Politics Wins: FIFA Yielded to Trump at the World Cup

A host’s rules set aside, officials blocked

According to The Citizen, the host country was permitted to bar people from attending the tournament, including those accredited by FIFA. The Citizen reports that a top African referee, Omar Artan, was among those barred, and calls that outcome “unfortunate.”

Infantino and the hosting contract

According to The Citizen, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said it would have been “impossible” to organise the event without the US president. The Citizen also states that the restriction on attendance conflicts with a FIFA rule that a host country must not bar anyone from attending.

Contractual context cited

According to The Citizen, that prohibition was a condition in the hosting contracts signed during the US president’s first term.

Comparisons to previous tournaments

According to The Citizen, when Russia hosted the tournament in 2018, Moscow accepted security and ideological compromises by allowing people to enter who might not normally have received visas. The Citizen uses that example to note there were no wider problems when a host relaxed its usual visa practices.

Warnings about lasting consequences

According to The Citizen, once politics and personality are allowed to take precedence over sport, “you have let the genie out of the bottle – one which will be impossible to put back inside.”

Critics quoted by The Citizen argue the decision sets a precedent that could make similar concessions more likely in future tournaments.