Unlike previous editions of the World Cup in recent years, this year’s has been perceptibly different. Other than the intense jostling for the ball and the neck-and-neck battle quest to outscore one’s opponent that headlines games during the World Cup, the tournament, in recent memories, used to represent a thorough rehearsal of global unity. In actual fact, if anyone were to describe the feelings that come with the World Cup, people would readily throw out words like (or words that also mean) unity, co-existence, global harmony, oneness, and world peace.
The unrestrained influx of people from different cultures and continents, the kaleidoscope of the colours from several flags and national colours, the songs, and the unending energy from footballers throughout from start to finish were indicators of this feeling. Ironically, this year’s edition, currently underway across North America and co-hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America serving as the principal host, has failed to reflect that unifying spirit.
According to various reports, this year’s edition, particularly regarding the United States of America (which hosts 78 games out of the total 104 matches), the trends have been markedly different. Rather than serving as a celebration of unity, cultural exchange, and shared humanity, the competition has become a centre stage upon which discriminatory policies, exclusionary practices, racial tensions, and political grievances have been brought to bear. Compounding these concerns have been a series of organisational and logistical shortcomings that have raised questions about the tournament’s administration.
The whole world, not even just the footballing community, was thrown with the first major shock when the Somalian referee, Omar Artan, who was voted the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Referee of the Year, 2025, and selected to be a FIFA officiating referee in this tournament was denied entry and later branded as a one in “association with suspected members of terror organisations.” Surprisingly, he had a valid US Visa, but his entry was blocked. He was detained for 11 hours before being deported.
In a similar distasteful trend, a large number of nationals, team personnel, and high-profile players from African countries have suffered systematic denial of entry to the US. Sweeping immigration directives and a blanket U.S. visa freeze targeting 75 countries have completely dismantled the official home-based supporter delegations for nations like Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal. Officials from the national supporters’ association for Cote d’Ivoire confirmed that more than 500 fans from the official planned delegation were forced to cancel their trips entirely after their visa applications were systematically rejected. The Senegalese Sport Ministry and Football Federation also confirmed that multiple entire selected fan groups were denied visas. An estimated number of over 400 supporters from Ghana, were equally hit a brick wall in their attempt to support the Black Stars of Ghana during this World Cup campaign in the US.
In the case of Iran, the situation takes a more draconian turn. In addition to the fact that no less than 15 officials were outrightly barred from entering, the Iranian contingents were not allowed to choose a base in the US. So, while the team had initially booked facilities in Tucson and Arizona, the U.S. government refused to permit them an extended or overnight stay. Consequently, the squad was forced to establish its entire tournament base camp across the border in Tijuana, Mexico, with players granted access to the U.S. strictly on matchdays and returning to Mexico immediately after the final whistle.
But it is not only countries with sour relations with the US that have had to grapple with these ordeals in just one round of games into the FIFA World Cup 2026. Even countries with good standing with the US have suffered their own share of calamity. The Three Lions of England found themselves in an embarrassing crisis just days before their tournament opener against Croatia when the transport vehicle carrying their training gear was broken into during transit.
A total of $18,000 (£13,500) worth of property was stolen, including training kits, balls, goalkeeper gloves, several pairs of boots, and three signed jerseys, each valued at $5,000. Although a good amount of the gear was later recovered, the fact that the theft occurred at all is evidence of the shortcomings that have plagued this FIFA World Cup so far and detracted from what should have been a seamless global sporting spectacle. Many contingents have reported seeing venomous snakes near their training camps, amongst others.
Judging by how the FIFA 2026 World Cup tournament has unfurled so far, FIFA’s scorecard tells a troubling story of administrative shortcomings, poor foresight, and institutional indifference. What the world is witnessing is a tournament headlined by the footballing spectacle, but not underlined by the spirits and values that have long defined the World Cup. Caught in the mesh of Trump’s petulant America, the competition has struggled to live up to its fame and creed.
