Greetings, reader!
Well, the 2026 World Cup in men's football ended last Sunday. A World Cup always provides some unforgettable moments, from Geoff Hurst's hattrick in the 1966 final and Maradona's hand of God in '86 all the way Zidane's 2006 headbutt and the vuvuzelas and jabulani of 2010. While this tournament was strikingly different from its predecessors in many regards, it's no different in the sense that there were, once again, many highly memorable moments. Here are the top 30 defining moments from the 2026 World Cup that the football world should never forget!
30. Team USA defeats free speech 1-0 with its journalist visa bullshit
Granted, Freedom of Speech hasn't been a top contender in the World Cup for a while, between the debacles of the 2018 World Cup in Putin's Russia or 2022 in Qatar. Hopes certainly weren't high this time either, with one of the three host countries being the United States - a nation that loves to preach "freedom" while taking freedoms away.
In a tactical move as cunning as an offside trap and as vile as stoppage time time-wasting, the Trump regime confirmed its victory over freedom of the press by requiring a journalist visa for any influencers who traveled to see the World Cup and share content from the games. And this wasn't limited to social media influencers either - many legitimate journalists from Iran and various African countries were denied visas and couldn't attend the tournament after all, despite having their papers in order.
29. Tiki Taka tactics in transportation
Football is a complex sport - some teams play in tight-knit formations while others spread their players wide; play in a predictable manner but efficiently enough to be unstoppable, while others focus on surpising and confusing the opponent. In a truly bizarre combination of wide-spread formations and confusing strategies, the U.S. threw out the rulebook when it came to infrastructure and transportation lessons learned from previous World Cups.
The United States, a country whose current leaders mercilessly mock third world countries every chance they get, proved to be a disasterclass of incompetence themselves, by totally dropping the ball on their host nation responsibilities regarding infrastructure and transportation. Regular fans, accustomed to stadiums that are well-integrated into their cities, had to battle severe gridlock, car-centric layouts with little options for public transport or walking, and outrageous travel fares from stadium to stadium with no special arrangements made for, y'know, the World Cup. But hey, at least Infantino got to fly from game to game on his private jet!
28. Artificial intelligence (90+5)
You know how we've all always watched football and went "Hey, this is fairly cool and all, but it's really missing a component where we see what the ref sees and water-wasting AI technology is used to enhance the image"? Well, that ever-prevalent issue sure has been fixed now! In a classic example of FIFA's ironclad ability to read a room, it's amazing how our prayers were answered just as the world was ranting about how having AI dominate the spaces of music and other arts isn't enough, and that we definitely need that shoved into football as well!
27. Visa bonds park the bus against nonwhite countries
In football, it's important to keep the opposing team's attackers from scoring in your net - and in Trump's United States, it's important to keep people from countries you don't like from coming into your country even when you're supposed to be f**king hosting the World Cup. In a defensive block as infamous as prime Beckenbauer, the "host" nation used its devastating visa bond system to make this happen.
People from countries affected by the regime's racist travel ban, like Algeria, Senegal and Cape Verde, have had to pay a 15 000 dollar visa bond to travel to the States. It was waived for some ticket-holding fans depending on the country, but affected many more, so that many players had to enter the competition without family or personal support because their loved ones couldn't afford the outrageous fee.
Thousands of fans with plans to travel to the World Cup had their visas denied, many with completely arbitrary reasons and despite having the required paperwork - and as you can imagine, FIFA is trying its best to wash its hands of accountability. What did they think would happen when they choose to have the World Cup hosted by a regime that hates immigrants?!
26. Take that, armbands!
French manager Didier Deschamps had to miss his team's final group stage match, as his mother had just tragically passed away. The French football association had requested that the team could wear black armbands in honor of Deschamps' mother - and the request was denied by FIFA. This one might seem almost trivial when compared to many other fiascos from this tournament, but it does add to the overall middle finger that FIFA keeps showing to the football world. Especially when contrasted with the fact that Argentina requested to wear special blue armbands as a 1986 throwback in order to intimidate England for the semifinal - and FIFA did approve that one?!
At least by a quick google search, I couldn't find any reasoning from FIFA for why they denied the very reasonable request for a nice gesture - I'm sure if there was profit involved, they would've been all over it. Simply mourning a dead family member was probably too humane for blood-sucking vampires like Infantino to comprehend. I'm guessing not a soul will be mourning him when he's gone.
