Zohran Mamdani: Inside the New York mayor's love of soccer and what it means for World Cup 2026

Martin Macdonald

• Updated: 5 Nov 2025 09:30 CST
• 5 min read

Nieuws

On 4 November, 2025, Zohran Mamdani was elected Mayor of New York City.

He is the youngest mayor in four decades and also the first Muslim mayor of the Big Apple.

Upon being elected, he told all New Yorkers:

"Thank you, my friends! The sun may have set over our city this evening. But as Eugene Debs once said, 'I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.'

"For as long as we can remember, the working people of New York have been told by the wealthy and the well-connected that power does not belong in their hands. Fingers bruised from lifting boxes on the warehouse floor, palms calloused from delivery bike handlebars, knuckles scarred with kitchen burns. These are not hands that have been allowed to hold power. And yet over the last 12 months, you have dared to reach for something greater.

"Tonight, against all odds, we have grasped it. The future is in our hands."

Mamdani is clearly a very passionate man and it is his passion for socialism that was a major driving factor in his victory.

Did you know that he is also passionate about soccer, too?

New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani supports Arsenal

Yes, Mamdani is indeed a Gooner. Born Uganda, he moved with his family to New York at the age of seven, and it was thereafter that he began watching soccer and Arsene Wenger's Arsenal in particular.

“My uncle is an Arsenal fan,” Mamdani told the New York Times.

“He introduced me. Wenger was one of the first managers to really bring African players into the EPL. I grew up with Kolo Toure, [Nwankwo] Kanu, Alex Song, Lauren and Emmanuel Eboue.

"I had the Invincibles as magnets on my fridge. I loved David Seaman, Sylvain Wiltord, all these guys. I’ve gone to a few Arsenal games, many with my uncle. It really has been a big part of my life and my identity.”

A member of Football Twitter is now officially the mayor of the biggest city in North America. pic.twitter.com/ycZSxYnBa1

— Zach Lowy (@ZachLowy) November 5, 2025

In the past, he has tweeted from his personal account things like:

"Never thought I’d be more hopeful about socialism than Arsenal yet here we are." (2020)

"Coming to terms with the fact that this will be a season where my only pleasure will likely be Spurs Inevitable collapse." (2020)

“Just had a constituent sign my petition because I’m an Arsenal fan." (2024)

He's up-to-date and on-the-ball with what's happening in the football world despite being on the campaign trail recently.

Upon meeting interviewer Adam Crafton of The New York Times/The Athletic, he said "God Bless you, Ruben Amorim' as the Manchester United manager had just taken points off Liverpool in the title race, which obviously benefited his beloved Arsenal.

Mamdani takes on FIFA over ticket prices

Mamdani has pleaded with FIFA to lower ticket prices for the 2026 World Cup and to remove the dynamic pricing system in place which allows for prices to soar due to demand.

The 2026 World Cup will take place in the United States, Canada and Mexico and the final of the tournament will take place at the MetLife Stadium just a few miles outside New York in the state of New Jersey.

Fans planning to attend matches at the competition have been left 'astonished' by the exorbitant prices being charged.

When the first batch of tickets were released, split into four pricing categories depending on the location of the seat, the cost for group stage games ranged from $60 to $620. Ticket prices for the final at MetLife Stadium reached as high as $6,730, with even Category 4 spots going for as much as $2,030, according to The Athletic.

Since then, FIFA has opened an official secondary market in the US and Canada, and prices have skyrocketed even further due to the governing body charging a 15 per cent commission and not implementing a cap.

Mamdani believes the prices are leaving working class fans out in the cold.

"I’ve spoken to a number of New Yorkers who tried to buy tickets, and it wasn’t only an issue of just how unaffordable the tickets were, but also just the mess of that system," he told the Athletic.

"There’s a desperate need for more clarity and for more of a commitment that this be a tournament for people who already call the city home.

“Sport has been so commercialised and corporatised that fans have become viewed as a commodity. It is the place of leaders to step up when we see profit as the only motive, to an extent where so many who used to attend these very events can now not even conceive of doing so.”

Mamdani has started an official petition to football's governing body to low the ticket prices and overhaul the purchasing system.

“What I’m asking for in my petition is all precedented," he explained.

"This is how FIFA has operated in the past. These are demands to simply return to the ways in which they engaged with previous World Cups.

"We have become numb to the continued commodification of the game, where asking FIFA to just do what they’re doing in Mexico [prohibiting ticket resales] is seen as an audacious request.”

He added: “So much of what we celebrate about the atmosphere of a soccer stadium is tied to the affordability of that same stadium. We talk about cauldrons of noise becoming libraries. That is an economic story.

“It is a horrible experience as a fan to try to buy tickets. When I tried to buy tickets to the Cricket World Cup last year, which was taking place on Long Island, it was unbelievable how difficult it was and how much you had to engage with scalping as a fact of life.”