10 controversies that currently surround the 2026 World Cup

Martin Macdonald

• 6 Dec 2025 06:45 CST
• 9 min read

Analysis

The 2026 World Cup will be an entertainment spectacular, for good or bad, the likes of which the football world has never seen before.

It will be the biggest ever edition of the tournament, with 48 nations set to complete in fixtures across the United States, Mexico and Canada. That's an increase of 16 teams from the previous World Cup in Qatar in 2022.

Obviously, there is excitement among football fans for the action on the pitch, but there are controversies that threaten to overshadow the tournament as a whole between now and next summer.

Extreme Heat

The Club World Cup took place in the summer of 2025 during a heatwave and players and coaches raised their concerns about the conditions.

During Juventus' clash with Real Madrid in Miami, head coach Igor Tudor said ten of his players asked to be substituted with temperatures reaching 30°C and humidity 70 per cent, while Dortmund boss Niko Kovac said he was "sweating like I've just come out of a sauna" during the victory over Mamelodi Sundowns.

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca joined the chorus of complaints. Ahead of Chelsea's Group D match against Esperance in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Blues boss said: "It is almost impossible to train or to make a session because of the weather. Now, we are trying just to save energy for the game."

"I had to lie down on the ground because I was really dizzy," added Enzo Fernandez after Chelsea's semi-final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

"Playing in this temperature is very dangerous!"

Four games a day will take place in the group stage so at least two will be played under the beating sun.

Trump's Peace Prize

Donald Trump was awarded the inaugural 'FIFA Peace Prize' at the 2026 World Cup draw in Washington, D.C.

The award was presented to Trump by FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who has become a close associate of the US president over the past few years.

The 'FIFA Peace Prize' acknowledges “individuals who have helped to unite people all over the world in peace”.

Many believe it was created to feed Trump's ego as the eyes of the world looked upon the ceremony in Washington D.C.

Travel Bans and Visa Issues

Trump's crackdown on immigration is in the news every single day and stricter border controls will have an effect on travelling fans.

When the 2026 host nations were confirmed, Trump confirmed that "all eligible athletes, officials and fans from all countries around the world would be able to enter the United States without discrimination".

That is the case...for some.

Fans from the United Kingdom and the EU will be able to travel without a Visa due to the Visa Waiver programme. However, that initiative hasn't extended to fans from Asia, Africa and South America, all of whom will need to apply for an official Visa to travel to the tournament.

Infantino and Trump previously announced a new fast track 'FIFA PASS' system that will allow World Cup match ticket holders to be given priority visa appointments.

Visa appointment can take up to a year to be scheduled, but the new system puts ticket holders to the front of the line and appointments can now be gained in around two months.

However, fans will still be subject to the same scrutiny as other would-be travellers.

“Your ticket is not a visa. It doesn’t guarantee admission to the US,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

“It guarantees you an expedited appointment. You’re still going to go through the same vetting. We’re going to do the same vetting as anybody else would get. The only difference here is we’re moving them up in the queue.”

Most of the tickets sold for the World Cup so far have gone to Mexicans, Canadians and Americans, but FIFA has confirmed that fans from 212 other countries have also purchased tickets.

Even if these fans have a valid match ticket, they are not guaranteed entry into the United States.

Iran plan to boycott the 2026 World Cup draw after the president of their football federation was denied a visa to enter the United States.

Cristiano Ronaldo's Preferential Treatment

In Portugal's penultimate World Cup qualifier, Cristiano Ronaldo was given a straight red card against Ireland for elbowing defender Dara O'Shea.

FIFA’s disciplinary code states that an offending player should serve "at least three matches or an appropriate period of time for assault, including elbowing, punching, kicking, biting, spitting or hitting an opponent or a person other than a match official."

Article 27 of the code states that a FIFA judicial committee can "fully or partially suspend the implementation of a disciplinary measure."

The Portuguese star was given a three-match ban and sat out the next game, a 9-1 drubbing of Armenia which took place while he was meeting Trump and Infantino.

