Gianni Infantino stated it with the utmost certainty last summer. “Everyone is welcome at the World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States next year.” The president of world football association FIFA, the tournament organizer, heard “a lot of misunderstandings” about it, he said during the annual meeting of the African continental association CAF in August. “It is good to correct that.”
It is of course inevitable that fans will have to deal with a “process they have to go through for a visa,” the Swiss football boss told his audience in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. “But that process will go smoothly and guarantee that everyone who qualifies [naar het WK] can come with fans.” He spoke of a tournament that “will unite the world.” An occasion that “brings teams and countries together.”
Now that the world championship is about to start, little of that hospitality is visible for the time being. Reports appear almost every day about foreign visitors being stopped at U.S. Customs or turned back.
Travelers from countries that are generally subject to an entry ban or significant restrictions in the US in particular have difficulty entering. Aymen Hussein, striker for the Iraqi national football team, was interrogated by US Border Patrol agents for seven hours last Saturday before being allowed into the country. The photographer who traveled with the team did not enter the country.
The entry problems make it painfully clear that FIFA’s usual approach is to protect host countries and their rulers as much as possible to please in this case does not have the intended effect for the time being
The Iranian football association FFIRI announced on Tuesday that the tickets it had received for matches of its own team had suddenly been withdrawn. Iran has had a difficult political relationship with the US for years, a situation that has only worsened since the US-Israeli attacks on Iran began at the end of February.
The Iranian team therefore previously decided to move its base to Mexico, but will play its group matches in Los Angeles and Seattle. For its own matches, a national association usually receives 8 percent of all available tickets, to distribute among fans. That sale had already started, says the FFIRI, when it suddenly turned out that the tickets were invalid. It is unclear who decided this, FIFA said to the BBC that she is working on a solution.
Last weekend it also emerged that although all players of the Iranian team will receive a visa, the application of several staff members has been rejected, meaning they cannot participate in the group matches.
Flattery
The entry problems make it painfully clear that FIFA’s usual approach is to protect host countries and their rulers as much as possible to please in this case does not have the intended effect for the time being. Traditionally, the World Football Association is guaranteed that the red carpet will be rolled out for players, staff, fans and organization in exchange for compliments and warm relationships.
That is why FIFA President Infantino has emphatically sought Trump’s company since this tournament was awarded to the US. He repeatedly described the American president as a “friend”, attended his inauguration in January 2025 and opened an office with FIFA in Trump Tower in New York. After it turned out that the American president did not receive a Nobel Peace Prize, FIFA came up with its own peace prize to please Trump. He received it last year during the World Cup draw, a decision that led to criticism and ridicule worldwide.
At first, Infantino’s flattery seemed to work. In the year leading up to the World Cup, promises followed that World Cup visitors from countries that do not normally enter the US could now obtain visas, and that the waiting time for applications would be shortened. It was expressly promised that immigration service ICE will not intervene around stadiums. And when Infantino single-handedly announced at the end of April that Iran could participate in the World Cup, Trump responded mildly a day later. “Did Gianni say that? He’s one of them,” he laughed. But: “If Gianni says it, then I agree.”
It is now clear that mutual friendship has limits, and that Trump does not intend to suspend the strict immigration policy so that FIFA can organize a carefree football party. Even in the case where the person affected is affiliated with the football association itself, such as the Somali referee Omar Artan.
Referee Omar Artan is cheered by fans on his return to Somalia.
Photo ANP / EPA
He was named the best referee on his continent a year ago, but was turned away by customs in Miami on Saturday because border control officials said his screening posed problems. Artan himself denies thatin conversation with the New York Times. “I had the right papers, the right visas.”
FIFA immediately and without protest accepted the decision. In a brief response, the association said that it is “not involved in the entry procedures of a host country.” And so Artan was missing a day later, at the reception meeting for the referees and linesmen selected for the World Cup. Present there, in a bright pink sports shirt: FIFA president Gianni Infantino. “We are here to support you,” he emphasized in a short speech. “I am on your side.”