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Fifa’s gargantuan revenue influx from the tournament, with little left over for locals, will beget more exploitationYou do not, under any circumstance, have to hand it to Fifa.You do, however, have to acknowledge that the 2026 World Cup was successful in all of the ways it was intended to be successful. The soccer was interesting and competitive and dramatic, albeit mostly not great – not that this really a necessary ingredient for a compelling sporting product. People came and watched in overwhelming numbers. There was fun and folklore; underdog surprises; heroic storylines that might have been hackneyed had they been works of fiction. The whole thing made vast sums of money for its organizer. More money, by an order of billions, than even Fifa itself had projected, per the Guardian’s reporting.The tournament even went some way towards normalizing the controversial and mandatory hydration breaks, whether needed or not. This time around, we booed; next time, we’ll shrug. And while Fifa claims that it made no additional revenue from these glorified commercial breaks – the way Fox Sports chose to fill them in the United States, at any rate – you can be absolutely certain that the value created for broadcasters will be brought up in the next round of rights negotiations.The expanded field of 48 teams worked out fine, as the worst teams were, by and large, not the debutants. So fine, in fact, that a further bloating to 64 teams is now, in a growing number of rooms filled with sportocrats, evidently being talked about less as a fringe idea by heretics than as a not-unreasonable and even natural next step.In the end, it was all there. All of it happened the way it was supposed to.This fully Americanized World Cup took a great deal from the United States – the countdowns; the half-time show; the championship rings; the commercial breaks; the “let’s get ready to rumble” guy telling us to get ready to rumble; not starting either half of the final on time; the dynamic pricing; and more.But what did it give? What did it leave behind?Not all that long ago, Fifa still insisted the World Cup was about spreading the sport, conquering new lands, evangelizing in the emerging territories. Will a boring and quarrelsome final have a tail long enough for any sort of momentum to affix itself to it? Will we remember it at all in a few years? What will soccer look like in North American now that all is said and done?This is a three-pronged question. Mexico hosted the thing for a third time and will be broadly pleased with how it went. El Tri finally made it to the elusive “fifth game”, but nevertheless stranded at the same stage – the last 16 – they did at every World Cup from 1994 through 2018.Canada, who stood to gain or lose the most as the only first-time hosts, scaled new heights on the field and nevertheless felt good about what they had shown when they were trounced 3-0 by Morocco. The country had, after all, put on a series of good parties that its guests will long remember.And what of the United States? The legacy of the tournament may prove complicated here. The games were exclusive and inaccessible. And Fifa structured the thing in such a way that every penny of its mammoth haul will first head back to Switzerland. There will be no pot of money left over from the tournament for local organizers to reinvest up and down the game, the way there was in 1994. The US Soccer Federation was largely marginalized, in fact, and left to work around the edges in hopes of actually accomplishing something lasting and meaningful at the grassroots level.Did soccer make new fans? Probably not very many in the stadiums, since it’s doubtful that any significant number of people will have dropped several thousand dollars on a lark, hoping they might have a good time at this sport they’re just getting into. Certainly, the TV ratings suggest a raft of new viewers tuned in, but did they catch the soccer bug? It will be some years before we really know.Besides, soccer did not, and does not, have a popularity problem in the United States. It was already on a steep ascent. Certainly, any and all converts will be welcomed into the tent. But the global game was already very much a part of the American fabric.What soccer in the US has is an access problem. Access to a recreational youth game that hasn’t been devoured by the hypercapitalist, pay-to-play travel scene. Access, for those who do have talent and ambition, to the right coaches at the right ages, who prioritize development over winning. Access to fields and equipment and fresh air and a good old run-around.Will this World Cup help with any of those issues?As far as Fifa is concerned, this edition offered proof of concept. That it can expand without penalty. That it can get away with price-gouging, and that it will be rewarded enormously for it. That it will get away with all the extra contrivances and perversions and embellishments it can conjure up.By the same mechanism that allowed Gianni Infantino to engineer a 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia, a return to the US in 2038 seems a strong possibility. There is talk, too, of hosting the Fifa Club World Cup in the US again in 2029, same as in 2025. A 2031 Women’s World Cup co-hosted here is all but a done deal.That, in the end, may be what Fifa has built here: a colony.Leander Schaerlaeckens is the author of The Long Game: U.S. Men’s Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top, or Thereabouts, which is out now. He teaches at Marist University.

