Should you boycott the World Cup? – The Latest
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is The Guardian.
the kings of the world. We are a sports organization. We try to do our best. Maybe sometimes it's good as well to just, you know, chill.
It's really important to be able to carry two ideas that yes, this competition is built on greed and also that at its best, it is this wonderful unifying spectacle. The horror and the beauty come from the same place.
What controversies surround the 2026 FIFA World Cup?
From the Guardians today on Focus, this is The Latest with me, Annie Kelly. Johnny, Lou, you're a columnist and a sports writer for The Guardian. And after much anticipation, the 2026 FIFA World Cup is now underway. Billions of people are going to be tuning in over the next six weeks. This time around, it's being jointly hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico. But I think for many of us, you know, about to start watching it, it is already coming with some quite conflicting feelings. due to what's been happening in the run-up to the tournament starting. So what have been some of the controversies that have dogged this tournament already?
Gosh, how long have you got? I mean, obviously there's nothing new about going into a World Cup with this slight sense of unease. Eight years ago, we went to Putin's Russia. Four years ago, we went to Qatar. This time, where do you start?
How has the US immigration crackdown affected the tournament?
I guess the crackdown, the US immigration crackdown that has led to a referee being turned away at the border, players being questioned at customs, Iranian staff and their team not being able to stay on American soil, having to move their base to Mexico, the bans on fans from countries like Senegal and Haiti, who won't be able to travel to the tournament. Then, you know, you have things like ticket prices, you know, four figures, five figures even for some of the big games. You have little things like the prices of train tickets, shuttle buses, parking, this sense that a tournament that has always been thought of itself as being for everyone, global, universal, uniting, it's become a tournament essentially for the super rich, has shown its disdain to the ordinary fan.
So yeah, these are just a few of the issues before you even get into some of the sporting issues like the heat and... bloated 48-team tournament, which is going to lead to a lot of, I think, quite meaningless games, certainly in the final round of group games. So I think it all feeds into this sense that everyone has a favourite World Cup memory. Everyone has this idea of the World Cup idealised in their mind. Whatever it was supposed to be, it's not this.
What are the implications of FIFA's financial model?
I think a lot of the controversy has been the flashpoint of not allowing the Somali referee Omar Artan, a FIFA referee who had all of his paperwork in place, him not being allowed to enter the country and comments being made associating him with terrorist groups. That's been particularly shocking to a lot of people, hasn't it? And in response, we had FIFA's president Gianni Infantino saying, we are not kings of the world who can rule over governments and police forces. It's important sometimes to just chill. I mean, there have been examples of FIFA being able to exert pressure on host nations before in previous tournaments. But his response felt, you know, it kind of exposed what feels like a really stark power imbalance this time around between FIFA and the US, one of the host nations.
We haven't really seen this before, it doesn't feel like. Is it a bit more a case of, you know, FIFA needs America now much more than America needs FIFA? Yeah.
I think you're spot on.
How does FIFA's relationship with host nations differ this time?
And that's something that is particularly new about this tournament. You know, eight years ago in Russia... FIFA was able to persuade Putin to relax his incredibly strict immigration laws and allow fans traveling to the tournament, visa-free travel, free public transport across Russia. In the past, when Brazil were hosting in 2014, they were able to threaten local venues with the stripping of hosting rights if they didn't get their construction projects on schedule. FIFA has always been able to exert this leverage on host countries because, to a large extent, those countries needed the World Cup.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:44
2
What controversies surround the 2026 FIFA World Cup?
0:44–1:41
3
How has the US immigration crackdown affected the tournament?
1:41–3:00
4
What are the implications of FIFA's financial model?
3:00–4:00
5
How does FIFA's relationship with host nations differ this time?
4:00–5:00
6
Why was the Somali referee barred from entering the US?
5:00–5:58
7
What are the criticisms of FIFA President Gianni Infantino?
5:58–7:06
8
Will the controversies overshadow the World Cup matches?
7:06–12:47
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Today in Focus
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