FIFA’s World Cup: How the World’s Biggest Sporting Event Became a Global Grift

Gianni Infantino, president of the Federation International Football Association (FIFA), at the Semafor World Economy Summit during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Spring meetings in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, April 15, 2026. The International Monetary Fund downgraded its growth projection for the year after the war in the Middle East triggered a major oil shock and included the possibility of a downturn if the conflict drags on and energy infrastructure is severely damaged. Photographer: Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

The FIFA World Cup is the world’s richest clown show. Recently run by people investigated for international criminal conspiracy, now run by people who ask to be treated like the Pope on a visit to Canada. Bought and paid for by dictators for decades, sustained by those who see its mandate over the world’s most popular sport as the ultimate source of power and sportswashing. Yet it has managed to be completely unfunny even in its incompetent, institutional idiocy, always dipping its disgusting toes into matters that defy even the realm of comedy.

You find yourself laughing at it out of delirious shock, before realizing what horrific realities lie beneath the face paint and red noses. I can’t really “criticize FIFA” as I would, say, the Las Vegas Raiders, because FIFA’s misdeeds exist on such a galactic scale that I can’t actually do them any justice.

There are a billion reasons to boycott the 2026 FIFA World Cup, but I’m not asking you to do that. I am even tempted to say I won’t enjoy it, but I know I will. The World Cup is entertainment genius; it’s the world’s prodding, calculating, beautiful game distilled into a single chaotic flow, national pride and eternal glory for the victors. It is the greatest spectacle on earth, the peak of every player’s career. And it is being stepped on like a cockroach.

Yes, we will enjoy the World Cup, but we will enjoy it in spite of everything I am about to tell you. And it is within that dissonance, our enjoyment leeched upon by subsurface repulsion, that we find suffering instead of celebration.

It seemed impossible that the 2022 World Cup in Qatar could be topped in terms of pre-tournament issues — it spawned a standalone Wikipedia article titled: “List of 2022 FIFA World Cup Controversies.” But the 2026 World Cup in North America has not even begun, and yet it is a mortal lock to be categorically insane.

Whereas the Qatar contest was the result of documented corruption, graft and secrecy, 2026 is the out-in-the-open sequel. For instance, President Donald Trump, the winner of the spectacularly not-illustrious FIFA Peace Prize, will surely be the event’s main character given his cozy association with the much-maligned FIFA president Gianni Infantino and their perfectly matched egomania. And he will be the mascot of the event even despite the depravity of his immigration crackdown that will threaten the security and human rights of soccer fans who