Ronaldo was set to miss Portugal's first two matches of the World Cup, but in an unprecedented move, FIFA has suspended the next two matches of the ban for a year and they only apply to competitive fixtures.

There were accusations of preferential treatment for one of the game's superstars as the decision has received almost universal criticism.

Host Cities

FIFA previously confirmed that Trump will be allowed to move the location of some World Cup matches if he has safety concerns over the city.

Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle will host games next year, but Trump previously suggested that he could 'move' games if any of the host cities are deemed 'unsafe' amid continuous political tension in the country.

The cities that are being threatened with this action are ones under Democratic control. Trump is a Republican.

Speaking to reporters at the Oval Office in October, Trump said: "It will be safe for the World Cup. If I think it isn't safe, we'll move it into a different city."

Moving games to another city would present a logistical nightmare for venues as well as fans.

Human Rights Concerns

FIFA cancelled anti-racism and anti-discrimination messaging at the Club World Cup, while there has been an increase on attacks on immigrants in the USA over the past year.

“The 2026 World Cup is the first to begin with human rights criteria embedded in the bidding process,” said Andrea Florence, executive director of the Sport & Rights Alliance, in Washington this week.

“But the deteriorating human rights situation in the United States has put those commitments at risk.”

Ticket Pricing

The 2026 World Cup will be the first in history to utilise dynamic pricing which means that if demand for tickets increases, so does the prices.

This will be, by some distance, the most expensive tournament in history for supporters.

$60 seats are indeed available for selected matches, but they are scarcely available and only make up an extremely small percentage of purchasable tickets.

There is a resale platform in place that FIFA takes a 15% commission on. If you look at the prices for the USA's opening match, the cheapest ticket is around $800.

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.

On unofficial resale platforms, the prices are much, much more.

Many football fans feel 'priced out' of the matches, while it was recently confirmed that the two nations involved in a certain match will only receive 10% each of available tickets for a particular venue.

Matchday Travel

The logistics of travel will present a bit of a problem for fans of a particular nation who want to be in the city for each of their country's matches.

The USA and Canada are two of the biggest countries in the world, while Mexico is one of the busiest in urban areas.

Many sports stadiums in the US are placed out of town and the easiest access to them is by car, which presents an issue for millions of travelling fans.

At the Club World Cup, there were complaints about a lack of public transportation to some venues.

Historical Records Skewed

There will be 48 teams competing in the next World Cup, an increase on the 32 from the previous tournament in Qatar in 2022.

As there will be a lot more games, it presents the opportunity for historical records to become skewed.

Yes, the World Cup wasn't always 32 teams. But, for example, the two leading goalscorers in the history of the World Cup are Germany's Miroslav Klose (16) and Brazil's Ronaldo (15) and both of them earned their place in history books within the 32-team format.

Not only do current stars like Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane have an extra match to fill their boots, but the expansion means teams of a lesser quality are competing next year. They have a much easier opportunity than their predecessors to tally up goal after goal.

Political Unrest

The United States is undoubtedly involved in a political storm at the moment due to a number of factors.

Currently, the deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers throughout the country has led to mass protests and thousands upon thousands of arrests, with violence often breaking out at these demonstrations.

Trump has deployed National Guard troops in Democrat-led cities, including Los Angeles, which will host eight matches.

"There is no question the divisions in the United States are considerable," says Daniel Byman, director of the Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"On different issues, depending on the day, the president or some of his key people are trying to push a more polarised agenda. There is a lot of anger.

"With the Trump administration, there are lot of 'we don't know' answers in terms of security, because they don't yet have much of a track record for big events.

"There has been a pretty steady dismantling of a lot of the government agencies - cuts at the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. With that comes not only loss of people, but loss of institutional knowledge.

"There are lots of individuals who can be disruptive and dangerous. And the United States, of course, has ready access to firearms in a way that most countries do not."

In 2024, there were 500 mass shootings in the United States. In 2025, there have been 397, which is another major cause for concern for travelling fans.