It’s only fitting that the biggest sporting event on the planet, the FIFA World Cup – which is now bigger than ever – is also dealing with some of its biggest ever controversies.
There’s sure to be drama between the tournament opener on June 12 (all dates AEST) and the final on July 20… but at least then, we’ll have the football to distract us.
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The build-up has been utter chaos, with questions over the super-sized tournament (fitting given the main country hosting it), FIFA’s decision-making, and just how many fans (and teams) are actually going to rock up.
Foxsports.com.au runs through the biggest controversies leading into the 2026 World Cup.
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THE TOURNAMENT ITSELF
The beautiful simplicity of the 32-team tournament – eight groups, with the top two in each qualifying for the 16-team knockout stage – was ended with 2017’s announcement that the 2026 event would include 48 nations.
The problems were immediate and obvious. Would the event be diluted? Would qualifying become irrelevant? And how exactly do you decide who makes the knockouts?
Dilution is likely to some extent, with relative minnows like Curacao and Cape Verde unlikely to be massively competitive, but there have always been blowouts in the group stage – in 2022 alone, we saw scorelines of 7-0 and 6-2.
Plus, the counter-argument of participation being its own reward was immediately showcased during qualifying, which was a celebration for so many additional nations. The footage of fans celebrating a long-awaited World Cup return or debut circled the world and warmed hearts.
The actual tournament structure could yet be controversial, depending on how it plays out. FIFA opted to allow the eight best third-place teams to qualify out of their groups, along with the group winners and runners-up, creating a round of 32 to begin the knockout stage.
This is likely to see some teams qualify for the knockouts with just three points, which will look a bit strange, and the actual bracket itself is primed to be unbalanced – FIFA has tried to allow flexibility but some teams will get much harder draws than others.
Expect an unlikely quarter-finalist or two, and massive contrasts in the quality of some early knockout games – for example Argentina vs Uruguay and Brazil vs Japan shape as likely round-of-32 clashes, which would dwarf something like Belgium vs South Africa.
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Then there are the matches themselves, which are being held across the height of the North American summer.
Last year’s Club World Cup, which was effectively a test event for the real deal, saw games played in temperatures between 32 and 39 degrees celsius – which is dangerous for even the world’s best athletes.
Climate change will only make summer sports even riskier in the coming years and even FIFA’s attempt to counter this concern has come under fire.
Three-minute hydration breaks will be held in every half, allowing players to rest but also giving broadcasters a chance to insert additional ad breaks during games – always a concern for football broadcasters given the sport’s flowing nature.
The nature of a tournament being held across three large countries – the US, Mexico and Canada – has also sparked concerns about the environmental impact of all of the travel involved.
However this will be dwarfed by the 2030 World Cup, which is being held across Morocco, Portugal and Spain, with games also played in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay – if you haven’t looked at a map recently, the entire Atlantic Ocean sits between the former and latter groups.
TICKET PRICES
The controversial ‘dynamic pricing’ model, where companies raise prices based on market demand rather than setting firm figures, has seen tickets become almost impossible to afford for many fans – both locals and those travelling.
In March, the Football Supporters Europe (FSE) group filed a lawsuit with the European Commission targeting FIFA over their “monopoly over ticket sales”.
At the time the cheapest available tickets for the final were an absurd $6000, seven times above the cheapest 2022 final tickets.
FSE said the North American bid team had initially promised tickets would be available from as little as US$21 (AU$30), but instead the cheapest tickets to go on sale have been for US$60 (AU$86), for example for the Group J opener between Austria and Jordan at the Levi’s Stadium in California.
Most tickets cost at least $200 (AU$287) for matches involving leading nations.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino insists ticket prices are simply a consequence of the huge demand.
“In the US in particular there is this thing called dynamic pricing, meaning the prices will go up or down”, depending on the match in question, Infantino has said.
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FSE said the problem with ‘dynamic pricing’ was there was no limit to how high the prices can go.
“FIFA used ‘variable pricing’, or dynamic pricing, with no cap and no transparency on how prices are set,” it said in the statement.
“Some tickets rose 25 per cent between sales phases. Fans had no clear way of knowing the final price before joining the queue.”
Having faced sustained criticism over prices, FIFA announced a cheaper category of tickets priced at $60, but they were reserved for fans of qualified teams and would make up just 10 percent of each national federation’s allotment.
“FIFA repeatedly advertised $60 group-stage tickets,” FSE said. “In practice they were so scarce that the entire Category 4 inventory was practically sold out before general public sales opened.”
The variable pricing clearly isn’t working with Saudi Arabia set to hand free tickets out to American-based supporters for its games against Cape Verde, Uruguay and Spain.