25. Haiti’s badge fuckery
Sure, capitalism may the biggest MVP for why this World Cup was the way it was, but imperialism is a close runner-up whose value can't be understated. Out of the countries competing in this farce of a World Cup, very few have faced as much hostility from the Trump regime as Haiti, and as an extra reminder of what a colossal dick of a host nation the U.S. decided to be, Trump had his buddy Infantino demand that Haiti changes its jersey. Because the original jersey was deemed too political.
For those wondering, the political element in question was a visual depiction of a battle in the Haitian revolution, largely regarded as the first successful slave revolt and the creation of the world's first free Black republic. Of course, it makes sense that a giant of imperialism like the U.S. wouldn't want such imagery celebrated, but still...really, FIFA? Too political? Just as a reminder, here are elements from this World Cup that weren't deemed too political for FIFA's taste:
- Argentine players waving a "The Falklands belong to Argentina" banner after beating England, facing zero consequences despite longstanding precedent of FIFA sanctioning players for promoting political messages
- A fascist regime handpicking who can come and enjoy the tournament based on what country they come from
- Games being played in stadiums that are just a few miles away from ICE concentration camps
- A fascist dictator making the tournament all about himself, even intruding on the winning team's trophy lift
- The same fascist dictator getting a goddamn "peace prize" from a criminal enterprise masquerading as a football association, while waging war and bombing civilians in the Middle East
But yeah, sure, let's force Haiti to change their jersey, because that's the real issue here.
24. Senegal and Uzbek players bravely dribble past border checkpoints
Players from certain teams had to face much scarier opponents than any centre-back when participating in the tournament - border officials working for a xenophobic U.S. government. When players from teams like Senegal and Uzbekistan arrived on U.S. soil, they were treated like criminals, down to full cavity searches for no good reason. Call me crazy, but a country whose leadership fears people from other cultures in such a blatantly hateful fashion has absolutely no f**king business hosting the World Cup.
23. A brilliant, if unintentional, advertisement for women's football
While I ended up following the tournament like a trainwreck you can't look away from, the magic of the World Cup felt extremely damaged at best - ever since I started following football as a little kid, this tournament was always a major high point of the summer. In 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022, I remember filling out brackets before the first game had kicked off, and I fondly remember which teams played on opening day and what the score was and where I was watching it. This year, it felt different and somehow tainted due to the piss-poor job that the U.S. did as hosts, and that is a sad reality for any football fan to face.
However, there's a massive silver lining - I only started to properly follow women's football some years ago (the Veikko of the past apologizes for being a bad feminist, but hey, never too late to grow, right?), so I'm still getting used to the idea of a World Cup actually happening twice every four years. And I'm guessing that I'll channel all of the magic and hype that I missed out on this year right into the women's World Cup, played in Brazil, in the summer of 2027! I mean, I was going to follow it anyways, but the crappiness of the men's tournament in 2026 definitely serves as a further advertisement for the much less problematic world of women's football.
22. The shocking early elimination of Iraq's team photographer
There are always some surprise parties who don't make it into the tournament - this year they included the Italian national team, the Denmark national team and...several staff members of teams who did make it into the tournament but from countries that the Trump regime doesn't like?!
A glaring example is Talal Salah, the official photographer of the Iraqi national team. Upon arrival in the Fourth Reich, Salah was detained and questioned for 10 hours, and ultimately denied entry into the country. Salah himself, as well as the Iraqi team, maintained that he had his paperwork in order, and the U.S. customs never gave a proper reasoning other than "vetting concerns" for this seeminly arbitrary and cruel denial. Just imagine the outrage if this had happened to the team photographer of a country that the western media cares about...
21. A red card...for the Palestine FA?
The World Cup is an event that is supposed to bring the world together and celebrate unity between cultures. And nothing says 'unity' quite like 'entry denied because of the country that you represent'! Jibril Rajoub, the head of the Palestinian Football Association, had planned to attend the tournament, but the U.S. denied his visa - you guessed it - without any good reason. He was able to attend a game in Mexico, at least, but still - generally, host countries don't make a big point out of denying entry to delegates from the football world. It's almost like a country with a xenophobic government shouldn't be hosting a worldwide sporting event...