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Javier Tebas: ‘Fifa are making irresponsible decisions’‘Hydration breaks are a lie … it was a break for advertising’“Increasing the number of national teams makes no sense,” Tebas said in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport. “The football industry is not just the World Cup, which is the most important event. But not everything can revolve around the World Cup. It is national competitions that support this sport.“They are destroying the football industry, which generates tens of thousands of jobs, for an event that lasts 40 days and involves a minority of players. We need fewer national teams and more protection for national football, at all levels. They don’t realise, they are making irresponsible decisions.”Asked whether Infantino should leave his position, Tebas said: “In my opinion, yes, I think his time is up. However, he has the support of the system, of the federations, so there’s not much more to add, is there?“There’s no opposition candidate, nobody wants to stand just to lose. This is the system, and it’s a system rotten at its core. These past few days here in America I’ve heard many people who are against Infantino, who disagree with what he does. They say it, but then they do nothing.“I don’t know if silence or complicity is worse, because those who are silent are perfectly aware of the damage that football is suffering.”Infantino has been a controversial figure during his 10 years as Fifa president. The Swiss is poised to be re-elected for a fourth term in Fifa’s March 2027 congress, although Tebas believes Infantino might have been brought down by the Folarin Balogun affair if the USA had beaten Belgium in their World Cup last-16 tie.The USA striker’s one-match ban was suspended by Fifa’s disciplinary committee, allowing him to play against Belgium, after a phone call to Infantino from Donald Trump. Infantino has said the decision to revoke Balogun’s ban was taken independently by the disciplinary committee “based on the applicable regulations and the specific facts”.Tebas said: “The suspension of the American player’s ban was absolutely serious; they were lucky that Belgium eliminated the USA, because otherwise, a case could have arisen that might have cost Infantino his job. Since Belgium won, they managed to bury the matter. But these things are just the tip of the iceberg.“Fifa arranges things as it wants, for what it wants, for its own interests, certainly not for football. So, if they need a 27-minute half-time break, they’ll have it. Hydration breaks are a lie.“We have them in La Liga, but when it’s genuinely hot. Here, the pitches in Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta had air conditioning; I had to put on a jumper in the stands. It was a lie, a break for advertising.”

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It ended almost as Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump had planned. Earlier on a seemingly endless World Cup final day, the trophy had, in a scene perfectly of a piece with the event’s excess, been let out of a Louis Vuitton trunk. Now they shuffled up to the podium together and presented it to a beaming Rodri, fumbling the moment slightly when Trump lingered for Spain’s team photo. After shrugging off anything resembling embarrassment they had made their exit, golden glitter sparkling on a bobbly pitch and the reverberations from a football event of unprecedented scale pulsing far beyond this concreted mini-state in New Jersey.How to make sense of a heady, intoxicating, often deeply strange tournament that at once appeared totally welcoming and chillingly distant? It concluded with a disorientating fever dream beneath a bright blue American sky, football appearing a sideshow for much of the afternoon even if the game did not exactly help itself. Anyone straining for a parable could, if they wanted, take pleasure in Spain’s success. This was ultimately the triumph of a collective idea in a World Cup nurtured to indulge the cult of the individual.Through it all Infantino and Trump sat abreast, absorbing the spectacle behind reinforced glass. What kind of advertisement for football’s health was this? The past month’s controversies demonstrate that football’s leaders, and Trump must be considered one given the influence conferred upon him, have never been remoter than this and nor have they been more bulletproof. On the other side of the divide Argentina and Spain passed, niggled, snarled, sometimes crawled through one of the worst finals of all time, although at times one wondered how much that really mattered.The punters who paid $1m (£740,000) for pitchside seats from one hospitality provider, sun hats included, may have learned the hard way that football tends not to guarantee a dopamine fix on demand. But this was primarily an occasion for being seen rather than seeing. A document circulated by Fifa before kick-off proudly named 235 of the celebrities and VVIPs in attendance. One of them, Tom Cruise, attempted a speech in the oddly featureless pre-match show; he was drowned out by Argentina’s fans and it was one of the only moments in the day when a football atmosphere could be said to have prevailed.This tournament has wrenched, tweaked and torn at football’s fabric. Perhaps the view among Infantino’s circle is that all publicity can be optimised, polished, made to bellow louder and mainline the sport’s brash, gaudy modern exterior into non-believers. Football’s governing body has certainly succeeded in imprinting itself upon the US public, a swathe of whom appeared to believe the tournament was named some variant of “the Fifa” throughout the summer.But the Folarin Balogun affair has caused incalculable damage to trust in Fifa’s mechanisms, not to mention its proclamations of political neutrality. It has tested the patience of football insiders whose fealty may once have been beyond question, although not enough to prevent the certainty that Infantino will be re-elected by a landslide in March. Just as worryingly it teaches newcomers to the sport that every outcome is up for grabs if the relevant relationships are in place. Trump has made no secret that he would like solo host status handed to the US before long. The cooperation