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Last week New York and New Jersey, the hosts of eight World Cup matches including the final, announced they had subpoenaed FIFA over the high prices with claims fans were misled about seat locations.
“New Yorkers have been waiting years for the World Cup to come to their backyard, and they deserve a fair shot at affordable tickets,” New York Attorney-General Letitia James said in a statement.
“No one should be manipulated into paying sky-high prices for seats, and fans should be able to trust that the tickets they purchased will be the ones they receive.”
New Jersey Attorney-General Jennifer Davenport added: “Being honest about ticket sales is not complicated.
“But FIFA has turned buying a ticket to the World Cup into a gauntlet of confusion, fake scarcity and impossibly high prices.
“It is an honour to host the World Cup, but the event is not an invitation to exploit our residents and visitors.”
THE USA
FIFA has very much leant into the current controversial US government, with Gianni Infantino cosying up heavily with Donald Trump.
The draw ceremony, for example, was held in Washington DC and spent a lengthy period honouring Trump with the first (and only) FIFA Peace Prize – a decision widely criticised by human rights groups, with some suggesting it was playing into Trump’s disappointment in not being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
But it’s the immigration policies of Trump’s government which have caused the most concern with groups like Amnesty International calling on FIFA to ensure fans would be safe, especially after the aggressive immigration enforcement operations of late 2025/early 2026.
In particular many fans who have immigrated to the US are fearful they’ll be targeted while attending their nation’s matches – notably fans of Haiti, who have qualified for the first time since 1974.
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An estimated 850,000 Haitians live in the US with Emile, a truck driver from Ohio, among those who have temporary protected status – something Trump wants to remove.
“Singing my country’s national anthem in a stadium in front of the whole world is a historic moment that no one would want to miss,” Emile told AFP.
“But at the same time, I think twice. I don’t want to be arrested by ICE.
“My lawyer advised me not to fly so I don’t get caught at the airport.”
Backing up these fears, a report from Human Rights Watch said an asylum-seeker who attended the Club World Cup final last year in New Jersey with his children was arrested by ICE and deported to his country of origin.
Other fans willing to attend despite these fears won’t even be able to make it into the country. Iranian and Haitian fans cannot enter the US, while those from the Ivory Coast and Senegal were also caught up in Trump’s most recent travel ban.
Others from Algeria, Cape Verde and Tunisia were told they would have to pay a $15,000 deposit to acquire a visitor visa before this requirement was temporarily dropped.
IRAN
Naturally, a tournament where the main host nation has recently gone to war with one of the other participants is going to have some issues.
Iran had already threatened to boycott the World Cup draw event when its president was denied a visa to enter the US, having been attacked in mid-2025, but once the US and Israel began a war with the nation in early 2026 things became particularly tricky.
Travel concerns in the Middle East, with massive flight cancellations forced by the attacks, even sparked concerns Graham Arnold’s Iraq wouldn’t be able to make it to their playoff match (which they eventually attended, and won).
Iran considered withdrawing from the tournament amid the risk of defections, as seen with the women’s team during the recent Women’s Asian Cup in Australia, but was warned it would be fined and face bans from future competitions.
However FIFA’s message was muddled by Donald Trump’s claim on his social media platform that the team was welcome, yet it would not be “appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety” – seen as a veiled threat.
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At one stage Iran attempted to negotiate with FIFA to move its matches from the US to Mexico, having been drawn into a group based around the US west coast, but this was denied.
Instead Iran has moved its training base from Arizona in the US south-west to Tijuana, Mexico – on the US border just south of San Diego. Mexican president Claudi Sheinbaum said this was because “the United States does not want the Iranian team staying overnight in the country”.
But even that assumes they’ll be allowed in for their games, because as of late May, the Iranian team was still training in Antalya, Turkey and seeking entry visas.
No visas had been issued as of May 30, with the team issuing a statement stating: “FIFA was explicitly asked to provide a clear determination on this matter.
“As of the time of this statement, no response or update has been received. Therefore, it should be noted that visas for both the United States and Mexico have not yet been issued for members of the Iran National Team delegation.”
Some Iranian players, including captain Mehdi Taremi, served their mandatory military service with the nation’s Revolutionary Guards – a group declared a terrorist entity by both the US and Canada.
Separately, Iran has been involved in a controversy over its group stage match with Egypt.
The host city of Seattle declared the fixture a Pride Match, celebrating the local Pride festival, before it was determined which nations would play in the game.
Homosexuality is illegal in both Iran and Egypt, and punishable by death in the former, which officials from both countries objecting.