Soccer’s political ecosystem is fractious, and the in-fighting has been on full display at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Unlike in most North American sports, where there is cooperation among team owners, institutions and athletes as well as a unified league structure, soccer has umpteen stakeholders who are all vying to be top dog. This adversarial system is why top European clubs, despite boasting revenues of $800m-plus, lose money nearly every year. It’s also why World Cups are a delicate act of diplomacy.
Not only are domestic teams and institutions at loggerheads with their international and continental counterparts, but the international and continental governing bodies are also fighting with one another.
The game’s two most powerful forces, FIFA and European body UEFA, are perhaps the biggest rivals.
FIFA is led by Gianni Infantino, who has made this World Cup in the US, Canada and Mexico the most commercial ever. He expects the tournament to generate $13bn in revenue, almost double the previous edition in Qatar.
Love him or loathe him, Infantino wants to have a legacy as the man who changed soccer and made FIFA the undisputed big cheese of the world’s most popular sport. It’s why he’s expanded the Club World Cup, previously a modest affair, into a 32-team, quadrennial showpiece with nearly $1bn in prize money.
The new Club World Cup is looking to muscle in on the Champions League as the ultimate prize in the club game and has exacerbated pre-existing tensions between Infantino and UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin.
Ceferin scored a PR win over Infantino last week, inviting Somali referee Omar Artan to officiate the UEFA Super Cup final after he was barred from the US for visa reasons, an issue which many commentators are laying at Infantino’s door given how much he has cosied up to President Donald Trump.
But he now appears to have put his foot in it with comments about Infantino’s decision to expand the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams, which has allowed nations like Cape Verde, who secured a historic draw against tournament favourites Spain yesterday, to compete.
“We have a lot of matches that are completely uninteresting,” Ceferin told a media outlet in his native Slovenia when asked about the decision to add 16 teams to this summer’s event.
That has prompted 13 nations competing at the World Cup to write an open letter to Ceferin criticising his comments.
Signed by Cape Verde, Curacao, Uzbekistan, DR Congo, Haiti, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast and South Africa, the letter reads: “For our countries, there is no such thing as an unimportant World Cup match.
For Cape Verde, Curacao and Uzbekistan, qualification for the Fifa World Cup represents a historic achievement and the realisation of a dream shared by generations. For nations such as Congo and Haiti, returning to football’s biggest stage after a long absence carries a special meaning for millions of supporters who have waited years, and in some cases decades, for this moment.
“To suggest that these matches are somehow less important is deeply disappointing and fails to recognise the efforts, sacrifices and aspirations of players, coaches, clubs, football leaders and supporters across the world.”
