FIFA in the sun, soccer in the shadow
Dallas, TX – Soccer is globally celebrated. It is the most consumed sport in the world. At least a billion people tune in to watch the World Cup every four years. Soccer reflects both international and working-class characteristics.
Soccer is a reflection of greater contradictions of the world playing out on a football pitch. Most importantly, the primary contradiction that has grasped the world tightly; the contradiction between the countries that dominate by imperialism and those that are subjected to this domination. Yet fans, being fans, have historically risked it all for a brief moment of exuberance. In 2014, Brazilian fans bicycled through the Amazon region to watch the games in the Manaus. In 2022, Argentinian fans sold their houses to go watch Messi play his last tournament in Qatar.
A perfect example is the 1986 quarterfinal match between Argentina and England. Diego Maradona, arguably the greatest player to have ever played the game, scored one goal with his hand, which was later dubbed the “Hand of God,” and then scored a second goal, splitting apart the entire England team; this goal was dubbed the “The Goal of the Century.” The quarterfinal was held four years after the English war on Argentina over the Malvinas, an Island territory of Argentina. The Argentine team leading up to the quarterfinal faced racist attacks from the English, and after their humiliating defeat, Maradona said, “Although we had said before the game that football had nothing to do with the Malvinas war, we knew they had killed a lot of Argentine boys there, killed them like little birds. And this was revenge.”
“The history of football is a sad voyage from beauty to duty. When the sport became an industry, the beauty that blossoms from the joy of play got torn out by its very roots. In this ‘fin-de-siècle’ world, professional football condemns all that is useless and useless means non-profitable,” said Eduardo Galeano, author of Soccer in Sun and Shadow.
Soccer in the developing world
Growing up in India, football (or soccer, as dubbed by the Americans) was essential. Children piled up on the streets in narrow alleyways with torn flip flops with no goal posts and played soccer for hours and hours, with scraped knees and bloodied elbows from falling on concrete. Local club rivalry between the East Bengal and Mohun Bagan was the dominant topic of conversation amongst the people.
In the early 2000s, the English Premier League was broadcast on Indian television, bringing the English game to an Indian audience and resulting in the broadening of the interest in international league soccer. But no other form of sport commanded as much devotion as the FIFA World Cup.
At the time of the World Cup, flags of Brazil, Argentina and several other countries could be seen everywhere. Latin American, European and African soccer idols found themselves on murals across the streets of Kolkata. Despite India never qualifying for the World Cup, soccer fans have for generations lived vicariously by supporting international teams in the World Cup.
Diego Maradona was banned from participating in the tournament in 1994 for taking stimulants and protests erupted across the world. Galeano notes this and says, “In places far away as Bangladesh, where a sizable demonstration repudiating FIFA and demanding Maradona’s return shook the streets.”
Soccer in the current political climate
In December of 2025, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, was awarded a “peace prize” by the governing body of the soccer World Cup, FIFA, to appease him after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the right-wing U.S.-backed candidate Maria Corina Machado. He was awarded the “peace prize” while threatening a war against Venezuela. Then in January, the U.S. attacked Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, and kidnapped Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores i.e. the president and first lady of Venezuela.
Also in January and late December, ICE murdered Alex Pretti, Renee Good and Keith Porter. In March, ICE agents were deployed at several major airports to cover the work of TSA agents who were unpaid and couldn’t afford to come to work. The partial government shutdown and the increased border militarization pose additional challenges for World Cup games being scheduled later on in the summer.
In the summer of 2026, the Soccer World Cup is scheduled to happen in the United States, Mexico and Canada. 11 major cities in the United States are scheduled to have games.
Among several countries who participated in the qualification stage, Israel, the Zionist entity, was allowed to participate despite a global call to ban the country from entering the tournament due to the entity’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians. FIFA and UEFA (the governing body of European league football) in 2022 unilaterally banned Russia from participating in the World Cup due to the intervention in Ukraine. Israel has not been barred from participating, nor has the United States been barred from hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The Department of Homeland Security, via FEMA, has been granted $625 million to deploy ICE agents across the 11 major venues in the US.
According to the U.S. government, “The FIFA World Cup Grant Program (FWCGP), administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Grant Programs Directorate (GPD), provides $625 million in federal funding to enhance security and preparedness for the 2026 FIFA World Cup events in the United States.”