20. What the football world really needed - cracking down on those pesky fans
One of the many feel-good stories from the world of international football has been that of Michel Kuka Mboladinga - DR Congo's most iconic superfan, who would stand completely motionless for the entire duration of each game as tribute to independence hero Patrice Lumumba. Congolese fans were excited to see Mboladinga do his thing on the world stage - only for him not to make it, you guessed it, because his visa was denied. He applied for it plenty of time via the correct channel, and once again, no public comment was given as reasoning for the denial.
Now, if you're wondering why the U.S. is denying all these visas without giving proper reasoning - sure, it could be that the gimmicky Congo fan and the Iraq photographer and the head of the Palestine FA as well as thousands and thousands of regular fans are all terrorist masterminds whose secret plans must be redacted for national security. OR, and bear with me here; these fascist dickheads think they can do whatever they want and treat people like garbage without consequence. Of course, if that was true, that would mean that the system that put them into power is deeply corrupt and evil and should be completely dismantled...
19. New breakout stars for polluting industries
Remember when football started out as a fun little recreational activity among English industry workers? Oh, how far we've come - now that the Midas touch of capitalism has its hands all over the beautiful game, it's not just the game itself we get to enjoy - there's also the sponsors, such as Saudi Aramco, the main sponsor of the 2026 World Cup! Amidst deadly heatwaves and floods, this fossil fuel giant got to use the world's biggest football stage to further its rise as one of the biggest oil companies and nature polluters on the planet.
Sure, there might not be a World Cup a hundred years from now because the planet is fucked and the people with the power to stop it are actively making the crisis worse, but who cares - for a beautiful moment, deals like the Saudi Aramco sponsorship is gonna make a lot of money for those who already have way too much of it at the cost of a livable planet for future generations, and at the end of the day, isn't that what sports are all about? Wait, what's that - that's not what sports are supposed to be about? Oh dear.
18. FIFA shows us a glimpse into the future
Okay, so maybe this wasn't quite the best World Cup after all. But hey, maybe FIFA will learn from its mistakes now? Like, after the controversy of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and the even bigger mess of 2022 in Qatar, and the *even* worse shitshow of 2026 in the U.S., maybe they'll steer away from corrupt deals with authoritarian states?
On first glance, things actually do look positive, as the 2030 competition is set to be hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco. But once you dig deeper, you realize why we most definitely need to keep holding FIFA accountable: the organization is currently slaughtering thousands and thousands of stray dogs in Morocco, as a means up "cleaning up its streets" ahead of competitions, with current estimates projecting that FIFA will kill over a million dogs in the country leading up to 2030. And for 2034, the World Cup is set to played in Saudi f**king Arabia, another totalitarian state who got the job via shady and blatantly corrupt dealings with FIFA. Times like this remind me of that time when John Oliver was asked how he can hate FIFA even though he's a football fan, and he replied "I hate FIFA because I'm a football fan". Ain't that the truth.
17. Brilliant new tactics, like the "hydration breaks"
Ahead of a World Cup, it's always fun to speculate what strategies the teams will use to get ahead - defensive or attacking-oriented, straight-forward street football or elegant tiki taka, 4-4-2 or 5-2-3 et cetera. With this year's tournament, however, the most cunning tactics didn't come from the squads playing the games at all, but rather from the tournament's true winners - the capitalist ruling class, making the filthy-rich even filthier-richer by taking advantage of a beautiful sport.
One of the many tactics utilized by Corporations FC was the evil-genius move of introducing "hydration breaks". In football terms, this is similar to the False Nine - it appears to be one thing at first glance (a striker / a means for the players to stay hydrated), while actually serving a completely different purpose (dropping to a playmaker role / a means to run more ads). The introduction of hydration breaks may have disrupted the flow of several matches while making zero sense especially in those games that weren't played in heat, but it did however generate hundreds of millions of dollar in ad revenue! Not to mention, this did make the game more accessible for the current culture in the central host country - like some wise soul on Instagram said, there's something unsettling about a society that can't go 22 minutes without an ad break.
16. The ironclad partnership between the Trump regime and FIFA
I won't even go into the most glaring specific cases here, as they deserve their own entries further down the list. But, already in general - no partnership from this World Cup, from Spain's centre-backs Cubarsi & Laporte to France' attackers Dembele and Mbappé, was as unstoppable, dangerous and in complete lockstep with one another as presidents Donald Trump and Gianni Infantino.
