You cannot host the world and refuse to let it in. The FIFA World Cup is supposed to make the world feel small: billions of people, 200-plus nations, and one shared language of football. It is a global festival of belonging. Which makes what is happening at America’s borders right now not merely an embarrassment but a fundamental contradiction at the heart of the 2026 tournament.
The United States lobbied to host this World Cup. It won the bid, spent years preparing, and marketed itself as a showcase of American hospitality. Then it turned the world away.
Sport does not exist in a vacuum. But there is a difference between geopolitical tension existing as a backdrop to football, and the host nation’s immigration system being the main villain of the story
Not criminals. Not threats. Fans. Officials. Referees.
Omar Abdulkadir Artan is Africa’s CAF Best Male Referee of 2025, one of 52 FIFA-selected officials for this tournament and the first Somali ever appointed to a World Cup. He arrived at Miami International Airport from Istanbul on 7 June, carrying a valid visa. He was pulled aside, declared “inadmissible due to vetting concerns,” and sent back to Istanbul. He will not be at this World Cup. Somalia is on Trump’s travel ban list.
That, apparently, was enough. Iran’s team spent months in diplomatic limbo, relocating their training camp to Mexico after 14 federation officials were denied visas. Paraguay’s fans, returning to the World Cup after a 16-year absence, bought tickets in celebration, applied for visas in hope, and are now reselling those tickets from home. Countries from Brazil to Morocco to Iraq have all seen fans, staff, or officials caught in the same bureaucratic trap.
And all of this at the most expensive World Cup in history.
Tickets start at $400 and reach nearly $11,000 for the final. Hotel prices across host cities have surged 328% above normal summer rates. The average cost of attending a single match, including a ticket, travel, and two nights’ accommodation, is $5,440. Some cities charge the equivalent of a month’s rent for one seat. International fans were already being asked to pay an extraordinary price. Millions were also expected to navigate visa applications, background checks, and biometric processing just to get through the door.
Many didn’t bother. Nearly 80% of hotels across US host cities are reporting bookings below expectations. International attendance is lagging behind domestic. A survey found that 49% of global respondents said the US hosting the tournament made them less excited. These are not the numbers of a successful World Cup host.
FIFA has distanced itself, noting that “a host government ultimately determines who is admitted into their country.” That is technically true and morally hollow. FIFA awarded this tournament. FIFA selected Omar Artan. It cannot indefinitely hide behind sovereign immigration law while cashing the checks.
The World Cup will go ahead. There will be great football and genuine moments of joy. But it will also be remembered as the tournament that turned away Africa’s best referee at the airport. It will remember the bad hospitality of the US and how expensive it was. The one where fans sold their tickets because America said no. The one that asked the world to spend thousands of dollars, then declined to let parts of that world through the door.
Future FIFA host selection must include binding visa facilitation commitments, not just for athletes but for fans, journalists, and officials from every participating nation.
You cannot host the world’s tournament and simultaneously decide which parts of the world are welcome.