The United States alongside Israel is currently waging a war against Iran. The U.S. have murdered at least 160 young girls by bombing a high school and have destroyed civilian infrastructure, killing thousands of innocents.
Donald Trump proudly claimed that a “whole civilization would die” indicating a significant attack against Iran, but Tuesday rolled around and he chickened out and agreed to a ten point deal that uplifted sanctions on Iran.
Israel continues to perpetuate a genocide against the Palestinians, while simultaneously bombing Southern Lebanon killing hundreds and displacing hundreds of thousands of people. Israel however did not qualify for the World Cup. They faced humiliating losses against every country they played. Israel is also facing humiliating losses by the axis of resistance across West Asia.
The U.S.-Israel war against Iran has sparked an energy crisis across the world, and working people are suffering. In the U.S., cost of living was already on the rise, but with the addition of increasing gas prices, the $625 million allotment to ICE at various World Cup stadiums seems even more ridiculous. Price gouging has also been a major complaint from U.S. soccer fans; Kansas City residents apparently saw a 87% increase in prices for the Algeria v Argentina game ($765 at minimum).
The sport has become a playground for rich investors from the U.S., Europe and the Gulf monarchies to snatch a pretty dime from the hands of working people. The same investors who are invested in wars and keeping people poor. The sport of soccer is ever increasingly being robbed out of the hands of working people.
Average ticket prices for the World Cup range upwards of multiple thousand dollars. The U.S. is set to make upwards of $13 billion in revenue from the World Cup. How much of this will benefit working people or bring the game closer to fans is gravely in doubt.
A World Cup year with such tremendous global upheaval, i.e. genocide in Gaza conducted by Israel, the energy blockade on Cuba, the kidnapping of the Venezuelan president and first lady, and the war on Iran perpetuated by the United States, has sidelined any joy for the game of soccer.
Galeano writes about the 2010 World Cup and reflects on the political climate in Soccer in Sun and Shadow, “Iran was fast becoming the gravest threat to humankind, thanks to an international campaign declaring it might have or maybe even does have nuclear weapons, as if it had been the Iranians who dropped the bomb on civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Ships in international waters carrying food, medicine, and toys to Palestine were being machine-gunned in one of the habitual criminal acts by which Israel punishes the Palestinians, as if they, who are Semites, were to blame for anti-Semitism and its horrors”
Much of the climate 16 years ago is reflected in the conditions in Palestine and Iran today.
The joy of sport is diminished by the decline of empire.
Localities unsuitable for games
The immense infrastructural pressure a tournament of the size of the World Cup puts on cities with limited public transportation is another big concern for working people. One example is the city of Arlington, Texas, which houses the AT&T Stadium (home of the Dallas Cowboys). The stadium is reportedly going to see upwards of $300 million in refurbishments to accommodate soccer-style seating for nine of the games it is scheduled to host.
The stadium is ill-equipped to handle tens of thousands of people flooding the streets. Local Arlingtonians have no ability to access the stadium without having to drive there. There is no public bus in the city. Arlington is in fact the largest city in the United States without public transportation. It is a city in the Dallas-Fort Worth area without a rail connection. The decision to host the cup in Arlington seems to have been pushed by the mayor and city council members, local bureaucrats of the Dallas sports commission, local team owners (Jerry Jones owner of Dallas Cowboys and Dan Hunt owner of FC Dallas). Arlington itself is set to spend upwards of $400 million to accommodate the games. The ones pushing the expenses expect a high return ($2 billion). It's pretty obvious that these expenses would have been better spent in uplifting the local community (for example, by building local transportation, healthcare, and promoting community programs and local sports).
From personal observations and conversations with coworkers there still seems to be a fair interest in the games, less so about physically attending but more so of watching the games online. Many were surprised that Arlington was even a choice to host the Cup.
Working people's joys are marred by the crushing blow of economic hardship. Gas prices and cost of living expenses are on the rise. In mid-April North Texans in Arlington paid between $3.55 and $3.80 a gallon for unleaded gasoline, and the median rent is $2519 (per December 2025 reporting). People are seriously stretched and are struggling to put food on their table. It's easy to see that those who enjoy the sport are being speedwalked away from consuming it. FIFA, however, are licking their lips at the prospect of making billions of dollars from the sport being held in the U.S.
Galeano said, “Football is a pleasure that hurts,” and in today's age, football is hurting the pockets of millions of fans locally and internationally who are willing to risk it all to enjoy the sport.