FIFA’s responsibility is to deliver a memorable World Cup. While this includes ensuring the matches are organised, the socio-cultural conditions are equally important. Easy accessibility, efficient transportation system, reliable hospitality services, and security are foundational pillars for cultivating a truly global festival. Considering the nature of the tournament, which depends on the movement and participation of supporters from every corner of the world, FIFA should have secured robust guarantees to facilitate access for fans regardless of nationality. This obligation becomes even more important in a host nation where football does not enjoy the same cultural passion as it does in many parts of Europe, Africa, and South America.
It should have been incumbent upon the host nations, and by extension, FIFA to ensure that legitimate supporters, officials, and accredited personnel from participating countries could access the tournament with minimal impediments. FIFA, therefore, failed to lay down the groundwork needed to achieve a truly global event.
Ironically, the editions of the World Cup hosted in South Africa (2010), Russia (2018), and Qatar (2022) opened up more resoundingly and ended more memorably than the edition currently ongoing in the world’s “most advanced” country. Funny enough, so much fear and trepidation around security, accessibility, and human rights and dignity were put in stocks for these countries during the run-up to their hosting the tournament. In fact, the United Kingdom’s Daily Star had forewarned that fans from England could be in danger of “machete race war if they came to South Africa.” As it would turn out, however, South Africa’s World Cup is one of the most memorable World Cup tournaments ever hosted.
Despite the vicious scepticisms that also clouded the prospects of hosting the tournament in Russia and Qatar, the event still delivered on expectations. During the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Russia circumvented its own rigid immigration system by implementing the FAN ID system. This free, laminated credential served as an official visa replacement, granting all ticket-holding international supporters seamless, multi-entry, and visa-free access to the country starting ten days before the tournament. The government also arranged for free Railway transportation between the 11 cities hosting the tournament. In 2022, Qatar introduced the digital Hayya Card, an entry permit for international travellers that unlocked free access to key transportation networks and tournament shuttles throughout the competition. Qatar also allowed the sale of alcohol in specific locations. All of these were achieved with collaboration between the hosting countries and FIFA.
The ongoing 2026 tournament leaves much to be desired. The controversies that have emerged were not unforeseeable. The United States’ increasingly restrictive immigration posture, heightened political polarisation, and the likelihood of visa complications for supporters from several countries, particularly African countries, were matters of public knowledge long before the tournament began. FIFA either failed to anticipate these challenges or failed to secure adequate guarantees to mitigate them.
That officials from participating countries and an officiating official, Omar, encountered barriers of this scale. Participating contingents are not guaranteed security and safety, as the heist on the contingents from England and the presence of snakes around camps tell us, there is a gaping failure of preparation on the part of FIFA. In matters of this nature, it is untenable that FIFA cannot interfere because those matters are outside its purview, as Gianni Infantino, the FIFA President, said. It is even plausible that the US government has proven too rogue for FIFA.
Perhaps most telling is that even the Africa Cup of Nations, which is usually organised with a fraction of the World Cup’s resources and commercial power, has in recent years managed to avoid many of the accessibility controversies currently overshadowing football’s premier tournament. Despite the logistical challenges of hosting major sporting events on the continent, the Confederation of African Football has generally succeeded in executing memorable tournaments. And of course, AFCON tournaments are not flawless. However, it is difficult to ignore the irony that, for all the spiteful pessimism directed towards AFCON and CAF by Western supremacists, AFCON has excelled beyond expectations in ways that a US-hosted World Cup tournament administered by FIFA is failing to do.
It appears we need to remind FIFA that hosting a memorable World Cup tournament is a combination of so many factors. How well it delivers rests so much on the feeling of total satisfaction that everyone involved derives from the experience. A tournament cannot truly be deemed successful if the joy on the pitch is entirely overshadowed by frustration, exclusion, and administrative hostility off the pitch. For FIFA, it has been a case of so far, so poor.
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