On June 11, the FIFA World Cup 2026 kicked off in Mexico, which along with the US and Canada is hosting the tournament this year, marking an effort to showcase continental unity.
Yet the idea of co-hosting was seen as absurd from the start, because one of the host nations appeared difficult to integrate. The US maintains strict visa policies and travel bans on citizens of many countries, heightening the socio-economic exclusivity inherent in the tournament and shattering the illusion of international friendship that the World Cup is expected to foster.
The US-Mexico border is heavily militarized. President Donald Trump once threatened to bomb and invade Mexico, calling Mexicans criminals, drug traffickers, and rapists. In 2019, the New York Times reported he suggested US troops shoot migrants and build moats filled with alligators along the border.
After his re-election in 2025, Trump shut the US border to asylum seekers and economic migrants. A young man I know from Michoacán, Mexico, had to pay $10,000 to human traffickers to be pulled over the border fence into the US.
Meanwhile, Mexico is pouring enormous resources into the costly tournament rather than searching for more than 134,000 missing people, most of whom disappeared after the US-backed drug war launched in 2006. The deployment of Mexican security forces around stadiums—forces criticized for human rights abuses—has also stirred resentment.
FIFA itself is controversial: President Gianni Infantino presented the first FIFA Peace Award to Mr. Trump in December 2025. Since October 2023, Israel—backed by the US—has killed about 73,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including at least 421 football players. Mr. Trump subsequently kidnapped the Venezuelan president, launched war with Iran alongside Israel, and provided financial support for Israel’s new assault on Lebanon.
Canada, though portraying itself as an innocent neighbor, has also been criticized for complicity in the genocide and arms transfers to Israel.
Just before the tournament, Iran’s football federation announced that visas for 15 of its staffers were denied, and tickets for Iranian fans were canceled. Somali referee Omar Artan was also denied entry. Citizens of Haiti could not travel to the US to watch their team compete.
The Iranian team had to base itself in Tijuana, Mexico, only able to enter the US to play matches and then leave, mirroring the Trump-era 'Remain in Mexico' policy.
The World Cup has always been political. This year, the US border runs straight through the tournament, and that is anything but good.