between him and Infantino is unlikely to scale back to that of golfing buddies. By the next available slot in 2038 his country may be staging football’s equivalent, in ethical terms at least, of the Enhanced Games.For now the game has its ways of pulling through even if most of the final was a slog until, with afternoon blending into early evening, Ferran Torres confirmed Spain’s supremacy. Cape Verde’s story, and particularly that of their goalkeeper Vozinha, was one for the ages. Lionel Messi, Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappé and Jude Bellingham did what stars ought to. Belgium destroyed a previously likable US side in the last 16, meaning Balogun’s reprieve at least had no material consequence.Beyond the scandal and shame there have been genuine reminders of what a World Cup can foster. Cities such as Kansas City and Houston delighted in unfurling the red carpet for fans, teams and other visitors using them as bases. Hospitality and generosity were sincere, often disarming. From overseas it had been easy to tar the entire US with the dirtied brush of its administration. But human beings are essentially good, kind and curious. Travelling around the US at length offered a rare chance to remember that.The US is big enough, its immigrant communities sufficiently engaged and its more obscure outposts adequately far flung, that evidence of this tournament could be found everywhere and nowhere. In Canada, the same applied to a greater or lesser extent. Mexico provided the injection of raw, unvarnished football passion. It offered the summer’s best venue, the peerless Azteca, and should have hosted matches beyond the last 16. The fear is it may not receive another chance.Over and out, then, for a World Cup that has gobbled up money, resource, airtime and attention as never before. As Infantino and Trump departed, a tearful Messi stood before Argentina’s support. Here, at last, was the kind of intensely human moment the occasion had lacked. An era is over for football’s greatest-ever player and the fans who turn his every appearance into a vibrant homage. This was the month when an entire sport appeared to enter a fresh dimension of its own.

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The biggest job in world football is up for election - and there’s just one candidate: Gianni Infantino, who is on course to be re-elected as Fifa president by a landslide in March.The Guardian understands more than 200 of Fifa's 211 member associations have already sent formal letters of support for a fourth Infantino term, with only a handful - Germany the most high-profile among them - yet to declare.The endorsements have flooded in despite a summer of controversy. Watch this video to learn more about why Infantino's power is so untouchable. Fifa has been approached for comment.

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Balogun reprieve showed ‘rules bend under pressure’In an open letter published to coincide with Sunday’s final, Alain Berset also called for a new integrity framework to be built before the 2030 tournament, which is mainly being staged in Europe, and warned that Fifa was embroiled in a crisis involving money and power.Berset referenced the scandal surrounding Fifa’s decision to shelve the suspension of the USA striker Folarin Balogun and made apparent allusions to comments made by the Paraguayan senator Celeste Amarilla about Kylian Mbappé and by the former Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy about the France team.“The Fifa World Cup 2026 has raised question after question,” Berset wrote. “A sanction suspended under pressure, within days, with no reasons given. The authority of referees called into question. Racist abuse of players, some of it from elected officials. Betting on every pass, every card, every corner. The celebration will end tonight. The questions will not.”It is a significant intervention given Fifa and the Council of Europe signed a memorandum of understanding in 2018, which remains valid. The agreement was struck to strengthen their work together on a number of topics, including “human rights, integrity and good governance in sport”. Open criticism of one partner by another is vanishingly rare.Berset took aim at Fifa’s deal with ADI Predictstreet, which became the World Cup’s official prediction market partner in April. “Betting has moved from the result of a match to moments a single player can produce without changing the score,” he said. “A bet is won by making others lose. It is an open door to fraud. And this World Cup has opened the door wider.”In further reference to the lifting of Balogun’s ban by Fifa, which occurred after a phone call to its president, Gianni Infantino, by his US counterpart, Donald Trump, Berset said: “When the rules bend under pressure, every result is open to doubt.”Infantino has said the decision to revoke Balogun’s ban was taken independently by Fifa’s disciplinary committee “based on the applicable regulations and the specific facts”.Berset, who is Swiss, proposed a “working dialogue that starts tonight” to begin the “urgent work of strengthening the integrity of sport” before future World Cups. He referenced work by the Council of Europe – which is the continent’s intergovernmental human rights organisation – in creating a binding treaty to keep fans safe three months after the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985, as well as further legislation set up to tackle doping in athletics and match-fixing.The letter comes a week and a half after 72 members of the European parliament wrote to the 27 EU-based football associations asking for an investigation into Infantino’s involvement in the Balogun case. It pointed to alleged breaches of political neutrality and suggested Fifa had contravened its own code of ethics.It does not appear likely that Uefa, European football’s governing body, will formally take the matter further. In June, 50 members of the European parliament wrote to Infantino and the Fifa council requesting an investigation into the awarding of the Fifa peace prize to Trump.This past week the Guardian revealed that more that 200 of Fifa’s member associations have formally backed Infantino’s attempt to be re-elected for a fourth term in March.

