Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights holds news conference, June 9, 2026, Chicago.
The stated role of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), as the World Cup tournament organizer, is to ensure that football (soccer) is accessible to everyone and that global tournaments will be “safe, welcoming and inclusive.”
That is not the reality of the 2026 World Cup. The anger at FIFA’s multimillionaire directors is wholly justified and righteous. The call to “Boycott FIFA” and a demand for accountability for abusive behavior need immediate support.
Every FIFA-sponsored game reinforces U.S. repression and racist exclusion. Resistance from below by those refusing to let the world’s most popular sport become a tool in the hands of those who wage war has — and will — take many forms, including protests, boycotts and collective actions.
FIFA is the multibillion dollar governing body that organizes football tournaments, including the FIFA World Cup, representing teams of 211 countries. Football is the most widely played and watched participation sport in the world, with an estimated 250 million to 270 million active players globally.
This year’s World Cup is labeled as the largest sporting event in history, featuring 48 teams and 104 matches across North America — Mexico, the United States and Canada.
FIFA is a major institution, with an enthusiastic following of hundreds of millions of people and with tens of millions of dollars in U.S. corporate media contracts. It was in the strongest position in the world to insist that the U.S., as a host country, follow FIFA’s own guidelines on accessible and inclusive games.
Instead, FIFA’s wealthy officials have done nothing to protect the players, staff or supporters coming to the U.S. for the events. Their silence and acquiescence to the U.S. government reinforces racist U.S. immigration and entry policies in determining who can participate. FIFA has left everything in the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and The Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Racist visa denials
The calculated denial of the right to travel to people from African countries and Haiti has created months of uncertainty about which few administrators, medical staff, translators and other personnel will receive visas. Fans from more than a quarter of the 48 countries taking part in the World Cup are facing travel bans, tighter restrictions or high visa rejection rates.
Four countries who are competing in the World Cup — Haiti, Iran, Ivory Coast and Senegal — are facing the heaviest restrictions on any forms of visas. Fans from 52 African, Caribbean and South Asian countries, including teams in the World Cup such as Algeria and Cape Verde, must deposit $5,000 to $15,000 in bond payments to be granted a tourist visa.
No European country faces this kind of restriction. Instead, 42 countries benefit from a U.S. visa waiver program, where applications are made online through the U.S.’s Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). This costs about $40 (34.49 euros). There are no African countries on this elite list, which includes 32 European countries, Australia, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Qatar and South Korea.
Along with enabling these racist restrictions on participation of African teams, FIFA has not bothered to demand, nor have U.S. officials provided any assurances, that local communities or fans attending the events would be safe from racial profiling, indiscriminate raids or unlawful detention.
Iran – heaviest restrictions
Despite FIFA guidelines that sporting events must be free from political exclusion, Iran has faced unprecedented logistical and political restrictions at the 2026 tournament.
FIFA regulations explicitly mandate that all competing teams must arrive at the match venue the day before a game to conduct mandatory stadium training and pre-match press conferences. Yet the Iranian team and its immediate support staff were prohibited from staying even one night in the U.S. This meant that Iran was forced to abandon its original U.S. training base in Tucson, Arizona, and set up camp in Tijuana, Mexico.
The Iranian team members have to fly across the border and back for each match. Most of their support staff cannot go with them. FIFA actually revoked Iran’s official ticket allocation for group stage matches. So even those who had made plans from other countries or from here in the U.S. are blocked from attending. Even internationally accredited Iranian sports journalists are denied entry visas, severely limiting media coverage of the team.
These outrageous prohibitions are in violation of FIFA’s own charter, which states that “discrimination of any kind … is strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion.” (The Nation, Oct. 7, 2024)
No ban on Israeli genocide
FIFA is a pliant instrument of U.S. power. In 2022, FIFA officials immediately banned Russia indefinitely from all official FIFA and UEFA Nations League international and club competitions, including the World Cup and European qualifiers, due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
According to the Palestinian Football Association, Israeli military operations in Gaza have killed over 1,000 members of the Palestinian sports community, including athletes, coaches and referees, between October 2023 and early 2026. Palestinian martyrs include Hani Al-Masdar, coach of the Palestinian Olympic football team, and Suleiman al-Obeid, a prominent national team footballer known as the “Palestinian Pelé.”
However, despite international campaigns to ban Israel for its horrific and continuing genocide of the Palestinian people, FIFA has not imposed even the mildest reprimand. Instead FIFA maintains that the Israel Football Association is in “good standing.”
Considering such FIFA rulings, it is hardly surprising that despite the U.S. waging numerous wars, maintaining 800 military bases around the world and unleashing an unprovoked war on Iran, the FIFA board has not challenged the U.S. as a host.
Multibillion-dollar gravy train
As the global governing body of football, FIFA manages everything from the tournament’s bidding process and qualification phases to global broadcasting rights, sponsorships and onsite event operations. Its broadcasting deals make it the most lucrative competition in sporting history. None of this is in the interests of the tens of millions of fans. The corruption, favoritism, insider deals and siphoned money is a continuing FIFA scandal.
As a not-for-profit federation, FIFA takes the funds from ticket sales, hospitality, broadcasting and sponsorship income, which runs into billions of dollars. This is all tax-exempt. But the 11 U.S. cities where the games are held bear the cost of infrastructure, facilities and safety and security for huge crowds. This is money grabbed from city budgets that have already been shrunk.
FIFA’s revenue streams and profit figures are unparalleled in international sports. Powered by the expanded 48-team 2026 World Cup hosted across the U.S., Canada and Mexico, FIFA’s revenues have surpassed initial projections to hit an unprecedented $13 billion.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino earns $6 million a year in salary and bonuses. This means his pay, 365 days per year, is over $16,000 a day. No wonder he thinks “dynamic pricing” with prohibitive ticket prices reaching $5,000 for a seat is reasonable.
An alliance with multibillion-dollar commercial partners and sponsors making profits is all that counts. Capitalism requires the constant generation of profit, regardless of the human cost. Infantino defends the staging of games in the U.S. by focusing on the tournament’s profits to FIFA and to corporate media and mega hotel chains rather than on the discriminatory barriers faced by teams and the threats to fans.
Rather than representing FIFA’s teams and fans, FIFA’s multimillionaire board members are running to appease President Donald Trump. They created a new, annual award, the “FIFA Peace Prize – Football Unites the World” and awarded it to Trump in December 2025 for his supposed tireless effort to promote peace. FIFA rushed to partner with Trump’s “Board of Peace” for Gaza.
To Marxists, even if they are football enthusiasts, this complete alignment of FIFA with racist U.S. policies is hardly surprising, even if it is outrageous. Every institution in class society — including in education, culture, law, media, religion and sports — serves to legitimize and maintain the power of the ruling class. The role of these institutions, including multibillion-dollar FIFA, is to ensure the economic and political status quo remains unchallenged. These institutions loyally defend the legal system, police and military, including the ICE agents, who directly enforce ruling-class corporate interests and suppress dissent.
Challenging FIFA’s corporate directors is an important front in the class struggle.
