When FIFA dignitaries and star soccer players gather at the Kennedy Center in Washington at noon on Friday, the ostensible purpose will be to determine which team plays which in the first round of next year’s World Cup.
But the world’s eyes are less likely to focus on the actual draw – in which miniature soccer balls representing different countries will be pulled out of glass bowls – than on the bromance between U.S. President Donald Trump and FIFA head Gianni Infantino.
In the run-up to the World Cup, which will unfold across the United States, Canada and Mexico, Mr. Infantino has bent over backward to please Mr. Trump. The Swiss-Italian soccer executive has lavished public praise on the President, gifted him a trophy and opened a FIFA office in Manhattan’s Trump Tower.
FIFA chief Gianni Infantino visited the White House with a copy of the World Cup trophy in August, which the President successfully lobbied to keep.ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
Mr. Trump, for his part, has relished planting himself at the centre of the coming tournament, announcing organizational developments in Oval Office press conferences and crashing one team’s victory celebration this past summer.
Mr. Infantino’s campaign of flattery is expected to reach new heights on Friday when he will award the first edition of the FIFA Peace Prize. It is a good bet that this new honour, which Mr. Infantino created barely a month ago, will go to Mr. Trump as a consolation for the Nobel he has loudly campaigned for but so far failed to win.
For the occasion, FIFA has rented the Kennedy Center, which Mr. Trump took control of earlier this year to crack down on its “woke” programming. There will be a performance by the Village People, the President’s favourite musical group.
The Hall of Nations at Washington’s Kennedy Center will be abuzz on Friday when FIFA announces the starting matchups for 2026. Mexico City plays host to the first match on June 11.Rahmat Gul/The Associated Press
Since Mr. Trump took it over, the Kennedy Center has played host to several of his political events, from a vigil for activist Charlie Kirk to an investment forum with Saudi Arabia, the World Cup’s host in 2030.
Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters; Evan Vucci/AP
It is all unfolding as Mr. Trump pursues some of the most controversial policies in his country’s history. Among other things, he has ordered immigration raids primarily targeting Latino communities – central to soccer’s U.S. fanbase – and launched punishing trade wars against Canada and Mexico, his two World Cup co-hosts.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is even planning to attend Friday as he tries to persuade Mr. Trump to stop hammering Canada’s economy with a suite of hefty tariffs and come back to the negotiating table.
While it’s common for politicians to bask in the reflected glory of popular sporting events, Mr. Trump has done so to an unusual degree with Mr. Infantino’s backing. It is all set to make for an ostentatious spectacle that could overshadow the game itself and tie FIFA’s brand with the President’s.
“We should all support what he’s doing because I think it’s looking pretty good,” Mr. Infantino declared of Mr. Trump’s political agenda at the America Business Forum in Miami in November. He described the President as a “really close friend” and said he was surprised to hear people make “negative comments” about him.
The first World Cup held under Mr. Infantino’s FIFA chairmanship was Russia’s in 2018, during Mr. Trump’s first term. President Vladimir Putin gave his U.S. counterpart a ball at their summit in Helsinki.
Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters; Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
The next host country, Qatar, faced criticism over its World Cup construction boom, and the thousands of migrant workers suspected to have died in poor living conditions and extreme heat. Mr. Infantino was one of the targets for protests, like this one in his hometown of Brig, Switzerland.
Matthias Hangst/Getty Images; Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters
Jacqueline Gehring, an expert in the politics of sports at the University of California Santa Cruz, pointed out that FIFA has long drawn criticism for getting friendly with contentious regimes.
“FIFA has worked with other countries to sportswash their reputations,” she said. “They want to expand the game, but they’ve done so in ways that support leaders who have engaged in unsavoury politics.”
In 1978, for instance, World Cup matches unfolded in a Buenos Aires stadium not far from a notorious jail in which Argentina’s junta was torturing political prisoners. In 2015, FIFA chief Sepp Blatter resigned amid a massive international bribery scandal. Mr. Infantino has accepted an award from Russian President Vladimir Putin and cultivated close ties with the authoritarian rulers of Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Still, Prof. Gehring said, there’s an obvious dissonance between FIFA’s rhetoric of unity and Mr. Trump’s pugilistic style. “The 2026 tournament was really sold as an attempt to unify North America, to showcase the U.S., Mexico and Canada together. And now, there’s a trade war.”
Mr. Carney is expected to meet briefly with both Mr. Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Friday, in a bid to persuade Mr. Trump to restart talks and not to pull out of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement governing continental trade.