I'm guessing that the foundation for their friendship is either their shared trait of a complete lack of human morality, or then their shared love for cheating, bribery, mass murder and hoarding amounts of money that you could fix world hunger with. In any case, they clearly saw the value in each other and their partnership throughout this tournament - they're stronger together, with both helping the other get richer and more powerful at the expense of the rest of the world.
15. A bizarre moral victory for...Russia and Qatar?!
Look, I'm not writing this to defend Putin's Russia or the authoritarian Qatari government, because they don't deserve that. I'm rather using them to make a point of how far-out the United States' utter failure as a host nation was - if you make the aforementioned host nations look good in comparison, you know you've really fucked up.
For all of the very deserved criticism that the 2018 and 2022 World Cups got, at least they f**king let fans from all over the world come and watch the competition. Measures were taken to make tickets affordable, travel restrictions and VISA processes were eased instead of tightened, and fans were able to travel to the stadiums without spending their life savings on travel fares. A clear factor in this comparison is Gianni Infantino - in 2018, FIFA demanded that Russia restructure its immigration system to make it easier for fans to travel, and in 2022, FIFA negotiated with Qatar to make the rules and restrictions a bit less tight than the host nation wanted - but in 2026, because Infantino and Trump are best buddies, the organization let the Trump regime do whatever the fuck they wanted while Infantino hid between the myth of powerlessness.
This comparison also highlights a complete double standard in the western media when it comes to criticizing host nations. Remember what a fit the football community and sports media threw about beer being banned from stadiums in Qatar? That was made out to be a bigger deal than people being banned in the 2026 World Cup.
And do you remember how loud the criticism over Qatar's treatment of the LGBTQ+ community was in 2022? Don't get me wrong, it's good that it was loud, but here's the thing - I haven't heard half as much talk about the United States' treatment of the LGBTQ+ community in the context of this tournament, even though hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills were filed in the country just last year, the country is currently estimated to be one of the most dangerous countries in the world for trans people, and the regime is actively demonizing the rainbow community and regularly advocating for violence against us. That makes me think that a lot of the 'critics' from 2022 didn't really give a flying fuck about LGBTQ+ rights, but rather wanted to find flaws in a Muslim country while failing to see the same flaws in a white western nation.
14. The strongest defensive block of the tournament - ICE
What a fun time it was for Americans to enjoy a World Cup hosted by their home country - well, that is, except for everyone who couldn't go out and join in on the festivities due to ICE's presence near stadiums and fan areas. While there weren't many news stories about ICE going overboard during the tournament, there were quite a few stories leading up to the tournament about migrants residing in the U.S. who were afraid to participate and who "knew that they aren't welcome" - what a massive, massive sign that their country has failed them.
It's no wonder that ICE's wildly unchecked actions throughout this year have stoked enough fear that many members of immigrant communities opted to stay home for their own safety. Is it dreaming too big to hope that the World Cup would be hosted in a country where everyone, no matter what their skin color, can go outside and soak in the World Cup atmosphere without fear of being snatched by masked government agents?
13. Pulisic and company make history playing in a major tournament without spines
This is an inspiring tale for all of us - if you ever feel like the cards are stacked against you, just remember that the United States Men's National Team advanced all the way to the Round of 16 under the heartbreaking condition that every single one of their players was born without a spine, or had their spine removed at some point during their lives. Don't believe me? Just look at the facts pointing to spinelessness: while they happily represent their country in major sports, said country is being lead by a fascist, racist and thoroughly evil administration - and not one of the players, at any given point, even a little bit, entertained the notion that maybe the racist, rapist, convicted felon leading the country isn't the best guy in the world.
I've seen people online defending the U.S. players by saying that it's not 'realistic' to expect them to make political points while focusing on a major tournament - and that's pretty f**king hilarious, because the U.S. Women's team has absolutely no trouble making their values clear (it helps that they actually have some). This makes the women's team easy for us Americans who care about human rights to support, and by comparison, makes the men's team look like a group of pathetic cowards! Then again, the women's team is a whole different story...they actually win trophies, for one thing.
