case in point.
Infantino is not the first to resort to tacky or tantalising tactics to get the US president on side. In October, Japan’s newly minted prime minister, Sane Takaichi, showed the world that when it comes to the man who has everything – less is not more. Personalised golden golf balls and the putter used by the late Shinzo Abe when he and Trump golfed together were an ace gift that helped pull Japan out of the rough following severe tariff hikes. But unlike Takaichi, Fifa’s flattery did not show nous nor deft diplomacy – it felt singularly sycophantic. Particularly when the US is not hosting next summer’s tournament alone.
What qualifies football’s governing body to assign a peace prize? Little more than its long history of fawning over money and power. In fact, much like its inaugural peace prize winner, Fifa’s shamelessness is its superpower. Lavishing leaders and propping up states with its soft-power machine (aka the World Cup) has become the institution’s lifeblood and raison d’être. Look back at Infantino’s record of elected host nations: Russia in 2018, Qatar in 2022, the US in 2026, Milei’s Argentina hosting with Uruguay in 2030 and, in 2034, Saudi Arabia. It’s an axis not known for its commitment to being welcoming to all, nor for its love of the sport (bar Russia, Argentina and Uruguay). There is, of course, a rationale to hosting World Cups in nations without storied footballing pedigrees; these tournaments help to stretch the frontiers of the sport. However, the blatant and successive rewarding of regimes that operate counter to the more democratic ideals of the sport’s fanbase diminishes the positive impact of the world’s most-watched sporting event.
Infantino’s tenure mirrors much of the World Cup’s past: the tournament is indistinguishable from controversial nation-building. In 1934, the World Cup in Italy provided Benito Mussolini the opportunity to promote Italian craft, design and a dose of right-wing nationalist pomp. In 1978 it was Argentine dictator General Jorge Rafael Videla’s turn to use the games to his advantage. In fact, this political football has been played down the right wing for so long it’s a wonder that Brand World Cup, or Fifa itself, bother purporting a liberal agenda at all.
And yet in a 2022 speech, the Fifa president declared himself as feeling gay, disabled, like a migrant worker, Arabic, African and others besides. But there will be more to come in the summer. The designated Pride Match at World Cup 2026, held in Seattle, will – thanks to Friday’s draw – feature Egypt and Iran: two nations where homosexuality is illegal and, in the latter country, punishable by death. It could well be a spectacle but don’t expect to see players or Fifa staffers joining in. After all, the football association failed to support players wanting to wear OneLove armbands in support of LGBTQ+ people at the Qatar World Cup by announcing that those individuals would receive yellow cards.
So, what does summer 2026 have in store? Infantino is keeping many of the tournament’s secrets under wraps (expect naff half-time performances and NFL-style pitch-side interviews). But the real winner of the so-called people’s game will be the continued success of Fifa’s egregious lickspittle tactic. While the losers will be fans at the US legs of the tournament forced to suffer draconian government officials and Trump’s patrolling ICE agents. For Fifa, the US remains the New World and a primed market, especially with the president on board. The previous World Cup in Qatar, and the decision for Saudi Arabia to host in 2034, have already promoted the sport in the Gulf, which is now a burgeoning giant of footballing financial capital. Fifa has clearly decided on its preferred clientele, targeting nations with populations that have vast purchasing power and don’t baulk at ultra-premium ticket prices (tickets for Colombia versus Portugal in Miami have risen 514 per cent since Friday’s draw). Football has never been democratic and Fifa never liberal. The 2026 Fifa World Cup promises to be more nakedly vulgar – and profitable – than ever. Nothing matters more than the bottom line and its showing.
