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    Infantino’s latest Oval Office show reminds us Trump will be inescapable at the 2026 World Cup

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    When Donald Trump remained on stage, grinning in the sun as Chelsea lifted the Club World Cup trophy last month, it was all too easy to treat the incident as a one-off mistake. A moment that said plenty about Trump’s ego, sure. But ultimately, only a moment.Nope. It’s reality. Inescapable. Donald Trump will be everywhere Fifa is in the US, including at the 2026 World Cup – due to start in about 10 months, when Canada and Mexico will co-host.If this much wasn’t clear already after that moment at MetLife Stadium and all the other times Trump or his agenda have affected World Cup affairs, it may have become so after Friday’s Oval Office appearance with Fifa president Gianni Infantino – the eighth reported meeting between the pair since January, and the fifth to take place in public at the White House.Trump wore a signature hat reading “TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING” – one of his collection that was deemed noteworthy enough to display to world leaders in the middle of high-stakes talks with lives hanging in the balance. He then announced that the attention of the soccer world will once again be on him in December. On the fifth of that month, the World Cup draw will take place not at the Las Vegas Sphere as had been widely expected, but at Washington DC’s Kennedy Center – a historic venue and a worthy place to sort through some ping-pong balls, but also one that is now controlled by Trump, who has installed himself as chair, named himself as host of the institution’s annual honors, overseen upcoming renovations (“there’s nothing like gold,” he said on Friday in reference to his Oval Office redesign), and may soon lend his wife’s name to the opera house.“Some people refer to it as the ‘Trump Kennedy Center,’ but we’re not prepared to do that quite yet,” Trump said on Friday. “Maybe in a week or so.”The World Cup is not federally controlled like the Kennedy Center, but it will now be subject to a similar dynamic. The tournament Trump has taken credit for bringing to the US will take place under his presidency, with the draw and “big press conferences” happening in a venue he controls, put on by an organization run by someone looking to befriend Trump at every turn – including by becoming the Trump Organization’s tenant. There is almost no choice other than to accept that Trump will make sure he is front and center at this tournament – even in spots where he has no business, or where his involvement may be seen as uncouth or inappropriate. It’s a dynamic Americans know well now, more than a decade into Trump’s rise.After Trump’s announcement, Infantino allowed him to hold the single most valuable hardware in men’s soccer, the World Cup trophy – not unheard of for heads of state, but more uncommon when accompanied with Infantino’s comment: “Since you are a winner, of course, you can as well touch it.”Trump asked if he could keep the trophy afterward, and it was not immediately clear that he was joking, given that Infantino let him keep the Club World Cup trophy, where it has been on display in the Oval Office ever since.Trump made this latest World Cup announcement in practically the same breath as he expounded on his latest imposition on the American people – a strong-arm takeover of Washington DC, which he called a “crime-infested rat hole” despite the fact that the Justice Department had previously reported a 30-year low in violent crime in the capital. Trump continued to promote his crackdown later on, with the trophy directly in front of him on the Resolute Desk, as if it was a microphone meant to amplify his message. When Trump got to talking about immigration, Infantino moved the trophy out of the way.When prompted by Trump on Friday, Infantino – rather than demurring to comment on the domestic affairs of a foreign country – gave a solemn “oh yes” to express approval of the president’s plan for DC. It’s a plan Trump said he intends to spread to other American cities, mentioning Chicago specifically, but one can easily imagine that any city that voted against him – like 10 of the 11 US host cities for the upcoming World Cup – would be on the list.“Johnny”, as Trump calls Infantino, then gifted him a ceremonial ticket to the World Cup final – row 1, seat 1.Given all of this, expect the World Cup final camera to linger on Trump’s face longer than many of the players, coaches, and team staff who will have worked all their professional lives to get to that point.You’ll see him at the World Cup before then, too. He’ll boast endlessly about how well the tournament is going, only changing tack if things get so bad it’s obvious to everyone, in which case he’ll blame someone else (watch your back, “Johnny”). He’ll do at least one half-time interview on Fox, which is broadcasting the tournament in the US. Alexi Lalas, a big fan of Trump’s Maga movement, will shake his hand. Don’t rule out a gold-encrusted seat waiting for Trump at the final and any other games he chooses to attend.There can be no doubt now – the World Cup is not a guest in the house Trump runs. It is his plaything. And Fifa appears happy to do anything it takes for things to remain that way lest world football’s governing body be discarded or, worse, made a target.The World Cup, beneath all of the commercialism, is almost comically pure-hearted. It’s a celebration of the most popular sport in the world. It gives people across the world something in common to talk about, to bond over, to yell at. That feeling goes double for the host nations, and it’s a large part of the tournament’s singular power. It’s why it’s so coveted by countries that rule through authoritarian means – and that now arguably includes the US under TrumpIndelible, sublime moments will still happen at the 2026 tournament. People will still take joy, hurt, anger, and feelings from them. But those moments will be punctuated by Trump – eternally encroaching on even the most elevated of emotional experiences.If this news drives you to boo, ready your vocal cords. If it drives you to act, start thinking about what you want that to look like. If it thrills you, pace yourself. Whichever way, it’s time to get used to it. More