I don't know if the complete lack of criticism towards the Trump regime was because the players are secretly MAGA supporters, or because they privately dislike Trump but were afraid to speak out - and honestly, I'm not sure which option is worse. The first would mean that they support a government that has a masked Gestapo shooting civilians in the street and grabbing innocent kids from their homes, but the second would mean that they are such weak-willed, miserable urchins that they're content watching the rise of fascism in their country as long as their rich, privileged asses remain unaffected.
Actually, I thought of the perfect metaphor for the U.S. Men's team. Back in junior high school, I was bullied a lot. I remember resenting the bullies, and I remember equally resenting those fellow students (and some of the teachers as well) who saw the bullying take place and didn't do anything to stop it. That's the U.S. Men's team. Every single one of them, from Pulisic and McKennie to Balogun and Ream, is no better than a schoolteacher standing by as a defenseless kid is bullied, knowing that they could say or do something to help the kid, but actively choosing to ignore the situation. Fuck them.
12. The tournament offers a nostalgic trip down memory lane...all the way to 1936 Berlin
In 1936, Hitler's Nazi Germany hosted the Olympics. The regime clearly understood the power of sports as a propaganda tool, as they spent shitloads of money to make the event all flashy on the outside, so that they could showcase their power (and the supposed greatness of a white supremacist society) to the rest of the world. The regime tried to balance between a delicate double-edged sword - on one hand, use the beloved sporting event to distract from their human rights abuses and polish their international reputation, but on the other, use the platform of the tournament to market their far-right society to the world, and to spread the word of authoritarian rule and white nationalism.
ANY OF THAT SOUND F**KING FAMILIAR?!
Now, I do have to admit that I'm being a bit unfair with this comparison, as there is one key difference. In 1936, the international community still had some balls, so several countries boycotted the Berlin Olympics, and while the event still ended up happening, the boycott movements did counteract Hitler's goal of using the event to legitimize his regime at least to some degree. Ninety years later, the big difference is that each and every country was happy to oblige and join the Nazi government's propaganda event.
11. The misuse, nay, ABUSE of VAR
This entry goes less into the wonderful world of geopolitics and late-stage capitalism, and more into the realm of pure football critique. Sports-wise, it was a decent tournament by many merits - but the way in which Video Assistant Refereeing was used made me absolutely livid. Mind you, I’ve generally been on the side of VAR since its inception, and have defended it to many fellow fans of the sport on many occasions - so the glaring flaws in VAR usage during this tournament felt, if you’ll allow me to be a tad melodramatic, like a personal betrayal.
I get using VAR to check offside situations, penalty calls and other such high-stakes, grey-area situations that the referee might have missed when it happened. I even get, to *some* degree, using VAR for the rule that a goal can be disallowed if the attacking team committed a foul leading up to it - but in this World Cup, they went so ridiculously fucking overboard with that rule that all logic, consistency and respect for the game flew out the window.
Two perfect examples are Egypt’s disallowed third goal against Argentina, and Norway’s disallowed goal against England. In both cases, the referee saw the foul when it happened, and chose not to whistle - and later, when a goal is scored, they go back and decide that the ref should have called a foul before, so therefore the goal shouldn’t stand. A call like that, in a World Cup knockout match that’s decided by the margin of one goal, should only be done with very a heavy reasoning: the referee has made the call for the game to go on, after which the team has worked hard to score a vital goal, and it’s unfair as hell that the team who scored gets punished for the referee’s incompetence. Both of the fouls in these examples were a bit of a grey area - I could see them being called as a foul, or letting play go on. But neither one was nearly clear enough to justify taking the scored goal away, especially when the referee initially refused to make the call himself. I absolutely despise this direction - why are we even using human referees at this point, if their job is to just let the game go on and fucking wait until a goal is scored, and then scan if anything shady happened in the preceding minutes?
10. Iraq's star striker pocketed by U.S. border officials
"If America is so hostile towards foreign nationals, why is it hosting the 2026 World Cup?". That is what Iraq's stiker Aymen Hussein had to say, after being detained and questioned for seven hours upon arriving in the States. And if you're wondering - no, Hussein isn't a terrorist or a criminal mastermind, and there were no real grounds for subjecting him to this. Apparently the geniuses who are working to keep our borders safe had mixed him up with someone with the same name.
Mind you, this was the first time since 1986 that Iraq had gotten into the tournament - one can only imagine how excited the players and staff were to participate, and for them to be treated like this is an utter disgrace. At least Hussein wasn't denied entry into the country, like their team photographer, but still...they can't keep getting away with this.
