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The 2026 FIFA World Cup, hosted jointly by the United States, Canada and Mexico, is in full swing. It is the first edition of the tournament to feature 48 teams, and it has delivered drama both on and off the pitch. Turkiye stunned the host nation by defeating the United States in stoppage time, handing them their first defeat of the competition.
The tournament has been shadowed by a series of controversies from the outset. A travel ban affecting citizens of 39 countries, including World Cup participants Haiti, Iran, Ivory Coast and Senegal, prevented most ordinary fans from those nations from obtaining visas to attend matches in the United States. In one case, an Iraqi striker was detained for seven hours on arrival at Chicago airport, and a Somali referee was denied entry entirely.
Protests have also entered the stadiums. Anti-regime Iranians waved Israeli flags and chanted slogans during their team's matches, while Palestinian solidarity activists unfurled banners over a FIFA logo in Toronto, demanding that Israel — despite not qualifying for the competition — be excluded from the football association. FIFA responded by reaffirming that it allowed rainbow flags inside stadiums as a matter of human rights.
The World Cup has become a mirror of global tensions. Football, which has long sought to present itself as a force for unity, is struggling to remain above the political fault lines that are reshaping international relations. For many fans, the beautiful game has never felt quite so entangled with the world's ugliest conflicts.
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