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      US state department says World Cup fans ‘want to see’ Donald Trump’s travel ban

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      A US state department spokesperson on Thursday claimed that attendees of the upcoming World Cup and Olympics should support the restrictions on travel from 19 countries ordered by Donald Trump.On Wednesday evening, the US president signed a sweeping order banning travel from 12 countries and restricting travel from seven others, reviving and expanding a policy from his first term.“I think people from around the world, and Americans going to these events, would want to see actions like this,” said US state department spokesperson Tommy Pigott at a press briefing on Thursday afternoon. “This is part of what it means to host an event. We take security concerns extremely seriously, we want people to be able to go to the World Cup and do so safely.”The order claims at various points that the restrictions are a response to supposed deficiencies in each country’s own vetting procedures. Pressed on Thursday on what relevance other country’s procedures had on the US’s ability to vet immigrants themselves, Pigott declined to elaborate.Nationals of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen will be “fully” restricted from entering the US, according to Wednesday’s proclamation. Meanwhile, the entry of nationals of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela will be partly restricted. The order is set to go into effect on 9 June.The order does contain an exception for “any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives, travelling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting event as determined by the secretary of state.” However, that exception does not explicitly cover a number of specific cases or situations that will be relevant for players from affected countries who intend to play in the United States.First, the exception does not specify whether the “World Cup” referred to in the order includes the Club World Cup, which starts this month and is being hosted by the US. Asked by the Guardian whether the Club World Cup – in which a number of players from the banned countries are due to play – was included in the exception, a state department spokesperson declined to comment other than to say they would not get into hypotheticals or specific cases.Fifa also declined to comment to the Guardian when asked about this distinction and whether the organization was involved in lobbying Trump to carve out this exception as part of the travel ban.The definition of “major event” is also left open to interpretation, making it unclear whether or not this summer’s Gold Cup qualifies. That tournament, the regional soccer championship for North and Central America and the Caribbean will feature Haiti, who are scheduled to play the United States in Austin, Texas on 19 June in addition to group games in San Diego, California and Arlington, Texas.A spokesperson for Concacaf, the confederation that oversees the Gold Cup, did not respond to a request for comment. The state department declined to comment.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe order also lays out a number of exceptions regarding current visa holders, providing a list of visa types for which holders will not be subject to travel restrictions. The P-1 visa most often issued to professional soccer players in MLS, the NWSL and other leagues is not listed among those who qualify for the exception, but specific type of banned visas are specified for individual countries in the order.Venezuela, for example, has various types of B, F, M and J visas that are banned under the order. That means that the order does not impact P-1 visas issued to nationals of Venezuela. MLS currently has three players on international duty with Venezuela. One, the San Jose Earthquakes’ Josef Martínez, became a US citizen last year. The other two, Inter Miami’s Telasco Segovia and LAFC’s David Martínez, are recent arrivals to MLS and do not yet have permanent residency. Venezuela are set to play a World Cup qualifier on Thursday night against Bolivia, and are scheduled for another at Uruguay on Tuesday 10 June – one day after the ban is set to be enforced.An MLS spokesperson declined to elaborate when asked if there were concerns about the Venezuelan players’ immigration status. Asked on Thursday if the travel ban could impact current US visa holders from these countries, Pigott said that the exceptions will apply on a “case-by-case basis.” More

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      Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump have taken the 2026 World Cup for themselves | Leander Schaerlaeckens

