{"id":357793,"date":"2026-06-12T12:35:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T12:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/357793\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T12:35:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T12:35:21","slug":"u-s-opens-world-cup-with-hope-soccer-brings-joy-eclipses-angst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/357793\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. opens World Cup with hope soccer brings joy, eclipses angst"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In many ways, the most ambitious World Cup<\/a> in history \u2014 which kicked off Thursday in Mexico City \u2014 has inspired more angst than anticipation, more fear than fervor.<\/p>\n

The competition, returning to North America for the first time in more than three decades, has expanded to 48 teams and 104 matches, to be played over 39 days in 16 cities in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The complex planning was eight years in the making.<\/p>\n

Yet even before the competition opened with Mexico facing South Africa<\/a> at the iconic Estadio Azteca, it has been marred by a number of controversies that threaten to overshadow the soccer and cloud the tournament\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI view this World Cup as the most politically combustible World Cup in recent history. And that\u2019s saying something,\u201d said Jules Boykoff, a political science professor at the University of Portland and author of eight books on the politics of international sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in uncharted territory in many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Relations between the host countries, once strong, have been strained by the Trump administration\u2019s tariff policies and disagreements over border security. Travel bans have barred potential World Cup visitors \u2014 and even support staff and match officials \u2014 from entering the U.S. and others are fearful of making the trip, worried about ICE raids and immigration roundups.<\/p>\n

The U.S. is at war with a tournament qualifier, Iran. And Iran has fired missiles and drones on Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, nations that also are World Cup participants.<\/p>\n

The International Sports Press Assn. said Iranian and African journalists have been denied visas to cover games in the U.S., and Iran protested after more than a dozen members of its support staff had their requests to enter the U.S. rejected. The Iranians, who were forced to move their training base from Tucson to Tijuana, will spend limited time in the U.S. during group-play games that will take place in Inglewood and Seattle.<\/p>\n

Players and journalists from Senegal, Uzbekistan and Iraq have been detained at U.S. airports for up to seven hours by immigration officials. Then on Monday, Omar Artan, a decorated referee and the first Somali official selected to work a World Cup, was turned away at Miami International Airport.<\/p>\n

In addition, ticket prices have been so high and the lottery process for obtaining them so opaque, the attorneys general of New York and New Jersey have begun formal investigations into FIFA practices. Other states, including California, hosting tournament matches have begun asking questions as well. <\/p>\n

All that has conspired to produce a World Cup that is struggling to catch on with the public. According to a recent poll by Yougov.com, a majority of Americans \u2014 54% \u2014 say they are not at all interested in the tournament and nearly six in 10 say they will not watch any matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are just in a bad mood,\u201d Boykoff said. \u201cIt\u2019s a tough time.\u201d<\/p>\n

FIFA president Gianni Infantino remains optimistic, promising this will be \u201cthe biggest, the most inclusive, the greatest FIFA World Cup ever.\u201d He made the same claim about the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and the 2018 tournament in Russia. <\/p>\n

\"FIFA <\/p>\n

FIFA president Gianni Infantino speaks during a news conference on Wednesday before the start of the World Cup.<\/p>\n

(Carl Recine \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe World Cup should be understood as both a global sporting celebration and a major commercial enterprise, with these two dimensions being mutually enforcing rather than contradictory,\u201d said Steve Georgakis, a lecturer on sports studies at the University of Sydney and a frequent author on soccer.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s tournament is projected to swell FIFA\u2019s coffers by nearly $9 billion and the TV ratings, it says, will be massive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts universal appeal combined with the participation of 48 nations ensures that it remains a genuinely global sporting event,\u201d Georgakis said. <\/p>\n

Boykoff has his doubts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this particular political moment, with the Trump administration being erratic and impulsive and needing a win from this tournament and the fact there\u2019s so many moving parts geopolitically, I don\u2019t have confidence that it\u2019s just going to end up being a soccer-focused next five weeks,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

This is not the first World Cup to kick off under some kind of black cloud.<\/p>\n

The 1974 tournament in West Germany was tarred by the geopolitical fallout of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Four years later Argentina\u2019s military dictatorship used the World Cup to sportswash a \u201cDirty War\u201d in which as many as 30,000 people were tortured, murdered and disappeared.<\/p>\n

