World Cup Controversy
By Nora Vera
IT HAS BEEN a couple of months since the 2026 FIFA World Cup opened with the first game of the tournament Mexico vs. South Africa match being held at the most famous and well known stadium in Mexico City, Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, with over 18.4 million viewers across its broadcast. Spain won their second World Cup championship against the reigning champions, Argentina, 1-0 with Ferran Torres scoring in the 106 minute match, at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The World Cup is the biggest sports championship with its global viewership and cultural impact, with people from all over the world traveling to different countries to experience and engage with diverse cultures. The World Cup tournament is held every four years, as the 2026 FIFA World Cup featured 48 national teams that had expanded from 32 teams to 48, with the co-host nations of this year's tournament being Canada, Mexico, and the United States, who had an automatic qualification due to being the co-hosts of the tournament.
Although the World Cup is a tournament for people from across the world to come together and enjoy watching their home country try to win the biggest trophy in the world, this year’s FIFA World Cup brought many controversies that made people question the FIFA organization's actions, as well as those of certain national teams. The top 4 World Cup controversies that occurred throughout the tournament, ranging from politics and immigration to a geopolitical conflict between the UK and Argentina, as well as VAR and refereeing debates.
Even though many leagues from the Premier League, LaLiga, Bundesliga, LigaMX, etc. have spoken up and have said countless times about the racism, the big “don’t bring politics to sports” debates, and issues within the federation, it still doesn’t change how professional players act towards other professional players, and do not respect one another even in the biggest tournament where everyone from all over the world sees what is going on.
But it raises the question of whether the FIFA World Cup is corrupt or if it's just a mafia deal between the FIFA President and higher-up officials to make their national team win. On July 1st, one of the three co-hosts of the World Cup, the United States, faced Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32 at the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium in Santa Clara, with the United States winning 2-0.
During the match, in the 64th minute, USMNT player Folarin Balogun committed a foul that left Bosnian player Tarik Muharemović injured and unable to play. As Balogun was going for the ball, he placed his right foot in the back of Muharemović’s ankle, twisting his ankle, and had to be sent off the pitch. With that type of play, it is automatically a red card, even if the player was not trying to injure his opponent. Given Balogun’s body movement, it was clear that Balogun did not position himself correctly and stepped on Muharemović’s ankle on purpose. Due to Balogun’s red card, in the soccer rules as well as the FIFA disciplinary rules, a red card results in a one-game suspension which caused upsetted USMNT fans as well as Bosnian fans because a Bosnian player was left injured, but most importantly, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, decided to intervene himself to the situation, which is not permitted and against FIFA rules as President Trump called the FIFA President Gianni Infantino to complain about the red card decision and called it a “horrible” and a “very suspect” decision from the referee.
In the FIFA Disciplinary Code, Article 27 allows FIFA to suspend a player and place them on a one- to four-year probationary period, which does not technically “erase” the red card, but would put Folarin Balogun on a one-year probation if he commits another serious foul. Since Balogun’s red card was overturned by a controversial political phone call from the President of the United States, Balogun played nearly the full match without doing much– the USMNT was defeated 4-1 by Belgium, eliminating the USMNT from the tournament.
Having a red card overturned by the President of the United States during the biggest tournament in the world did not help the USMNT advance further. Instead, it brought the USMNT bad luck and was seen as the “butt of the joke” during the Belgium match, as multiple Belgium players mocked U.S. President Trump by performing his signature “YMCA” on the field, and even after winning the USA team 4-1, the Belgium team also danced in the locker room, still mocking President Trump.
During the World Cup, matches were held at the co-hosts' designated stadiums, and even though many players don’t have American, Mexican, or even Canadian citizenship, government authorities control immigration and travel visas for the World Cup. Since the United States was one of the hosts, many international players and referees were denied entry upon landing in the United States.
Many Mexican fans welcomed the Iranian national team with open arms and would even camp outside their hotel to make them feel at home
The controversial visa issue involved the Iranian national team, which faced U.S. visa restrictions. They were originally scheduled to stay in Tucson, Arizona, but were later moved to Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, due to visa complications and the political tensions between the U.S. and Iran. Many Mexican fans welcomed the Iranian national team with open arms and would even camp outside their hotel to make them feel at home – but because of the political tensions between the U.S. and Iran, the Iranian national team was heavily guarded outside the hotel due to strict visa and border restrictions, and after their matches, they had to return to Tijuana immediately because of their travel arrangements.