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Hospitality and secondary ticket market help fuel riseGianni Infantino will feel this shores up his positionFifa’s member associations were informed of the boost in income by Gianni Infantino on Saturday. Originally the governing body had projected $11bn in earnings. Sources have indicated that hospitality and ticketing, especially through the steeply priced secondary market, account for a significant amount of the increase. Fifa takes 15% from the buyer and another 15% from the seller on the secondary market.It is likely that football associations will reap the benefits of Fifa’s expanded World Cup pot, although details are yet to be finalised. The financial situation will come as a boost to Infantino, who will feel it further shores up his position after a controversy-ridden month in the United States, Canada and Mexico.There was widespread fury after Fifa was perceived to have bowed to pressure from Donald Trump in suspending the red card given to Folarin Balogun, the US striker, against Paraguay in the last 16. Fifa has said the decision was taken independently by its disciplinary committee but that has continued to fester among European FAs in particular. Infantino has nevertheless received more than 200 pledges of support from Fifa’s member associations for his re-election in March. The prospect of extra funds from bumper World Cup revenue is likely to dissuade some FAs from making any discontent public.Such a bonanza may also increase the chances of the US hosting another edition in the near future. The next World Cup available for bids is the 2038 tournament. At a reception on Friday, Trump confirmed his country’s eagerness for a repeat performance. “You should choose the United States of America again,” he said. “This time we will leave Canada and Mexico out.” The US has also held talks with Fifa about hosting the Club World Cup in 2029.On Saturday evening VIP and hospitality packages for Sunday’s final between Spain and Argentina, which will be played in New Jersey, were still listed on Fifa’s ticketing portal. Tickets for the “trophy lounge” were retailing at $34,500 per person.

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Ex-Concacaf executive Mel Brennan reflects on the Fifa corruption scandal, missed reforms and why football’s governance remains stubbornly opaqueMel Brennan has seen every level of world football. “I know what the World Cup looks like from the 17th floor of Trump Tower … I know what it looks like from a grass-strewn field in Trinidad where children cannot play because money that was supposed to maintain it went somewhere else entirely,” he says.Brennan worked as an executive at Concacaf during the corrupt reign of its infamous former president Jack Warner and the late general secretary Chuck Blazer, who once helped run the organization from Trump Tower.Brennan was also a confidential source for investigative journalists and law enforcement as they looked into the corruption that was rife within the organization for decades. Brennan’s book about his time at Concacaf, Fixing Football is out now.“Football survived Sepp Blatter,” he writes, optimistically, in the book. “It survived Jack Warner. It survived Chuck Blazer. And it will survive Gianni Infantino.”The Guardian sat down with Brennan to talk about Fifa, Concacaf and the future of the game.Were you surprised when law enforcement raided a Zurich hotel and Concacaf headquarters in Miami in 2015 to indict so many Fifa and Concacaf officials? No. The FBI had stopped and started dialog with me about what was going on at Concacaf. On two separate occasions I was on my way to New York to [meet] with investigators and they said “Wait – we’re not quite ready”. I literally turned my car around. So I knew something was percolating. On the other hand I never really thought there would be comeuppance with this group.Why did you think there would be no accountability for Concacaf bosses after everything you saw while working there?When I was with Concacaf the office was on the 17th floor of Trump Tower. Chuck Blazer lived on the 49th floor. Before that, Chuck and Jack Warner shared an apartment on the 10th floor across from Donald Trump and Marla Maples. They were all so intertwined and so much a part of the interlocking elite that accountability was a distant dream. I would imagine that Chuck, Jack, and others would do anything to stay out of jail. These were not gangsters. These were opportunistic cockroaches. They were not tough guys. They would run with any real sustained sunlight. [Chuck Blazer became an undercover informant for FBI and IRS investigators in 2011.]Were you surprised Concacaf featured so prominently in the 2015 scandals?No. I felt like Concacaf was among the least competent of the continental actors. You had other confederations with people who were European glitterati or ran legitimate businesses but you didn’t really have that in Concacaf. Jack was a former history teacher but he knew that the Caribbean was a sleeping giant that could subvert the Guatemalan-Mexican football power structure at the time. And you had Chuck who was an extractor but