Suzanne Harrington: FFS Fifa, your antics were a kick in the teeth for World Cup fans

The tournament was a tale of two presidents who scored own-goal after own-goal to the detriment of sporting integrity

Even Gianni Infantino's banished predecessor Sepp Blatter has criticised the current Fifa president for his antics.

Well, that’s that for another four years. We can go back to our lives now, instead of configuring our schedules around late night kick-offs and the over-consumption of tortilla chips. Back to conversations about the weather, rather than VAR, defensive tactics, Lamine Yamal, Messi, and the absolute shitshow that is Fifa.

By the time you read this, a brilliant team will have won the World Cup, even as their win remains overshadowed not by all the beautiful football played (please, please stop calling it soccer), but the other stuff. The off-pitch stuff. The off-pitch stuff that has seemed a bit off.

By ‘a bit off’, I mean the at times outrageous levels of unfair play overseen by the man with the shiny Martian head and the man with the shiny orange face. The 2026 tournament repeatedly poisoned by a toxic symbiotic alliance of two terrible presidents — of Fifa and of America.

Fifa’s Gianni Infantino replaced Fifa’s Sepp Blatter because Blatter was kicked out of office amid a corruption scandal. At this World Cup, Infantino caused a furore by un-red carding an American striker after a phone call from Donald Trump. It could be argued that this outdid the corruption for which Fifa is famous, asking us instead to accept the dismantling of the actual rules of the actual game in real time.

An astonishing breach of sporting integrity, and fully Orwellian: “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.” Happily, Belgium battered the USA, but what if they hadn’t?

Even the disgraced Blatter said in an interview how Infantino is not good for football. How he’s “politicised Fifa”. How football is “about creating a more peaceful world through the game — not through peace prizes.”

Blatter described Trump’s declaration of Infantino as the “king of soccer” as “laughable”, adding: “We’ve only ever had one king in football, and that was Pelé. Only a player can be king of football, not an administrator.”

You know things are bad when you’re in full agreement with a man banned by Fifa for violations of its code of ethics. Hang on, it has a code of ethics? Where was it during this tournament? Hidden in a locker? In a missing kit bag?

Earlier in the tournament, we watched the appalling treatment of representatives from Somalia, Iran, and other countries Trump dislikes for being brown / poor / both — Fifa did nothing. 

We watched the terrible refereeing in the Egypt v Argentina game, where VAR appeared to be used selectively against the Pharaohs, and Egypt’s coach was yellow-carded for using a standard anti-racism signal (Argentinian fans were accused by Egyptian and Cabo Verdean supporters of racist abuse). Again, Fifa did nothing.

We watched as Trump-whisperer Emmanuel Macron defended the French captain after the racist abuse of Kylian Mbappe by a Paraguayan politician, to whom Mbappe responded with magnificent dignity: “Madame, you are a despicable woman and unworthy of your position”. The politician then doubled down, blamed Mbappe for her tirade, insulted him again, and demanded an apology.

In this instance, Infantino issued a statement: “We must fight racism and defeat it together.” Where was that statement when the Somalian referee needed it after being refused entry to the U.S?

You could not make this stuff up. And that’s before you even consider the elongated Super Bowl-nonsense during half time at yesterday’s final, the rules again bent to accommodate their hosts’ showbiz sensibilities. FFS, Fifa.

Thankfully, the next World Cup will happen in actual footballing countries — Spain, Portugal, Morocco. This gives Fifa four years to find its missing code of ethics. The 2026 World Cup — despite the absolute brilliance of the players — was a disgrace. Red card for Fifa.