It didn’t take long for the Mexican people to make the Iranian people feel at peace, loved and at home because the captain of the Iranian national team, Mehdi Taremi, and Alireza Jahanbaksh, said during a press conference that they love Mexican people and kept hearing the Mexican fans yell out, “Iran hermano, ya eres Mexicano” which translate to “Iran brother, you are now Mexican” which shows that even though there’s conflict with a different country, people support will support a country that they side with and understand what the Iranian national team had to grow through during the biggest tournament and being ostracized.
Although the Iranian team was not the only team to have visa issues, a referee from Somalia, Omar Artan, was denied entry into the U.S. because the U.S. had vetting concerns and suspected the member of a terrorist organization. Omar Artan would have been the first Somali referee to officiate at a FIFA World Cup, but was detained at the Miami International Airport and questioned about potential links to a Somali militant group, al-Shabaab. Artan was removed from the tournament roster and did not referee any of the World Cup matches.
After England defeated Mexico in the round of 16 and Argentina defeated Egypt in the round of 16, both nations faced each other in the semi-finals which sparks flashbacks to the English team from their 1966 heated quarter-final World Cup match to the 1986 quarter-final World Cup match where soccer Argentine legend, Diego Maradona, scored his infamous “Hand of God” where he goes in for the header but instead of headering the ball, he uses his fist to score the winning goal, winning the England team 2-1.
On July 15, England faced Argentina once again in the semi-finals, hoping to defeat the reigning champions and advance to the final for the first time since the England team won their only FIFA World Cup in 1966. During the match, many heated moments and tension arose between players such as Jude Bellingham and Enzo Fernández, but ultimately England lost to Argentina 2-1.
The most important controversial thing that happened after the game ended was that the Argentine players decided to display a political banner that said, “Las Malvinas son Argentinas"
The match ended with Jude Bellingham getting into heated and tense arguments with some of the Argentine players, but the most important controversial note that happened after the game ended was that the Argentine players decided to display a political banner that said, “Las Malvinas son Argentinas,” which translates to “The Falkland Islands are Argentine.” This action by the Argentine players brings to mind the quote, “keep politics out of sports,” in a significant context, because the Falklands War was a 74-day conflict fought in 1982 between the United Kingdom and Argentina over control of the Falkland Islands in which, consequently, the United Kingdom currently has control over the Falkland Islands, which makes what the Argentine players no sense for why they held the “Las Malvinas son Argentinas” banner at the end of the match.
Argentina advanced to the final to face Spain, and England to third place, where they won 6-4 against France. The aftermath of the match between England and Argentina brought back many memories for the English team of the controversial moments Argentina brings when they go up against them.
VAR, also known as Video Assistant Referees, is a support system for on-field match officials that helps review errors that may have been missed during the game or when a foul has been committed, so referees will stop the match to check a monitor and make a decision on certain plays and make their decisions once they have reviewed the VAR. During this year's FIFA World Cup, VAR and referees were the main topics throughout the tournament, with mistakes including failing to make calls or not giving red cards to players who committed fouls.
For example, during the Argentina vs Algeria game, Argentina won Algeria 3-0–the main talk of the game was Lionel Messi’s tackle on Algeria’s captain, Aïssa Mandi, where Messi places his left foot on Mani’s right calf and Achilles tendon, which should’ve been an automatic red card for the Argentine player but, the Polish referee, Szymon Marciniak, awarded Algeria a free-kick but did not show Messi a yellow or red card. This was considered the first of many “conspiracies” for the Argentina national team, as fans began to speculate that the team was being favored or receiving help from FIFA because it was Messi’s last World Cup and to help him win back-to-back Titles.
Another VAR controversy occurred during the round-of-32 match between Portugal and Croatia, which went into extra time with Portugal leading 2-1. Croatia tied it 2-2, with both Croatian players Ivan Perišić and Mario Pašalić touching the ball, and Joško Gvardiol scoring the goal. The issue with the goal from the Croatia team is that it was disallowed because Croatian player Igor Matanović's hair apparently grazed the ball before it reached the offside player, Pašalić.
This caused outrage among the Croatian players and fans because, although Gvardiol’s body was offside, the ball seemed to graze a Portuguese player’s hair, which, in the rules, states, “Hair is only considered part of the body if it affects the movement or trajectory of the ball." Under that rule, it didn’t save Croatia’s goal; instead, it disallowed it, and they were unable to tie the game and go to penalties to see if they could continue in the tournament.
Although VAR is supposed to help the referees and the fans watching at home with the issue of why a goal was disallowed, why a player was offside, or why a foul was committed, it adds more questions to fans on why it’s being used if it's not being used properly, considering the amount of technology that soccer is adding to the sport.
