There’s a lot to dislike about the 2026 FIFA World Cup. A bloated forty-eight-team tournament spanning all of North America would be tough to pull off in the best of conditions. FIFA openly ripping off fans and charging thousands for tickets ensures that it’ll be, at base, an ugly cash grab. But there are also ills facing fans such as the United States’ immigration regime, roaming National Guard deployments throughout the country’s urban landscapes, and disconcertingly persistent threats to move match venues at President Donald Trump’s whim. The world’s biggest sporting event will have one of its most authoritarian backdrops yet.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has responded to concerning developments in the cohost country the same way he responds to despots the world over — shameless groveling. Trump’s designated “king of soccer” has cozied up so closely to the US president that he might as well try to squeeze into Trump’s ill-fitting jacket with him. Infantino has capped off their budding bromance by awarding Trump the “FIFA Peace Prize” — a totally legitimate marker of statesmanship and definitely not an award made up to appease Trump for missing out on a Nobel Peace Prize.
What could be unserious about an award presented “on behalf of the billions of people who love this game and want peace” and honoring a “dynamic leader creating opportunities for dialogue, deescalation, and stability” that goes to Donald Trump? The president was so jazzed about “one of the great honors of his life” that he even stayed awake long enough to graciously accept it. The bizarre ceremony, crowbarred into the World Cup draw, provided a bit of levity to an otherwise depressing run-up to the tournament.
Despite widespread rumination on both Trump’s authoritarian lurches and FIFA’s sycophancy, there’s been little pushback to the rapidly approaching tournament. There’s certainly been nothing approaching the protests that accompanied the…
Auteur: Dave Braneck