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      Two men held a press event in the Oval Office last week to announce a taskforce that would work to resolve the logistical problems surrounding the 2026 World Cup in North America, which were largely created by one of them.Both men were in their element. One, Donald Trump, received toady genuflection and a large, golden … thing (actually the Club World Cup trophy). The other, Fifa president Gianni Infantino, occasioned to bask in the proximity to real power, was affectionately referred to as “The king of soccer, I guess, in a certain way” by Trump.Theirs may be a marriage of convenience, but it seems to be a very happy one.At the event, Infantino made unsourced claims of an economic impact of $40bn and the creation of 200,000 jobs, all delivered by the 2025 Club World Cup and the subsequent World Cup proper. Trump demonstratively signed a piece of paper that made the World Cup taskforce official.The whole thing felt little more than symbolic. Such a taskforce doesn’t require a presidential decree, for a start. But also because Infantino knows full well, as did everyone else in the room, that the president is unlikely to rouse himself for a cause he seems to barely understand.“Can the US win?” Trump asked at one point, interrupting Infantino, who ignored the question.“First time it’s ever been in this part of the world,” proclaimed Trump, apparently referring to the World Cup. Never mind that three men’s World Cups have already been staged in North America – in Mexico in 1970 and 1986, and in 1994 in the United States.Infantino proceeded to theatrically show Trump the new Fifa Club World Cup trophy, a gaudy, golden behemoth that unlocks some rings orbiting its center with a key, which seemed to impress the president. Then the Swiss handed Trump an official match ball with the latter’s signature printed on it, tickling the last of the president’s erogenous zones that had not yet been activated.By the time he was done, Infantino had fully draped the tournament around one of his favorite strongmen. If it wasn’t already obvious, the 23rd edition of the Fifa World Cup will be remembered as The Donald Trump World Cup (trademark pending). Just as other mega-events have been hijacked for political ends, this World Cup will be leveraged for the glorification of a leader to a degree not seen since Benito Mussolini dominated the 1934 World Cup in Italy or the Videla regime’s stage crafting of the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. While a quarter of the matches will be hosted by Canada and Mexico – introducing a separate set of issues owing to Trump’s erratic saber-rattling with his neighbors – the dominant narrative of the tournament has seemingly already been set.View image in fullscreen“When we made this,” Trump said of the 2026 World Cup, “it was made during my first term, and it was so sad, because I said, ‘Can you imagine, I’m not going to be president? And that’s too bad.’ And what happened is they rigged the election, and I became president and so that was a good thing.” Presumably, he was referring to the 2020 election, which he lost with no evidence of rigging, and his subsequent re-election in 2024.It always seemed unlikely that the sport would be able to keep Trump from claiming soccer’s signature tournament as his own. But Infantino has seen to it that something like the opposite is accomplished instead. The Fifa president, the proud holder of the Russian Federation’s Order of Friendship medal, has written a type of playbook on cozying up to autocrats – or democratically elected heads of state with autocratic inclinations – and entering into mutually beneficial bargains with them. They are lent the World Cup for whatever stains they need to sportswash away and handed a place of prominence at the tournament’s key moments, and Infantino is given a pliant environment from which to source the profits that will keep his patronage machine humming.That same week, Fifa also announced that the World Cup final will be interrupted by a half-time show for the first time in its history. As well as casting its lot with a historically unpopular US president, Fifa will also indulge in all the worst impulses of American sports.The 2026 edition of the world’s biggest sporting event, which somehow retains its prestige and credibility despite the best efforts of its guardians over the last century, will already count more teams and more games than any before it. The notion of expanding from 48 to 64 teams for the 2030 edition has already been soft-launched at the Fifa council.More, more, more, until every last inch and second and ounce of the World Cup has been commercialized and monetized. This is what the full Infantino-ing of Fifa looks like, mirroring the Trump-ification of the next World Cup co-hosts. Each grifting as hard as they possibly can.After the Oval Office event, Infantino made another appearance with Trump, at a White House crypto summit. Infantino demonstrated his labor-intensive trophy again. And then he cut to the chase. “Fifa is very, very interested to develop a Fifa coin,” he told the roundtable of crypto people. “If there is anyone here who is interested to team up with Fifa, here we are.”Of course they are.

      Leander Schaerlaeckens is at work on a book about the United States men’s national soccer team, out in 2026.

      Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. More

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      in World Politics

      Journey to the World Cup: 6,500 Deaths and $220 Billion

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      The Fair Observer website uses digital cookies so it can collect statistics on how many visitors come to the site, what content is viewed and for how long, and the general location of the computer network of the visitor. These statistics are collected and processed using the Google Analytics service. Fair Observer uses these aggregate statistics from website visits to help improve the content of the website and to provide regular reports to our current and future donors and funding organizations. The type of digital cookie information collected during your visit and any derived data cannot be used or combined with other information to personally identify you. Fair Observer does not use personal data collected from its website for advertising purposes or to market to you.As a convenience to you, Fair Observer provides buttons that link to popular social media sites, called social sharing buttons, to help you share Fair Observer content and your comments and opinions about it on these social media sites. These social sharing buttons are provided by and are part of these social media sites. They may collect and use personal data as described in their respective policies. Fair Observer does not receive personal data from your use of these social sharing buttons. It is not necessary that you use these buttons to read Fair Observer content or to share on social media. More

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      in World Politics

      Athletes Shake Up Sports Governance

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      Sports governance worldwide has had its legs knocked out from under it. Yet national and international sports administrators are slow in realizing the magnitude of what has hit them. Tectonic plates underlying the guiding principle that sports and politics are unrelated have shifted, driven by a struggle against racism and a quest for human rights and social justice.

