The 2026 World Cup will be held in Canada, Mexico and the United States. It will feature 48 teams (up from 32) and will consist of 102 matches. As FIFA expands its global footprint with a larger, more lucrative 2026 tournament in North America, the organization’s willingness to placate powerful leaders is raising questions about who really benefits.
Kansas City, Missouri will be hosting six matches at Arrowhead Stadium. The following commentary World Cup is by Randy Gould, editor and chief reporter for the Kansas City-based Oread Daily email newsletter.
“The World Cup is coming to Kansas City next year. It probably shouldn’t. Daytime soccer in Kansas City in the summer won’t be all that much fun.
“The heated world has arrived. We do not have any domed stadiums here, so if we are in the middle of summer heat in this new hot era, maybe the games could be rescheduled for like 3 AM!
“I don’t know if people are noticing that sporting events are more and more often being canceled due to extreme heat. Hmm, what should we take from that in regard to the soccer World Cup?
“We should take from that exactly what Dave Zirin’s article headlined ‘FIFA Is Abusing Its Players to Keep Authoritarians Happy’ makes clear. Gianni Infantino, and the rest of the top FIFA brass simply are unconcerned with the well being of the players. They just do not care, despite the concerns raised by many players and others.”
As Zirin reported, “By holding the Club World Cup in the extreme summer heat—in the offseason for most of the 32 clubs involved—FIFA demonstrated blatant disregard for the health of the players.”
Zirin added: “FIFPRO, the global players union that represents more than 60,000 professional footballers worldwide, has long slammed FIFA for valuing petro-dictators’ bottom lines over the well-being of the athletes. Back in 2023, the union noted that the Club World Cup schedule ‘demonstrates a lack of consideration for the mental and physical health of participating players, as well as a disregard for their personal and family lives.’”
Gould: “Infantino does care about cozying up to the rich and powerful. He enjoys the company of authoritarian dictators. He is more than happy to kiss Donald Trump’s ass time and time again.
“Once again, the spectacle of global sport masks the brutal machinery of power, profit, and authoritarianism. In its relentless drive to court petro-tyrants and authoritarian strongmen, FIFA has once more revealed itself as not merely complicit in oppression — but actively enabling it. Zirin’s piece exposes how football’s global governing body has sacrificed player safety, worker rights, and even basic human dignity on the altar of authoritarian appeasement and corporate greed.
“Why would the world’s best soccer clubs even play in the FIFA Club World Cup? The answer is money.”
Zirin points out that “The tournament total prize money pool has $1 billion in it, with $525 million doled out to clubs simply for participating and another $475 million allocated based on results. …. Manchester City, owned by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the Abu Dhabi United Group, reportedly walked off with nearly $52 million just for reaching the final 16 of the tournament. The winner of the tournament will nab a cool $125 million.”
Gould: “Whether it’s the almost slave like conditions for stadium workers in Qatar, the gagging of political expression, or the weaponization of tournaments by regimes like Saudi Arabia, Erdoğan’s Turkey, and Trump’s USA, FIFA continues to function as a de facto propaganda ministry for the world’s most repressive governments. While players are expected to shut up and entertain, their labor—and their bodies—is commoditized in service of soft power and profit, not solidarity or sport.
“This is not just a sports story. It’s another chapter in the global assault on democracy, workers, and dissent — another instance of top-down structures silencing bottom-up voices. There is no area, no space these days that capital has not taken over. The same systems that crush unions, bulldoze Indigenous land, and surveil dissidents in the USA and numerous other States are draped in FIFA banners and presented to us as celebration.
“Oh well, apparently the model of the 1936 Nazi Berlin Olympics has been seized upon by FIFA today.”
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This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Bill Berkowitz.