you couldn’t really point to a lot that he had built. They were not sophisticated corporate guys. They were not sophisticated business guys. They were born opportunists. That the mistakes were so easily revealed to law enforcement was not a surprise.Blazer and Warner had tight control over Concacaf but there are usually always enablers in these environments. Was that the case at Concacaf?In a larger sense, all of us were enablers but I think that the Concacaf executive committee and the Concacaf member associations would have made a different choice with different political pressure at the time. From 1990 to about 2015 they were operating within a North American context where the world’s sport was sixth or seventh on the media table. It was arguable that wrestling had more media attention. So the media landscape also has to take its fair share of the blame. Often folks would want to maintain access and instead of doing investigative journalism that requires document review and truth-telling, and speaking truth to power, it was more reporting and more like Pravda rather than “the institution said this now lets’s really dig in to see if this is true or not and if it is not true why didn’t they tell us the truth?” There was not a lot of that in the LA Times or the New York Times. Everybody played a role in enabling this.So Blazer and Warner lined their pockets with cash from deals they made. Why do we care how they made money? The cost was that people didn’t gain access to sporting opportunities [they were entitled to through]. The football bubble and the rise in the dollars available for them should have created access. If you are a girl and you play sport, you only have a small chance to go pro but if you play sport and you stay in sport you are more likely to lead an organization as an adult. But these types of opportunities were lost for so many because Jack and Chuck were too busy acting like they were building fields and programming but Chuck and Jack were actually on a game show called “Who is Stealing Money?”. And they were on it every week.Where was the US, Canada, and Mexico – all big players in Concacaf during this? People like [former US Soccer president ] Sunil Gulati were fully present when I was there. The role that Sunil played under [his predecessor] and then as US Soccer president himself felt more like him being a World Bank guy – which is the world he comes from. Admiring this economic engine that Chuck and Jack had built from a distance rather than deploying the power of US Soccer to shine a light on this stuff and make a difference.In your book Fixing Football you recall an amazing scene at a Concacaf conference in Miami where women, who were not delegates, left the hotel en masse at 5am. There were more than 15 and less than 30 [women]. All from the same floor. And you see how they are dressed and you see the time and see what is going on. You feel like you want to call somebody because maybe you are crazy. Everyone else who was there and had been [at Concacaf events previously] was, like, “Well, yeah, let’s get them in the car and get them off …”Has anything changed at Fifa since your era?Transparency International laid out a framework that would have [made things less opaque at Fifa]. Fifa could have meetings of the Fifa Council that are broadcast live and minutes that are in real time. We could see the bank accounts in real time if they wanted us to see it. Some cockroaches have scattered and other cockroaches came in but the overall smell remains the same.Was Victor Montagliani the right person to lead Concacaf after the 2015 crisis?Victor Montagliani had an opportunity to demonstrate he was the right person to lead. There was a moment where Concacaf could have gone in a different direction: democratic, transparent, inclusive, diverse. Instead, what Concacaf did was rely on the fact that [Montagliani] was not Jack and Chuck to say that this meant change. In the end, we still cannot see and it is not clear how Concacaf doles out its dollars. The question is, will Montagliani and other leaders step back just a moment to build something that would matter beyond themselves? That would matter for more people. I was naive to think that Montagliani could be this radical change when most of the status quo is still in place.Should Concacaf be making sponsorship deals with Saudi Arabia and accepting investment in the region from the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund?Any nation state that is murdering journalists has to be marginalized. I would not want to see Concacaf engaging with Saudi Arabia without some sort of weight to the decision-making process of sponsorships and partnerships that included human rights records and human rights abuses. How Saudi Arabia treats women and the most vulnerable matters. If Concacaf is considering a partnership with them then they should have a mechanism that is going to evaluate some of [the issues]. They might not get a deal at all but to not have those considerations in the conversation as to whether you are going to partner somebody is an abandonment of the spirit that makes sport matter at all.Does the USA, Mexico, and Canada