      The NBA Is Conflicted Over National Symbols

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      The principle was repeatedly challenged over the last year by athletes and businesses forcing national and international sports federations to either support anti-racist protest or, at the very least, refrain from penalizing those who use their sport to oppose racism and promote human rights and social justice — acts that are political by definition. The assault on what is a convenient fiction that sports and politics do not mix started in the US. This was not only the result of Black Lives Matter protests on US streets, but also the fact that, in contrast to the fan-club relationship in most of the world, American sports clubs and associations see fans as clients — and the client is king.

      From Football to F1

      The assault moved to Europe in the last month with the national football teams of Norway, Germany and the Netherlands wearing T-shirts during qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup that supported human rights and change. The European sides added their voices to perennial criticism of migrant workers’ rights in Qatar, the host of next year’s World Cup. Gareth Southgate, the manager of the English national team, said the Football Association was discussing migrant rights in the Gulf state with Amnesty International.

      While Qatar is the focus in Europe, greater sensitivity to human rights appears to be moving beyond. Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton told a news conference in Bahrain ahead of this season’s opening Grand Prix that there “are issues all around the world, but I do not think we should be going to these countries and just ignoring what is happening in those places, arriving, having a great time and then leave.” Hamilton has been prominent in speaking out against racial injustice and social inequality since the National Football League in the US endorsed the Black Lives Matter movement and players taking the knee during the playing of the American national anthem in protest against racism.

      Embed from Getty Images

      In a dramatic break with its ban on “any political, religious or personal slogans, statements or images” on the pitch, FIFA, the governing body of world football, said it would not open disciplinary proceedings against the European players who wore the T-shirts. “FIFA believes in the freedom of speech and in the power of football as a force for good,” a spokesperson said.

      The statement constituted an implicit acknowledgment that standing up for human rights and social justice was inherently political. It raises the question of how FIFA will reconcile its stand on human rights with its statutory ban on political expression. It makes maintaining the fiction of a separation between politics and sports ever more difficult to defend. It also opens the door to a debate on how the inseparable relationship that joins sports and politics at the hip like Siamese twins should be regulated.

      Georgia’s Voting Law

      Signaling that a flood barrier may have collapsed, Major League Baseball this month said it would be moving its 2021 All-Star Game out of Atlanta in response to a new law in the US state of Georgia that threatens to potentially restrict voting access for people of color. In a shot across the bow to FIFA and other international sports associations, major companies headquartered in Georgia, including Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines and Home Depot, adopted political positions in their condemnation of the Georgia voting law.

      The greater assertiveness of athletes and corporations in speaking out for fundamental rights and against racism and discrimination will make it increasingly difficult for sports associations to uphold the fiction of a separation between politics and sports. The willingness of FIFA, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), and other national and international associations to look the other way when athletes take their support for rights and social justice to the sports arena has let the genie out of the bottle. It has sawed off the legs of the FIFA principle that players’ “equipment must not have any political, religious or personal slogans.”

      Already, the US committee has said it would not sanction American athletes who choose to raise their fists or kneel on the podium at this July’s Tokyo Olympic Games as well as future tournaments. The decision puts the USOPC at odds with the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) strict rule against political protest. The IOC suspended and banned US medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos after the sprinters raised their fists on the podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics to protest racial inequality in the United States.

      Regulation

      Acknowledging the incestuous relationship between sports and politics will ultimately require a charter or code of conduct that regulates it and introduces some form of independent oversight. This could be something akin to the supervision of banking systems or the regulation of the water sector in Britain, which, alongside the United States, holds privatized water as an asset.

      Human rights and social justice have emerged as monkey wrenches that could shatter the myth of a separation between sports and politics. If athletes take their protests to the Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 World Cup, the myth would sustain a significant body blow. In December 2020, a statement by US athletes seeking changes to the USOPC’s rule banning protest at sporting events said: “Prohibiting athletes to freely express their views during the Games, particularly those from historically underrepresented and minoritized groups, contributes to the dehumanization of athletes that is at odds with key Olympic and Paralympic values.”

      The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy. More