Watch: Empty seats and closed borders? FIFA’s high-stakes bet on a divided America
While the football elite rub shoulders in Washington, the game is hitting a physical and metaphorical wall at the US border. International teams, referees and everyday fans find it difficult to see the games which start today. What’s going on there?
Published on 11/06/2026 - 9:40 GMT+2
FIFA president Gianni Infantino must love the view from Trump Tower. He rents a Manhattan office there, wears MAGA red ties and is called by Donald Trump “the king of soccer”.
FIFA expects to pocket more than three billion dollars from ticket sales and hospitality alone. But corporate pricing has broken the marketplace. Ticket packages to follow a team to the final are now estimated to cost five times more than four years ago.
Moreover, nearly 180,000 tickets are flooding the official resale market, and median resale prices have plunged by 20% in a single month.
But the biggest bust is happening at border security check points. Infantino’s sports diplomacy means nothing to US immigration officers enforcing hard travel bans against four qualified nations, including Iran and Somalia.
US border agents just locked Somalia’s top referee in a cell for 11 hours before throwing him out of the country. Iraq’s star striker was detained in Chicago for seven hours. Even the Iranian squad is stranded, training across the border in Tijuana because Washington refused visas to 15 members of their staff, including the head of the football federation.
Ultimately, the very definition of a global sporting event is being rewritten before our eyes. The opening week proves that football doesn’t unite the world; it’s national borders and strict immigration laws that are defining who gets to play and who stays home.
Can FIFA hold this highly tournament together? Tune in on tonight to find out, as Mexico opens the tournament playing against South Africa.
And remember, Euronews will be covering the games and the whole political sideshow surrounding them for you.
Watch the Euronews video in the player above for the full story.