hosting this year’s World Cup make this tournament a success for the sport in the region?It is an opportunity. [But] who gets left behind? In my local town in Maryland, all [organized] youth soccer is white kids. But a 10-minute walk from my house a park is reserved by Latino communities but these two communities don’t meet. One community is going to the Dallas Cup and the Florida youth soccer tournaments and the other one is not. There is something wrong here and there is an opportunity for us to reshape how this looks or to call for and get better answers from our leaders as to why it looks the way it looks.This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Only a handful of FAs have not declared their supportGianni Infantino has the formal endorsement of more than 200 countries for re-election as Fifa’s president despite the climate of unrest that has swirled since the scandal surrounding Folarin Balogun’s reprieve from suspension.The Guardian understands only a handful of Fifa’s 211 member associations are still to send letters of support for Infantino, who is on course to be voted into a fourth term by a landslide at its congress in March. A small number of European countries are among the outliers, with Germany the highest-profile FA yet to provide official backing.Candidates must be put forward by 18 November, before which time letters can also be withdrawn or transferred to a different contender. But Infantino is currently the only runner and some FAs feel they have, nonetheless, come under persistent pressure from within Fifa to confirm their allegiance. In theory that should not be permitted under Fifa’s ethics code.It would take a political earthquake to dislodge Infantino. Although there remains disquiet after Donald Trump admitted lobbying Fifa to review the USA striker Balogun’s red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina, the vast majority of it is festering among European FAs and adjacent bodies. Infantino does not need to count on Europe’s support to land an overwhelming mandate and, in any case, most of the continent has confirmed its endorsement for his re-election. The English FA is among those to have sent its letter well in advance of the World Cup.The topic of a Europe-backed candidate to run against Infantino has gained legitimacy behind closed doors over the past 10 days but the prospect of multiple federations settling upon a name feels remote.Fifa’s member associations will convene in New York on Saturday although, with Infantino helming the meeting, the subject of recent scandals is unlikely to be an agenda item. The World Cup’s financial performance, and any subsequent benefits that could be passed on to the FAs, is more likely to be a topic of discussion.

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Infantino has said US president will hand over trophySpain v Argentina final is set for Sunday in New JerseyDonald Trump will attend Sunday’s World Cup final between Spain and Argentina, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday.“We look forward ⁠to the final match on Sunday, ​and I know ‌the president ‌looks forward to attending,” Leavitt said. “This is a fitting conclusion to a tournament that showcased America’s ability to host the world on the grandest stage.”“Yes, hopefully we’ll present the trophy together in the final,” Infantino said. “That’s always been the plan, and that’s how it’s always been done in the past – the president of the country where the final is held presents the trophy together with the Fifa president.”At the 2022 World Cup final, the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, joined Infantino to award the trophy to Lionel Messi and his Argentina teammates. Vladimir Putin awarded it to Kylian Mbappé and France after their win at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.Trump was front and center for the final of last summer’s Club World Cup at the same stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, presenting the trophy to champions Chelsea and drawing loud boos from the crowd.While Trump has not yet attended a game at this World Cup, he has nevertheless played a significant role. He has a close relationship with Infantino, and called the Fifa president to lobby for a review of USA star Folarin Balogun’s controversial red-card suspension before their last-16 match. Fifa did reverse Balogun’s ban, but the political circus cast a pall over the US team, who exited a promising World Cup with a flat loss to Belgium.Trump has made several appearances at sporting events since his reelection. Last year, he attended the Super Bowl, tennis’s US Open, the Daytona 500 and golf’s Ryder Cup. This year, he has attended several golf events, college football’s national championship game and Game 3 of the NBA Finals, where he was met with boos from the New York Knicks home crowd.Leavitt told reporters that she did not know which team Trump was supporting in the final.“I’m sure he’ll have a fun answer ⁠for you,” she told reporters.Leavitt also said Trump will attend a Fifa reception at Trump Tower in New York City on Friday. Soccer’s governing body opened an office in the building last year.

