Sports are supposed to be a place where people from around the world can unite under a common love. The epitome of this unity is the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial soccer tournament that transcends in a global celebration of the beautiful game. However, recent tensions are challenging that unity.
The 2026 Men’s World Cup will be cohosted by Canada, Mexico, and the US and will feature an updated format that includes 48 teams instead of the previous 32, making it the largest in history. The US will host 78 of the 104 games, but recent immigration crackdowns pose serious threats to the well-being of visitors during the tournament.
The US is in a state of extreme political and social turmoil, which is in part contributed to by controversial immigration policies introduced under President Donald Trump. In his second administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has increased operations and launched aggressive, nationwide deportation efforts that impact tens of thousands.
Trump also instituted a travel ban that restricts the entry of citizens from 12 countries, and put partial constraints on others. His draft list of a new ban includes 43 countries. Iran, which has already qualified for the World Cup, is among the countries banned from entry. The increasingly aggressive immigration policies restrict the inclusivity of the World Cup.
While athletes are exempt from travel bans, the millions of others who typically travel for the tournament are not. The games in the US are predicted to draw over six million visitors across the 40 days of the tournament, including fans from every corner of the world, journalists, players’ families, media personnel, and more. Over the course of a few months, countless visitors have been detained or turned away by the US Customs and Border Protection. These types of detentions are not slowing down; if anything they are occurring more frequently.
Furthermore, for citizens of many countries, travel visas are required to enter the US. However, wait times for visa interviews at US embassies around the world are extremely high. Some countries, such as Colombia, Turkey, and Morocco, all of which are World Cup contenders, have wait times over a year long. Because of increasing policies restricting entry into the US, the inclusivity of the tournament is also being restricted.
Many have been joining the movement to boycott the US’s hosting rights and have urged FIFA president Gianni Infantino to reconsider. The movement has warned FIFA against repeating their pattern of complacency in human rights abuses, such as the death of thousands of migrant workers during preparations for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and the rampant anti-LGBTQ discrimination at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Thus far, FIFA has not condemned Trump’s immigration policies or human rights violations. In fact, Infantino expressed alignment with Trump, claiming that alongside him, he would “make the entire world great again,” taking Trump’s divisive, “Make America Great Again” slogan and expanding it to a global scale.
While commenting about the upcoming World Cup, Vice President J.D. Vance stated, “I know we’ll have visitors probably from close to 100 countries. We want them to come. We want them to celebrate. We want them to watch the game. But, when the time is up, they’ll have to go home. Otherwise they’ll have to talk to Secretary Noem,” referring to US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. The statement was not only a threat to foreign visitors, but a reminder of the US’s harsh immigration enforcement and the danger that may arise for visitors.
The US hosting the biggest global sporting event during a time in which systemic dehumanization and social unrest are extremely prominent poses a threat to the unity that the World Cup is supposed to represent. Instead of serving as a celebration of global inclusion, the current US administration is standing as a manifestation of exclusion.