After four years of waiting, the World Cup has finally arrived. For us football fans, it is a very captivating month. Sadly, the corporate capture of our beloved sport persists. Football has become a huge business, but in the last two decades, it has also become a geopolitical tool.
FIFA found the need to invent a “FIFA Peace Prize” to use as a sort of adulation tool to appease the president of the US, one of the three 2026 host countries. But this is only the cherry on top of a sundae that has been in preparation for decades.
This dance between geopolitics and football started long ago. The struggle between geopolitical powers that use the tournament to push their political agendas with the complicity of the media, has been at plain sight for at least a decade.
Corruption in FIFA’s circles had been known for many decades but was only fully revealed in 2015 in the scandal known as FIFAgate, when it was clear that the 2010 decision of appointing Russia and Qatar as hosts to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups would not be reversed — as the West had been pushing for.
The time had come to use this leverage to tell us how these ‘adversary’ countries are bad, with strong narratives presented by Western media.
Russia was banned from all FIFA tournaments in 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine. This is not limited to their professional and national teams, but it extends to all categories, including children. How keeping children from competing favours world peace is beyond any reasoning.
Regardless of what one thinks about these measures, the most important point to be made here is the lack of consistency.
Wars that include blatant war crimes for which the International Court of Law has expedited arrests orders, in addition to invasions and occupations, all initiated by Western actors are not only not met with the same kind of measures, but no reaction is even being discussed at all.
Qatar’s widespread problems with abuse of migrant workers were constantly on the news loop (as they should be), with calls for boycott of the tournament.
Although, to provide a little context to the matter, 90 percent of Qatar’s population consist of foreigners, and most of them are migrant workers. This being the case, almost every problem related to workers’ rights is bound to be inflicted on a migrant worker.
Today, the US is one of the hosts, a country that in addition to constantly being in the driving seat in wars of aggression, kidnap sitting presidents and support occupation and ethnic cleansing at the top of the list, does not possess the best record precisely when it comes to migrant workers, or migrants generally.
Referee banned, team HQs switched, tickets invalid
We have all seen the dehumanising raids, the children in cages separated from their parents, arbitrary detentions, racial and cultural profiling and the lack of due process that land detainees in foreign prisons with questionable human right records.
In the days before the tournament, we saw national teams banned from staying in the US, their logistics personnel are being barred from entry, even fans’ tickets are being invalidated.
One of Africa’s best referees has become the face of this discrimination, as he has been denied entry because his name read similar to persons with links to “terror”.
Those who make it through are subjected to hours-long interrogations, humiliating controls and body examinations instead of being treated as the ambassadors for peace and brotherhood among nations they really are.
Imagine if any of this had happened in previous hosting countries. Yet, few western media are talking about it, there is no call for a boycott nor narratives to condemn its government.
Do you remember when the German national team posed with their hands over their mouths? Do you remember when Norway made headlines with calls to boycott the World Cup? Do you remember when Denmark wore kits with toned-down logos?
The US’ identity as a host is not being challenged. Our governments, corporations and international institutions invoke human rights when convenient, while profiting from systems of extraction and injustice.
This paints also a very clear picture of the collusion between our media and power. The hypocrisy is sickening, and we must demand to be better than those we criticise.
Watching our beloved sport comes increasingly with a bad taste. I want to believe another world is possible — one built on peace, solidarity and human dignity, and yes, let us be the initiators of change. But bravery dictates that we must look into ourselves, if not we are just bullies.
The struggle for a fairer society must start from within and not stop at the stadium gates.