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There was a sense of deja vu as Argentina came from behind to win an intense semi-final. But the players also gave the nation some memorable highsHistorically, English football-supporting culture has had a well-known darker side. But in recent decades, as the England men’s team’s trophy drought has continued, some of its unofficial anthems have acquired an endearingly melancholy quality. “It was nearly complete, it was nearly so sweet”, as the Three Lions song had it in the 1990s, when England exited a World Cup and a European Championship at the semi-final stage.This summer, Oasis’s Wonderwall has been the soundtrack as Harry Kane and co progressed to Wednesday’s climactic semi-final showdown with Argentina. This is a song which, very wisely in an England context, puts a heavy emphasis on the idea of “maybe”. In the end it turned out to be maybe not.A watching audience of more than 24 million began to believe as England scored first to put themselves on the brink of a first World Cup final since 1966. But a familiar sense of resignation then took over, as the team wilted under Argentinian pressure and lost to a stoppage-time winner. The Portuguese sometimes define their national sensibility using the word saudade, conveying a mixture of nostalgia and longing. England’s footballers and followers could do with their own equivalent.The inquest, thankfully, is so far proving less vicious than the one which led to the disgraceful vilification of David Beckham, after his red card was followed by defeat against Argentina in 1998. But England’s German coach, Thomas Tuchel, is coming under fire after presiding over his side’s retreat into a defensive shell in the latter stages of the game. Nervous England teams lost in similar fashion to Croatia in the 2018 semi-final, and to Italy in the Euro 2020 final. Tuchel was supposed to be the foreign change agent, but the inability to take control from a winning position was all too familiar. Football, as we know, is a fickle game. It was only last week that he was being talked up on Mumsnet.As the air slightly goes out of a heatwave-heavy summer, the rest of the world’s attention will shift to a Spain-Argentina final – surely to be the 39-year-old Lionel Messi’s last appearance on football’s greatest stage. The 2026 men’s World Cup has suffered from hyper-commercialisation, visa injustices and an assault on the tournament’s sporting integrity by Donald Trump, facilitated by the egregious Fifa president, Gianni Infantino. But the extraordinary longevity of Messi’s genius, which turned the game against England, has offered a spectacle to delight anyone interested in sport. The provocative and reprehensible brandishing of a Falklands-related banner by his teammates has done him a disservice by generating a row where there should been only acclamation.Tuchel and his deflated players will depart the US after a third-place match against a similarly disappointed France team. Some will leave having enhanced their reputation, others will have regrets. But collectively they confirmed England’s status in the top rank of footballing nations – a position not to be taken for granted after periods of spectacular underachievement – and gave the nation some memorable highs.The intense, passionate victory over Mexico in a cacophonous, stormy Azteca stadium will take its place among the greatest of England triumphs. For the rest, Wonderwall captures the immediate mood nicely: “Today was gonna be the day, but they’ll never throw it back to you.” There’s always tomorrow, though.