9. A last-minute VAR check rebukes fan ticket allocations
FIFA has a system in place to ensure that a proper amount of fans from each competing country can get in - ticket allocations for fans from each country in the World Cup. This has gone over quite smoothly in previous World Cups, but to the surprise of absolutely no one, the Trump regime said "hold my beer" and figured out a way to ruin that as well.
Some ticket allocations were cancelled by a website error that FIFA didn't bother to rectify, and some were more devious - due to the war being waged by the Trump regime in Iran, Iran's ticket allocation was withdrawn just days before the tournament started, leaving several fans who had made plans to travel to see the World Cup unable to attend. Iran's football federation made quite the damning statement: "Depriving Iranian supporters of access to their lawful and official allocation of tickets is an action contrary to the spirit governing international competitions and the principle of equality among participating countries. This development raises serious questions about the interference of non-sporting and political considerations in the organization of the world's biggest football event".
8. The peace prize debacle
Months before the tournament began, it became pretty clear where it all was headed - in a ceremony in Washington DC, Gianni Infantino presented the first-ever FIFA Peace Prize to recipient Donald J. Trump. Yes, the same Donald Trump whose regime has spent 37 billion dollars waging an ecologically catastrophical, civilian-killing war in Iran, while funding and enabling Israel's ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. I don't even know where to begin with this one - asking why the fuck is a goddamn football organization giving a fucking peace prize in the first place is a good place to start, I suppose, but especially when the recipient is a war criminal of the highest order - if FIFA had any credibility remaining, they certainly lost it at that point, leaving the World Cup looking just as bleak as it ended up being.
7. Record-breaking stats in *checks notes* ticket prices
Tickets to this World Cup were, by average, many times more expensive than they have been in any previous World Cup. This outrageous rise in ticket prices made the tournament heavily inaccessible for a large portion of the world's football-watching population, especially when combined with the fuck-you VISA bonds implemented on certain countries. Even without those hurdles, it cost thousands of dollars to get a single ticket for a single game.
Now, there are many reasons for this jump in ticket prices, and they are exactly the ones you'd guess. Simon Chadwick, professor of Afro-Eurasian sport at Emlyon Business School, credited the phenomenon mainly with FIFA's decision to have the U.S. as the host country and have 78 of the 104 matches be played there: where many other host nations might look for ways to make the competition accessible and affordable, the U.S. saw a pathway to profit, profit and more profit. The dynamic ticket pricing model that was used made it possible that ticket prices sky-rocketed to quite astronomical amounts, and the powers that be saw no reason to change this - it made money for those calling the shots, and the possibilities of a regular fan to attend a football match were obviously of no interest to them. It's almost like the world of football shouldn't be run by ultra-greedy capitalists...
6. Was it rigged for Argentina? At this point, there's no way to know
Argentina's path to the final, and particularly their round-of-16 match against Egypt, generated tons of controversy and lots of conspiracy theories. And no wonder why - as many have pointed out, every other team that made it to the quarter-finals had roughly a 50-50 split in VAR decisions in their favor and VAR decisions against them, with the sole exception being Argentina - zero VAR decisions, against them, throughout the group stage and knockout stages. Every single time a VAR ruling had to made in an Argentina game, it favored them.
Even if you don't buy a full-fledged conspiracy theory, it's easy to believe a so-called 'soft conspiracy' - Mr. Infantino and the infamously corrupt FIFA leadership had made their support of Argentina clear, so it's easy to imagine that referees were scared to do their jobs in an objective, unbiased manner. The questionable decisions definitely raise questions: why was Egypt's third goal against Argentina ruled out due to VAR noticing a fairly soft foul committed in the minute leading up to the goal, but Argentina's goal in the next 10 minutes wasn't disallowed even though they committed a nearly identical foul in the lead-up to that? Why were there no VAR checks for not one but two incidents in the penalty box that most experts agree should've been awarded as a penalty for Egypt? Why was the yellow card for diving, which referees almost never resort to, used specifically to give a second yellow to Switzerland's most dangerous striker, sending him off right when their game against Argentina was tied? Why weren't the players flying the political Falklands banner banned from the next match, despite FIFA's precedent? Why did Leandro Paredes receive only one yellow card in the final, despite committing four or five fouls clearly worthy of a yellow?
