The World Cup of Exclusion Begins - With the most expensive tickets in history, vetoes against foreigners, and submission to Trump, FIFA writes one of its most controversial chapters.
ICL Columnists
The World Cup of Exclusion Begins
With the most expensive tickets in history, vetoes against foreigners, and submission to Trump, FIFA writes one of its most controversial chapters.
11/06/2026
Imagine a government that dismantles democracy, invades sovereign countries, threatens allies and enemies, breaks international agreements, kills foreign leaders, strangles minorities, cuts social spending, kidnaps presidents, makes people in its own country disappear, applauds and finances ethnic cleansing, humiliates the most vulnerable.
That is where, today, the biggest event on the planet will take place: the 2026 World Cup. Supposedly created to celebrate humanity, the tournament has become a mirror of a government whose guiding principle is exclusion.
The World Cup, which will have 80% of its matches in the United States, reveals the hypocrisy of FIFA, the international community, and the heralds of human rights. A few years ago, when Indonesia attempted to bid to host the World Cup, its refusal to guarantee that Israeli athletes would be allowed into the country led FIFA to immediately disqualify the bid.
Now, the refusal of the U.S. government to grant visas to a referee, suspend ticket sales to Iranians, or carry out humiliating inspections of national teams from African countries has not even received a statement of condemnation from FIFA.
In South Africa in 2010 or Brazil in 2014, football’s governing body practically suspended domestic laws to impose its own rules. Today, the World Cup will be hosted by a government that dictated the rules of the event.
The tournament is also taking place in a country at war. Hours before the ball starts rolling, a wave of missiles was launched against Iran.
The scandals surrounding the 2026 World Cup did not begin this year. Almost a decade ago, when FIFA voted to hold the event in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, officials were confronted with an important decision: whether or not to expand the World Cup to 48 teams.
At that conference, the executives found a dossier in their hotel rooms. In it, two elements were presented by FIFA’s technical staff.
The first stated clearly: expanding the World Cup would reduce the quality of the tournament.
But there was a second element to consider: the unprecedented expansion would allow FIFA to increase its profits by US$1 billion.
Between money and the good of football, the officials chose the obvious: money.
Over the years, with the unprecedented sale of broadcasting rights and advertising contracts, FIFA turned the 2026 World Cup into an unprecedented money-making machine: US$13 billion.
Greed transformed the event, which had in fact been becoming an increasingly exclusive celebration in recent editions. But nothing compared to what 2026 would show the world.
With ticket prices at unprecedented levels, the World Cup became an event for the global elite. The greatest celebration of the most popular sport on the planet simply became inaccessible to billions of people.
In an official complaint sent to the European Commission last month, the European supporters’ group Football Supporters Europe alleged that the minimum cost for a fan wishing to follow their team from the opening match to the final would be US$6,900 just for tickets — five times more expensive than in Qatar.
For the final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on July 19, the most expensive ticket will cost US$10,990, almost seven times the price of the most expensive ticket for the 2022 final in Qatar. Trying to defend itself, FIFA states that more than one thousand tickets for the final were sold for US$60.
Economically and politically, the event is marked by exclusion. The “anti-World Cup,” transformed into a political weapon for an authoritarian regime, will be a spectacle only in the imagination of fans around the world, forced to follow the celebration through television screens.
Gianni Infantino, FIFA’s president, will also go down in history as the one who chose “pragmatism” to save his event. He sealed an agreement under which Donald Trump would be flattered. In the name of billions of dollars, he gave up FIFA’s own rules and any ethics. He sold football and his soul.
On Wednesday, at the press conference that traditionally precedes a World Cup, one of his statements will echo in history books when future generations discuss how such an event chose to close its eyes to the advance of white supremacists.
“Maybe sometimes it is better to simply relax,” said Infantino.
But supporters will not give up football, only be expelled from the stands. Football always reserves surprises for the hosts. Subversive by nature, sport generally does not forgive. Ask Jesse Owens and Hitler’s disappointment.
History, meanwhile, will look back at 2026 and ask: how did that generation choose to ignore the crimes and simply celebrate the goal?
In Trump’s United States, FIFA chose to write another shameful chapter in its history — in a trajectory filled with absurdities.
Cruzando fronteiras com refugiados, testemunhando crimes contra a humanidade, viajando com papas ou cobrindo cúpulas diplomáticas, Jamil Chade percorreu mais de 70 países. Com seu escritório na sede da ONU em Genebra, ele foi eleito o segundo jornalista mais admirado do Brasil em 2025. Chade foi indicado 4 vezes como finalista do prêmio Jabuti. Ele é embaixador do Instituto Adus, membro do conselho do Instituto Vladimir Herzog e foi um dos pesquisadores da Comissão Nacional da Verdade.
https://iclnoticias.com.br/comeca-a-copa-da-exclusao/