Canada and Mexico are two of the countries worst hit by Mr. Trump’s global trade war, particularly his tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum. The U.S. President abruptly terminated negotiations with Canada in October over an Ontario government ad that showcased Ronald Reagan, an icon of Mr. Trump’s Republican Party, criticizing trade protectionism.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, receiving a hand-beaded soccer ball from Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum at July’s G7 summit, will try another kind of soccer diplomacy at Friday’s World Cup draw.Amber Bracken/Reuters
The official 2026 match ball is another work of trilateral symbolism: It has blue stars for the United States, a green eagle for Mexico and a red maple leaf for Canada.Rich Storry/Getty Images
Nicholas McGeehan, co-director of FairSquare, an NGO that advocates for ethics in sport, said Mr. Infantino’s embrace of Mr. Trump has gone beyond his usual relationship-building with the leaders of World Cup host countries.
In addition to his comments in Miami, Mr. Infantino in January used Mr. Trump’s famous campaign slogan in a video recorded on the eve of the presidential inauguration, which Mr. Infantino attended. “Together we will make not only America great again, but also the entire world,” he said.
Mr. McGeehan argued that both of these comments were “flagrant violations” of FIFA’s own code of ethics, which mandates political neutrality.
Mr. McGeehan said one possible explanation for FIFA’s treatment of Mr. Trump could be to ensure that he doesn’t try to modify the World Cup’s financial arrangements.
FIFA receives virtually all of the revenue from the event, while host governments pay expenses. In addition, FIFA has negotiated deals to avoid paying taxes on the revenue.
“It’s certainly plausible that Trump knows the World Cup is a swindle and that’s why Infantino has been so fawning. It’s the cost FIFA is paying in order to waltz away with all of these tax exemptions,” Mr. McGeehan said.
Mr. Infantino is seen often in Mr. Trump’s circles. Here he is in a Nov. 18 selfie with footballer Cristiano Ronaldo in Washington. In the middle is Howard Lutnick, a key player in the North American trade talks.DavidSacks via X/REUTERS
Mr. Trump has also helped FIFA in other ways, such as by agreeing to fast-track U.S. visa applications for people with World Cup tickets and setting up a centralized task force to help co-ordinate the tournament.
The President has threatened to move World Cup matches out of places such as California or Boston because of his disputes with Democratic governors and mayors. While Mr. Trump does not have the power to do this unilaterally, him even trying to do so could pose a logistical ordeal that FIFA would likely rather avoid.
He has taken advantage of the game to focus more attention on himself. At the conclusion of the Club World Cup in New Jersey this past July, Mr. Trump remained on stage during Chelsea FC’s victory celebration, grinning for the cameras while players jumped around him.
The President also told an interviewer that he had kept the Club World Cup trophy in the Oval Office and FIFA “made a new one” to present to Chelsea.
Mr. Infantino’s effort has paid off with access. He has been to the Oval Office and Mar-a-Lago multiple times this year and was invited to Mr. Trump’s Gaza Peace Summit in Egypt in October.
It has, however, caused at least some friction within FIFA. Last May, when Mr. Infantino delayed the start of the organization’s congress in Paraguay because he was on a Middle East trip with Mr. Trump, delegates walked out in protest.
When immigration raids in June triggered citywide protests, Mr. Trump took control of California’s National Guard, deploying thousands of troops to Los Angeles.
Jae C. Hong and Ethan Swope/AP
In the U.S. meanwhile, the backbone of the game’s fanbase is getting hit by immigration raids in service of Mr. Trump’s signature policy of rounding up and deporting undocumented immigrants. ICE’S wide net and admitted policy of racially profiling Latinos has also led to legal immigrants and, in some cases, U.S. citizens being detained.
Richard (Coronel) Guel, who runs Pancho Villa’s Army, a club for U.S. fans of the Mexican national soccer team, said the raids have caused many Latinos to shy away from attending matches because of the possibility federal agents could stop people outside the stadiums.
Before the opening game of the CONCACAF Gold Cup in Los Angeles in June, in which Mexico played the Dominican Republic, Mr. Guel’s group cancelled its usual tailgate party. “It didn’t feel right to celebrate when some of our brothers, sisters, relatives couldn’t go because of the fear of being targeted,” he said.
Since Mr. Trump’s celebration with Chelsea, his likeness has popped up among the vendors around their London stadium.Paul Childs/Action Images via Reuters
Over all, Prof. Gehring said, soccer is so popular that FIFA’s association with Mr. Trump was not likely to damage the game’s brand. “The game is so beloved around the world, fans will overlook this,” she said.
Even so, the President could find himself embarrassed, if his reception among a different group of sports fans – at a Washington Commanders game last month – is anything to go by.
“Trump was at an NFL game recently and got booed relatively extravagantly. What is his reception going to be at the World Cup?” she said. “Politically, I can’t imagine that the crowd is going to be sympathetic.”
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
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