And here's the most daming thing of all: FIFA has no benefit of the doubt. The Balogun fiasco, which I'll get to later, showed us how brazenly FIFA can manipulate the rules of the game to fit its own narrative. If bullshit like that wouldn't happen, it would be easy to say "Hey, there's no way they're rigging the games, because why would they do that? And would they really get away with it?". But from the utterly reckless and completely inconsistent handling of football rules we've seen this tournament - rigging the games in favor of Infantino's favorite team is not something one would put above them. I'm not necessarily saying that they did rig the games - I'm just saying that it wouldn't surprise me in the least if they had, because they had the means, motive and opportunity, and they have showed themselves to be capable of rigging games and lost all reason for anyone to trust them. And that's pretty f**king heartbreaking.
5. Actually getting football fans to root for a referee for the first time ever
Somalian referee Omar Artan was chosen as the Confederation of African Football's men's referee of the year in 2025. He had gotten a lot of acclaim for his officiating in the African Cup of Nations, the CAF Champion's League and the World Cup qualifiers. After years of hard work, he was chosen as one of the top-tier referees who get to officiate in the 2026 World Cup - the highest possible honor for a referee, and something that had always been Artan's dream.
Then, just days before the tournament began, the Fourth Reich banned him from entering the country. No reason was given, even after widespread criticism and condemnation, other than "vetting concerns". Artan had his VISA in order and everything, but no can do - one cannot simply enter American soil unannounced (well, except for the time when the country was literally founded by white people fighting other white people on stolen land). The worldwide football community tried their best to rally behind Artan and appeal to FIFA, but once again, Infantino hid behind the myth of powerlessness and said that nothing can be done. The fact that the Trump regime can pull such a heinously racist act so brazenly and publicly, to a well-known figure with the whole world watching, really makes you wonder what they do to people behind closed doors in ICE detention centers.
4. The Balogun strategy
Kudos to the U.S. Men's Team for this brilliant new tactic! I wonder why any other team hasn't tried this before - if you get a red card and the suspension that comes with it, simply have your head of state call FIFA and ask them to recind the suspension so that your star player can play in the next match! Oh, wait - it might only work if your head of state happens to be best buddies with the FIFA leadership, due to their shared love for corruption and bribery.
It's not as if I had bags of trust in FIFA before this moment, but any shred of credibility that they had was thrown out of the fucking window with this disgraceful act. Folarin Balogun, the best players in the U.S. team, should've been suspended for the knockout game against Belgium, because of the red card that he got in the previous game - that's football rules 101. Yet it all changed when Trump literally called FIFA, asking them to make an exception - and the pathetic, groveling lizard people working for that criminal organization thinly disguised as a sporting association went "okay, sure". Thankfully the team still took a 4-1 beating - if they had progressed forward (or, God forbid, won the tournament) due to this match-fixing, I'd be on the barricades demanding that the results of this sorry excuse for a World Cup be completely discarded from all records.
FIFA's treatment of England made the already outrageous situation even more inconsistent and messy - when Jarell Quansah got a red card in the same round, his one-match ban was extended to the duration of two matches, so that in addition to missing the quarter final, he remained mysteriously suspended for the semi-final against...you guessed it...Argentina.
3. Okay, even I must admit...there were some good parts
If you're wondering why this post is so overwhelmingly negative, there are a couple of reasons: A) I feel like a majority of western media has glossed over the World Cup's scandals and focused too much on the feel-good parts so that people wouldn't get too introspective, and as ridiculously small as this platform of mine is, I wanted to do my part to counteract this for the sake of balance. And B) as painful as it is to come to this conclusion as someone who generally strives to be optimistic - I genuinely believe that the negatives weigh more when it comes to this World Cup. I care about football a lot, but I care about human rights a hell of a lot more.
All of this being said, I do want to use exactly one of these 30 data points to admit that yes, there were positives in this tournament. That doesn't make the problems around it any less serious - but it does offer a much-needed ray of hope. As much as Trump and Infantino tried, they weren't able to completely ruin the beautiful game - they've damaged it for sure, but football still stands tall. So, here are a few moments from the tournament that were unforgettable in a positive way!
