The World Cup, kicking off on 11 June, is shaping up to be one of the most controversial editions in the tournament’s history. Co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, it is being held against the backdrop of record-high ticket prices, the threat of ICE immigration raids and calls for a boycott of the competition altogether. With 11 of the 16 host cities in the US, and 26 of the 32 knockout games on US soil, domestic tensions are heightened.
President Trump’s hardline immigration policy, FIFA’s new market-rate ticket pricing model, and FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s warm relationship with the US president have shifted attention from football to the political tensions of Trump’s second term. Public calls for a boycott of the tournament have grown in recent months. Writing in The Conversation, academics tracking the movement noted that the case rests on a mix of immigration concerns, human rights questions and Trump’s foreign policy threats against allies including Canada and Greenland.
Critics point to fatal ICE shootings of civilians, a chilling effect on travellers from majority-Muslim and African nations barred under Trump’s travel ban, and proposed visa rules that would require visitors to surrender five years of social media history along with passwords for their email and apps. Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has joined those backing fan-led boycotts. In contrast, France and Germany’s football federations have ruled out any official action.
Even fans travelling to the tournament face a surge in ticket prices compared to previous years. The cheapest ticket costs around £300, and the most expensive for the final is nearly £8,700. FIFA’s new dynamic pricing model lets prices rise and fall with demand, and the body takes a 30 percent commission on resales.
One final ticket was listed on the official platform for £8.5 million. Gianni Infantino has defended the pricing model as essential to fund the development of football worldwide. The most serious concern lies in travelling to the US.
Under Presidential Proclamation 10998, fans from four of the qualifying nations are barred from entering the United States, with players and immediate family granted narrow exceptions. These nations are Iran, Haiti, Senegal and Ivory Coast. A separate Visa Bond programme, expanded in April, now requires nationals from 50 countries to lodge bonds of up to £11,000 before travelling.
Given the hostility surrounding ICE’s role in tournament security, FIFA management has asked Infantino to request a suspension of ICE activities for the duration of the tournament. The ICE director has previously told Congress that the agency will play a “key part” in tournament security. A union representing 2,000 hospitality workers at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles has threatened to strike unless FIFA secures a public commitment that ICE and Border Patrol will be kept away from games.
Whether these pressures on Trump will produce concrete results this close to the tournament is unclear. Despite these calls, Infantino has maintained a close relationship with Trump in recent years. He attended Trump’s second inauguration, opened FIFA’s New York offices in Trump Tower, and last December created a “FIFA Peace Prize” for the president at the World Cup draw.
The tournament will sell out stadiums and provide the spectacle it always has. However, this time it risks being remembered less for the football than for the politics, the profit and the policing that surrounds it. For all the talk of FIFA “uniting the world”, the 2026 World Cup may end up doing the opposite: showing just how divided football, and the world it claims to bring together, has become.