WORLD CUP SPECIAL: This is supposed to be the World Cup to end World Cups, the first time that planet football’s premier event will be held across three countries, Canada, the U.S.A. and Mexico.
But now, thanks to the unbounded egotism of FIFA President Gianni Infantino and U.S. President Donald J. Trump; drug wars on the Rio Grande; an ongoing conflict in the Middle East and cup final tickets costing up to a mind-boggling US$2 million (£1.48m), to name just a few of the pitfalls, the World Cup, which kicks-off in Mexico City’s Estadio Banorte this Thursday, June 11, is shaping up to being an unmitigated disaster – before the first ball has even been kicked.
And if there’s one outcome you can bet on, it’s that there will only be one winner holding the storied Jules Rimet trophy aloft come the final on July 19 – team Trump, led by their storming captain, a certain Donald J. Trump, who no doubt will add soccer to his array of claimed sporting conquests, embracing cheating at golf and track athletics; despite the discomfort of those infamous “bone spurs” that helped him avoid the Vietnam draft.
Betting Frenzy
Nobody knows if this slew of chaos and controversy will impact the anticipated mega US$35 billion (£25.99bn) expected to be bet around the world during the five-week tourney by hundreds of millions of football-mad punters, many of them first-time bettors.
Prediction markets, such as Kalshi and Polymarket, and their hurry-come-up competitors FanDuel Predicts and DraftKings Predictions, may even relish the current disruptions throwing up even more weird and abnormal odds on “every-which-way-they-can” yes-or-no wagers.
FIFA’s brown-nosing President Gianni Infantino has said he will “personally bring a hot dog and a Coke” to anyone who buys a World Cup final ticket for US$2 million, the rumoured price for a VIP seat in New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium for the July 19 final.
The dual home of the NFL New York Giants and New York Jets football teams at the Meadowlands sports complex in East Rutherford, just beyond the New York City limits is to be referred to as the New York New Jersey Stadium for the duration of the competition, we’ve been told.
Train tickets to get there from NYC’s Penn Station will cost a rip-off US$150 (£111.38) and a bus ticket a steep US$80 (£59.4).
Mortal Combat
Meantime, south of the Rio Grande, a Mexico City nightclub–in a stinging riposte to Mr Trump’s ICE anti-migrant depradations–has gone viral by planning to charge American visitors a US$300 cover charge (£222.57).
Citizens from other countries will pay just US$20 for entrance (£14.84), while Mexicans and other Latin Americans will be charged only US$14 (£10.39).
“This is a response to a year of insults directed at us, as a country, by the United States,” said the club’s owner Federico Crespo. “It’s very much a response to the many attacks against Mexico from Trump.”
Indeed with the United States and Iran still locked in mortal combat, the 2026 World Cup is threatening to be the most politically-charged staging of the event since its inception in 1930 in Uruguay.
Mexico Narco Wars
It is the first time it has been held across three countries and marks the second time the United States has hosted the competition (1994) and third time for Mexico (1970 and 1986).
First timer Canada, throughout the current run-up, has remained the “silent” partner.
Already criticised for its three-nation hosting and unprecedented number of 48 qualifiers–45, plus the three hosts–, instead of the usual 32 championship contenders, FIFA 2026 has been embroiled in successive controversies.
Mexico in particular, because of its potentially-explosive narco wars, has come under the spotlight.
Fierce fighting between drug traffickers and federal police erupted in host city Guadalajara in northwest Mexico earlier this year following the arrest and death-in-custody of “El Mencho”, leader of the notorious Sinaloa Cartel, and many fear that the powerful drug lords will hold the central government to ransom during the World Cup run in return for keeping the peace.
Iran
Meantime Iran, despite the ongoing Gulf crisis, will continue to play its qualifying matches on America’s west coast; but the team has decided–or was compelled–to relocate its base across the border to Tijuana in Mexico.
What happens if, against most expectations, they make the knock-out stages is anyone’s guess – or potential nightmare.
One possible scenario even has Iran playing against the United States in a quarter final in Houston on the eve of America’s 250th birthday celebrations.
It will be like the frenzied, politically-charged sporting clashes between the U.S. and former Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.
After Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022), this World Cup was supposed to be “the easy one”.
Political Grandstanding
But nothing could be further from the reality.
With feared Homeland Security and brutal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents manning U.S. borders, high costs and vast distances between stadia, and the perils of playing in the extreme temperatures, it remains to be seen just how many fans may decide to stay home and watch the action on the telly.
But for many–narcotrafficantes and ICE thugs aside–, the lure to see their beloved teams–from lowly Curaçao and Scotland to superstar Spain, Brazil and Argentina, will be just too great.
Let’s hope and pray that “The Beautiful Game” outplays the gamesmanship of a certain Mr Trump, his political grandstanding and execrable behaviour of his coyote Gianni Infantino.
