{"id":364,"date":"2026-06-11T11:39:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T11:39:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=364"},"modified":"2026-06-11T11:39:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T11:39:59","slug":"the-world-cup-of-chaos-has-arrived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=364","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The World Cup of Chaos\u2019 Has Arrived"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the digital era, a global sporting event\u2019s main export is its headlines, which is why it\u2019s been a rough week for anyone trying to frame the World Cup as unifying, no matter how many kind old folks in Lawrence, Kansas<\/u><\/span>, welcomed the Algerian national team outside the town\u2019s Double Tree Hotel, where the Algerians will stay for the tournament, free warm cookies included.<\/p>\n

Read more D.C. Primary Guide: Where to Vote and What to Know<\/a><\/p>\n

This World Cup is also the World Cup of Mad Libs for Extremely American Sentences, 2026 Edition. Some other recent entries:<\/p>\n

A decorated Somali ref named Omar Artan was denied entry<\/u><\/span> into the country at Miami International Airport on Monday and will no longer work the tournament.<\/p>\n

The Iranian Football Federation told reporters<\/u><\/span> Tuesday that its ticket allocation had been revoked, making it so the federation couldn\u2019t distribute tickets to Iranian supporters.<\/p>\n

Fans from a handful of countries have had their travel halted by visa issues, while teams from Senegal and Uzbekistan, among others, have faced intense security after arriving in the U.S., leaving enduring images of U.S. officials patting down global soccer stars on the tarmac.<\/p>\n

Welcome, world. We sure hope you enjoy yourselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very much looking like this is going to be the World Cup of Chaos,\u201d said Jules Boykoff, a Pacific University political science professor who just published \u201cRed Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the FIFA Greed Machine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it already was, for me, a massive paradox,\u201d Boykoff said. \u201cOn one hand, including more countries in the tournament than ever before, but on the other hand the exclusionary politics of the Trump administration were always looming above. And now we\u2019re seeing that it wasn\u2019t just people being alarmist.\u201d<\/p>\n

To that end, it\u2019s no surprise policies implemented by Trump, whose hard-line immigration stance helped him win the 2024 election, have created logistical issues for one of the world\u2019s biggest sporting events. FIFA President Gianni Infantino just chose to publicly dodge that possibility last August.<\/p>\n

While Infantino was in Kenya for the Africa Nations Championship, a reporter pushed him on Trump\u2019s sweeping travel restrictions for countries that would participate in the World Cup. But Infantino, ever the smiling salesman, said all would be fine. He then went a step further, assuring that \u201cEveryone will be welcome in Canada, Mexico and the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

But after the U.S. denied entry to Artan, the Somali ref, on Monday? FIFA issued a statement saying it is \u201cnot involved in host country immigration processes, including visa adjudications.\u201d Infantino, who awarded Trump the FIFA Peace Prize in December, did not put his name on it. And then, at a rare news conference Wednesday in Mexico City, he said: \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate what happened to Omar. But again, we don\u2019t control everything. We try, we discuss, we see. Maybe it\u2019s good to just chill, relax.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Sex, Drugs and Debt: Treasurers Keep Fleecing Their Political Committees<\/a><\/p>\n

Somalia was one of 12 countries most directly targeted by Trump\u2019s travel bans last June. U.S. officials have since said Artan, who had been issued a visa earlier this month, was turned away due to \u201cvetting concerns.\u201d Artan was supposed to be the first Somali ref to officiate World Cup matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing from Mexico, I am keeping an eye on the news in Mexico and the U.S. heading into the tournament,\u201d said Sarai Portillo, organizing director for Florida Rising, a grassroots political organization that co-signed a travel advisory for international soccer fans this spring. \u201cIn Mexico, it\u2019s all: Who is going to the match? Who\u2019s excited? Where are we gathering to watch? And in the U.S. it\u2019s much more: We\u2019re going to be sending ICE to make sure there are no undocumented people attending these games. It\u2019s a total one-eighty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonathan Grode, a sports immigration lawyer in Philadelphia, said that, in his experience, the Trump administration was thorough in the leadup, expediting visa appointments for certain groups, training various agencies to make sure the host committees have the proper support. But the reality, Grode said, is a dissonance between committing to sports diplomacy, to using sports to project a gleaming, NFL-stadium-sized image of America, and not realizing how few people feel comfortable traveling here to experience it.<\/p>\n

In Kansas City, according to the city\u2019s newspaper<\/u><\/span>, FIFA canceled 75 percent of the hotel rooms it initially booked for the tournament. Unsold tickets are also flying onto the resale market at marked-down prices. (Though the lowest to catch the tournament opener, between Mexico and South Africa in Mexico City on Thursday, was still $2,705 on StubHub about 24 hours out.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been doing this a long time, and these guys\u201d \u2014 meaning the Trump administration \u2014 \u201care really dedicated to this,\u201d Grode said. \u201cThe problem is they don\u2019t understand the dramatic chilling effect their policies have put on overall interest in coming to the U.S. They just don\u2019t appreciate how dramatically unappealing it is to come to this country right now, which I think could take a huge opportunity and make it massively disappointing when we look back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boykoff, the professor and author, is a former high-level soccer player, having once played on the U.S.\u2019s under-23 national team. He adores the sport. He plans to inhale the World Cup. He\u2019s just pained, as he put it, by \u201cwhat Donald Trump and the FIFA greed machine are doing to the people\u2019s game.\u201d<\/p>\n

But from studying a number of global sporting events, Boykoff believes fans could adopt a selective memory once the action begins. That would be history\u2019s bet. We are, by that logic, just one brain-bending Lamine Yamal goal from forgetting about the issues that feel, at least at this moment, like they could stain this World Cup forever. Or what if the U.S. team, gifted a favorable group, makes an actual run in the knockout stage?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the typical pattern: In the lead-up to the event, everyone is jumping up and down, and correctly so, for the hypocrisies and injustices,\u201d Boykoff said. \u201cBut when it actually starts, attention tends to swerve toward the magnificence on the football pitch. I\u2019m just not so sure that pattern is going to happen in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Farmers Were Already Hurting. The Iran War Made It Worse.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The North America-hosted tournament starts Thursday after a lead-up that has included athletes and officials being questioned and, in some cases, turned away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018The World Cup of Chaos\u2019 Has Arrived - Modern Home Journals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=364\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018The World Cup of Chaos\u2019 Has Arrived - Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The North America-hosted tournament starts Thursday after a lead-up that has included athletes and officials being questioned and, in some cases, turned away.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=364\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-11T11:39:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=364#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=364\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"headline\":\"\u2018The World Cup of Chaos\u2019 Has Arrived\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-11T11:39:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=364\"},\"wordCount\":1079,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=364#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/5ec2e889966f0ceb7690f4cdf57a36b5-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=364#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=364\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=364\",\"name\":\"\u2018The World Cup of Chaos\u2019 Has Arrived - Modern Home Journals\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=364#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=364#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/5ec2e889966f0ceb7690f4cdf57a36b5-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-11T11:39:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=364#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=364\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=364#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/5ec2e889966f0ceb7690f4cdf57a36b5-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/5ec2e889966f0ceb7690f4cdf57a36b5-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"FIFA President Gianni Infantino speaks during a news conference at the stadium in Mexico City, Wednesday, June 10, 2026, a day before the opening FIFA World Cup match between Mexico and South Africa. 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