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Editorials
Members
Research Department
Image Licensing
About
POWER & CONSUMPTION:
An introduction to the Football Case Study
Research Department's
tournament coverage
PHOTOGRAPHY Marvin Heilbronn
JUNE 11 2026
THE TOURNAMENT THAT BEARS THE WORLD’S NAME
On June 11th, 2026, Mexico, Canada, and the United States will open their doors and borders to what may be the biggest sporting spectacle on the planet. A record 48 nations will compete for the chance to lift the World Cup trophy, and millions of fans will travel to host cities from Kansas City to Monterrey. To many, what unfolds over the next 39 days will appear straightforward: nations competing for victory, with success shaped by tactics, individual performance, and, at times, pure luck. But a closer, more critical examination reveals the nuances that make this tournament not merely a physical spectacle, but a reflection of the economic, social, and political currents of the world. The World Cup presents itself as a global celebration, welcoming to all fans and nations. The FCS Research Department will look past that presentation, critically examining the tournament's planning, organization, and underlying dynamics to reveal a central theme: the 2026 World Cup is a reflection of the inequalities that determine who can participate, who can benefit, and who is left behind.
As the tournament progresses, the tiki-taka passing, underdog triumphs, and moments of dazzling individual brilliance will be reason enough for many to love this game on purely sporting terms. But this sport is more than sport. Its past, present, and future are deeply intertwined with the political, economic, and social forces that shape it. The Research Department aims to dig deeper than the pitch, examining the foundations beneath the spectacle. This Department exists to explore how football can help us understand the world.
A TOURNAMENT ON AMERICAN TERMS
Although this edition of the World Cup is hosted across three countries, this theme of inequality, of who can participate, who can benefit, and who is left behind, has emerged most profoundly in the United States. What the United States has long brought to the global table, it has brought to this World Cup: power and consumption. The result is unequal access to the tournament and a structured division between those who are welcomed and those who are excluded. Two factors, repeatedly highlighted by the media, capture this dynamic most clearly: ticket prices and the Trump administration's aggressive border policy. Both reflect a tournament being run through the logic of American power. The United States has long operated on the assumption that its power permits it to act unilaterally, a posture visible in decades of military intervention abroad, in its influence over other nations' governments and economies, and most recently in the sweeping tariffs that opened Trump's second term. That same posture now shapes the World Cup: ticket prices have soared beyond the reach of ordinary fans, and the border has closed to those who do not fit a narrowing definition of who belongs.
Why would this not matter to organizers? Because they are betting that Americans will consume regardless. American fans have absorbed this treatment for years, from health insurance costs to Super Bowl pricing, and the US government and FIFA now appear poised to test whether the same tolerance extends to football, and whether it extends beyond Americans to the rest of the world.
Such is the power football holds: it may prove strong enough to make the world accept FIFA's terms, simply because we want to watch our nations compete at a World Cup.
welcome, conditionally
The Americanization of this World Cup has produced levels of consumerism, racism, and xenophobia that should give even FIFA pause. The use of dynamic pricing has priced out thousands of supporters, while wealthier fans gain access to increasingly exclusive and luxurious experiences, transforming the people's game into a spectacle tailored for the affluent. Meanwhile, the Trump administration's immigration controls and foreign policy agenda have restricted access for fans from dozens of nations, and in some cases, for participants themselves.
Iran offers a stark example. Amid escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran, the Iranian federation negotiated at the last minute to move the team's base camp from Arizona to Tijuana, driven in part by uncertainty over whether the squad would receive US visas at all. Visas for the players arrived just ten days before their opening match, while several support staff, including key managerial and administrative members, were denied entirely. Iran's ambassador to Mexico stated that under the team's visa conditions, the squad must enter and leave US soil on the same day as its matches. The team will compete at a World Cup in which it is, effectively, a guest permitted entry by the hour.
Somali referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan, the 2025 CAF men's referee of the year, was denied entry by US Customs and Border Protection at Miami International Airport despite holding a diplomatic passport and a valid visa, with officials citing unspecified "vetting concerns," ending his participation in the tournament before it began. The US government had assured FIFA years in advance that eligible athletes, officials, and fans from all countries would be able to attend. FIFA president Gianni Infantino had once insisted on the same standard himself, declaring in 2017 that every qualified team, along with its officials and supporters, must have access to the host nation, or there is no World Cup at all. Yet on the eve of this tournament, with a selected referee turned away at the border, Infantino retreated, describing FIFA as a mere sports organization with no power over governments and suggesting that the appropriate response to exclusion was to "chill."
In a world, and an America, growing ever more expensive, disconnected, and divided, the beautiful game has long given many of us hope. The World Cup has never been innocent; it has failed in many departments and often left host countries worse off than it found them. But this edition reveals something further: the tournament itself has been captured by the very forces of exclusion it claims to transcend.
while the world watches
The 2026 World Cup is hardly the first edition riddled with economic, social and political controversy and FCS Research Department acknowledges a familiar pattern: culturally and socially important discourse is loudest before a tournament, then falls quiet once the football begins. Qatar 2022 arrived amid intense pre-tournament scrutiny of human rights violations and the politics of the host nation. Yet that discourse was soon overshadowed by what occurred on the field. For most football enthusiasts, Qatar 2022 is not remembered for the migrant labor exploited to build its stadiums, but for Lionel Messi's long-awaited triumph. In line with FCS's mission of uncovering the stories football cannot tell on its own, the Research Department intends to break this pattern. During and after the 2026 tournament, our audience will continue to be reminded of the essential conversations happening off the pitch.
While there is much to resent and countless reasons to turn our backs on this tournament, we have hope, because at the core of this game are the people. The Football Case Study Research Department is hopeful that the people will reclaim the game, that FIFA has pushed the fans too far, and that the price of entry has grown so high we will no longer climb over the barrier but instead turn and create our own path. We will engage with each other through informal watch parties and pickup games in the streets, enjoying the game as it is meant to be. We hope that the expanded forty-eight-team format will inspire children back home watching their nation play at a World Cup for the first time, that people who have never crossed paths before will intertwine because of football. Perhaps this edition will ultimately be remembered as the bleakest World Cup ever, and the turning point after which the people reclaimed what was theirs.
This Department will celebrate the victories and triumphs on the pitch. But we will not let them drown out the political, social, and economic realities that shape this tournament. This is our commitment, and that is where our work begins. —