Cape Verde’s incredible run, and the heroics of their goalkeeper Vozinha. Every single Netherlands players running to Cody Gakpo to celebrate the vital goal he scored just days after a personal tragedy. Bellingham being moved to tears each time the crowd chanted ”Hey Jude”. Ferran Torres scoring the winner. And, of course, Jordan Henderson getting a yellow card and an injury despite playing zero minutes, due to celebrating too hard after England beat Mexico.
2. The utter humiliation of the Iranian national team
Many records were broken during the 2026 World Cup, and here's the one we should be talking about the most: the United States became the first country in history to bomb a country while hosting the same country's game in a World Cup match.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Whatever your thoughts on the Iranian government and the geopolitical situation may be, I'd hope we'd all be on the same page concerning the World Cup: a team of players that fought their way through the qualifiers and into the tournament should get a fair shot of playing the f**king tournament. After Trump himself started the war on Iran, he spent time throughout the spring to try and influence FIFA to kick Iran out of the tournament - and when this didn't go through, his regime used all resources at their disposal to make the tournament as unfairly stacked against the Iranian team as possible.
This was seen in the extra-sweeping VISA denials to fans and backroom staff, and most glaringly, in the unforgivable treatment of the team itself: just days before the tournament, they were notified that they're not allowed to reside on American soil for any other time than the actual games they play. After this, the Iranian FA made a plea for their group stage games to be moved to Canada or Mexico, but this was denied - meaning that they had to make camp in Mexico, and travel to the U.S. on the day of each game to play the game, and then travel back right after the game. This throws a sports team completely out of whack, with no similar opportunities for ideal preparation and recovery rhythms that all the other teams got to enjoy.
I was also frustrated with the complete double standard we saw across western media: instead of focusing on the football, every possible interview with Iranian players, staff and fans was full of questions on whether or not they support their government and what their thoughts on their home country's politics are. That in itself would be fine, if we all agreed that football is political and wanted consistency, but you guessed it: I didn't see one single goddamn journalist asking the U.S. players about their thoughts on the Trump regime. They got to focus on the game, whereas the Iranian players were humiliated and treated as political pawns in a propaganda-101 show of force.
1. And finally, the big winners: late-stage capitalism and white nationalism
I'm glad that Spain won the tournament, but I'm much less glad about the other 'big winners' from this World Cup project. When all is said and done, what I'll remember most from this tournament won't be Olise's playmaking, Bellingham's goals, or Cubarsi's tackles - it'll be the imagery of fans being told they wasted their money on tickets and VISAs as they're not able to enter the country after all, of Trump bragging about how he rigged the game in the USMNT's favor, of games being played on stadiums just a few miles away from ICE concentration camps. Some might say that this is because I'm a bummer and a party pooper, but I maintain that I try to be a glass-half-full guy whenever possible - but this f**king regime is making it very, very hard to focus on the positives. I can't look away when I see people being mistreated and human rights being taken away, and this World Cup was filled to the brim with racism and fascism that I can't help but see that as the biggest takeaway.
The hardest part to swallow is that so much of the cartoonishly evil, openly corrupt fascism genuinely worked. If it didn't, it would be easy to laugh at Trump and company and call them losers - but the fact is that they got exactly what they wanted from this tournament, and it looks like they're facing zero consequences for everything they did to the beautiful game and its fans.
Trump's billionaire oligarchs got a hell of a lot richer thanks to the inhumane ticket prices, unethical sponsor deals and the prioritizing of ad revenue over the beautiful game at every possible turn. Racists had a great tournament, with countless news stories reminding that at its current state, the U.S. can and will treat people from countries they don't like with hostility and disdain, and there seems to be nothing anyone can do about it. And the Trump regime got a massive propaganda win, showcasing a heavily glorified version of the current state of our union to the world, with western media spending much more time ooh-ing and ah-ing at the big stadiums and overall spectacle than looking at the human rights violations right beneath the scenes. Who cares about children being gunned down in schools and getting snatched away from their families by masked government agents, when we get to watch a fun, feel-good propaganda half-time show where children sing about love in the last country in the world that has any f**king right to preach such a message?
To the actual winners on the football pitch, I say congratulations: the Spaniards played beautifully and deserved it. And to the winners of the game behind the game, trying to ruin a sport many of us hold sacred with their worship of profit and/or white supremacy - I hope for them exactly what they hope to the poor, to the children, to people of different cultures and ethnicities.
Thank you for reading! Tune in next week for a ranking of the major performances in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.