The 2010 and 2014 World Cups were troubled by cost overruns and delays in the construction of stadiums and other infrastructure and the threat of labor unrest while global outrage over human rights violations and discrimination against women and LGBTQ people hung over the last two tournaments.<\/p>\n

Those issues never fully disappeared but were overshadowed by the brilliance of the soccer. Jonathan Wilson, a columnist with the Guardian and author of \u201cThe Power and the Glory: The History of the World Cup,\u201d expects the same this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other stuff will still be there in the background,\u201d he said, \u201cbut fundamentally the football will, for the vast majority of people, take over. It\u2019s just sort of a natural cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Argentina <\/p>\n

Argentina star Lionel Messi controls the ball during an international friendly against Iceland on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

(Butch Dill \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

And as with every World Cup, there undoubtedly will be unforgettable moments.<\/p>\n

Argentina\u2019s Lionel Messi and Portugal\u2019s Cristiano Ronaldo, the top scorers in soccer history, will be playing in their sixth and final World Cups \u2014 Messi chasing a second straight title and Ronaldo pursuing the only prize that has eluded him.<\/p>\n

Kylian Mbabbe will be trying to take France to a third consecutive final while young superstars like Erling Haaland of Norway and Lamine Yamal of Spain will be looking to put their mark on their first World Cups.<\/p>\n

Four teams \u2014 Jordan, Curacao, Cape Verde and Uzbekistan \u2014 have qualified for the tournament for the first time.<\/p>\n

And there will be other storylines no one saw coming, all of which will contribute to the narrative of this World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cMajor sporting events have a way of capturing public attention and shifting the conversation toward what is happening on the field rather than off it,\u201d Georgakis said. <\/p>\n

How much the actions of the Trump administration affect that calculation remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

There are travel restrictions in place that fully or partially bar citizens from 39 countries \u2014 including a number of World Cup participants \u2014 from entering the U.S. And the administration has said ICE and Homeland Security personnel will have a visible presence at World Cup venues, including SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, where the American team will begin play Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be federal agents,\u201d confirmed L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna, who added that he could not guarantee immigration sweeps would not take place. \u201c\u200aThey told us that specifically would not be occurring,\u201d he said. \u201cAny of that\u2019s subject to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mexico <\/p>\n

Mexico fans celebrate during a watch party at Plaza Mexico in Lynwood on Thursday.<\/p>\n

(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

The difficulty in obtaining visas and the fear of being rounded up by immigration agents are being blamed, in part, for less-than-expected tourist traffic. Hotel operators in all 11 World Cup host cities say bookings for the tournament are well below projections. Several countries have issued warnings about travel to the U.S. <\/p>\n

Then there are the own goals from FIFA over tickets and parking prices as high as $900 at some stadiums, weather issues and a short-lived ban on water bottles.<\/p>\n

FIFA has defended its policies on ticket prices by arguing that premiums are necessary to maximize revenue, which it will invest in global soccer development. Variable, market-based pricing, it said, simply reflects standard entertainment practices in North America. The organization did, however, reverse its ban on fans bringing bottles into games. Spectators are now allowed to enter stadiums with one soft, plastic 20-ounce water bottle.<\/p>\n

And despite a warning from climate scientists that one in four World Cup games could be played in dangerously hot conditions, FIFA will start 40 of them at 3 p.m. or earlier local time, the warmest time of day, to accommodate European TV viewers.<\/p>\n

Georgakis said the play on the field will have to overcome all those issues if this World Cup is to earn a favorable place in history.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately the success of the World Cup will be judged by what happens on the field,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the football is compelling, dramatic and memorable, the tournament will likely be remembered as a great World Cup. If the play falls short, then the off-field issues such as ticket prices, extreme heat, ICE enforcement activities, the Trump administration will receive great attention and could shape perceptions of the event.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In many ways, the most ambitious World Cup in history \u2014 which kicked off Thursday in Mexico City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5661,145687,418,145688,48,52,51,47,50,49,592,1410,21670,145689,49820,12967,47933,1695,2281,5393,145690],"class_list":["post-357793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-author","tag-fifa-practice","tag-history","tag-hope-soccer","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-people","tag-place","tag-stadium","tag-steve-georgakis","tag-ticket-price","tag-tournament","tag-travel-ban","tag-trump-administration","tag-u-s","tag-world-cup","tag-world-cups"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}