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Guardian analysis finds 19% of games reached heat levels warranting delays, as Fifa defends its player safeguardsThe climate crisis has come for football.During this year’s World Cup, nearly one in five of the tournament’s 100-plus matches took place in levels of heat and humidity that a football players’ union has previously said should trigger delays or postponements, a Guardian analysis has found. An additional 23 matches were played in cities as they reached those heat levels, but in stadiums where conditions were mitigated by air conditioning.“The climate crisis is hitting the things we all need, like a stable climate, clean air and affordable food, as well as the things we love, like football and other sports,” Simon Stiell, executive secretary for the United Nations climate body, said in an emailed comment.Our analysis looked at conditions where the tournament’s 104 matches were either already played (102) or the forecasts for the two remaining matches.The findings are a sign of a broader challenge facing football as the planet warms. The climate crisis is making extreme heat more frequent and intense, raising new questions about whether the conditions in which major tournaments are played can remain safe for players and supporters.“The 2026 Fifa World Cup matches have introduced a true stress test of heat mitigation and preparedness,” said Joshua L DeVincenzo, an assistant director at Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness. “Fifa, spectators, stadium operators, and others … were tested firsthand on the disruptions and complications that extreme heat and weather can pose.”The findings come as a record-breaking heatwave scorches much of the United States, with more than 125 million Americans spanning from California to New England under dangerous heat alerts. Sunday’s final seems set to be played in conditions with a wet bulb globe temperature estimate of just under 26C (79F), with low humidity alleviating the effects of high air temperatures. However, another climate-fueled concern could plague attenders: Wildfire smoke is expected to continue to degrade air quality in the region, with New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, warning of health impacts.Our analysis found that an estimated 20 matches were played in conditions with wet bulb globe temperatures (WBGT) that may have been at or over 28C (82F).Under those conditions, the players’ union Fifpro has argued, games should be delayed or postponed to protect footballers’ health. Other match attenders can also face risks, said DeVincenzo.“We learned from this World Cup that, in addition to player safety and health, important precautions must be considered for spectators, volunteers and stadium staff long before the day of the match,” he said.Fifpro declined to comment on the latest analysis, but previously told the Guardian: “The lesson for everyone in the industry is that with a warming planet, heat conditions will play a bigger part in tournament and league scheduling decisions in the future.”WBGT readings account for humidity, direct sunlight and wind to provide a more accurate measure of heat stress and the body’s ability to cool itself through sweating. At high enough levels of heat and humidity, sweat can no longer evaporate efficiently, preventing the body from cooling itself and leading to rapid overheating that can cause heat illness or even death.Official WBGT measurements require specialized equipment on site, but the Guardian compiled approximations based on air temperature and humidity data for the time and place of each match, with data from the open-source weather service Open-Meteo. Estimates were calculated using a formula created by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and used by institutions including the Canadian military.The hottest game played in a non-air-conditioned stadium was held on the Fourth of July in Philadelphia. During the France v Paraguay round of 16 match, temperatures at the city’s stadium reportedly reached 38C (100F), and WBGT during the game may have reached or exceeded 33.9C (93F), the Guardian’s analysis found.The hottest game overall was played when Argentina defeated Austria 2-0 on 22 June in Dallas, Texas. Though the game was played in one of the only three fully air-conditioned World Cup 2026 stadiums (the other two being in Houston, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia), the Dallas match still exposed those outside the venue to sweltering conditions. The asphalt outside the stadium, for instance, reportedly reached a sizzling and dangerous 50C (122F).“Spectator experiences created a secondary risk in the heat; factors such as long walking distances without cover, unshaded areas, sun-exposed seating in the stadium, and long wait times in heat-emitting spaces like parking lots put people at a much higher risk of heat stress and related injuries,” he said. “These experiences can be addressed ahead of future games by training volunteers to identify signs of heat stress and to know the appropriate actions to take when fans experience dizziness, fainting, or falls.”Every match played in three cities – Dallas, Houston and Miami – appears to have been contested in conditions that breached the 33.9C threshold. At the Miami, which does not have air conditioning, players, workers and spectators alike blistered under WGBT readings of approximately 32.5C (90.5F) during Norway’s match against England last weekend. Temperatures reached 33C (91.4F) with 65% humidity, and sweat poured off of every face in the venue.Record-breaking heat and humidity are set to blanket the midwestern and eastern US this week, potentially making conditions even more challenging for players and fans at some games. In the future, conditions could deteriorate even further.The 2030 World Cup, for instance, is set to be staged across Spain, Portugal and Morocco, each of which is already experiencing significantly more extreme heat due to the climate crisis. Four years later, Saudi Arabia is expected to host the 2034 tournament during the northern hemisphere winter, a scheduling shift designed to avoid summer temperatures that regularly climb above 40C (104F).

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Spokesperson says islands belong to the UK‘PM wishes both teams well for the final, especially Spain’Keir Starmer supports the idea of Fifa investigating Argentina players who displayed a banner touting their country’s claim to the Falklands Islands after their World Cup semi-final win against England, Downing Street has said.Starmer, who watched the match while travelling to Ukraine by train for the final overseas trip of his premiership, endorsed a call by Peter Kyle, the business secretary, for Fifa to investigate what rules may have been broken.After Argentina’s 2-1 win in an occasionally fractious match in Atlanta on Wednesday, some players held up a banner that said: “Las Malvinas son Argentinas”, using the country’s term for the South Atlantic islands.Argentina face Spain in Sunday’s final. Asked who Starmer would be supporting, his spokesperson said: “The PM wishes both teams well for the final, especially Spain.”Asked for Starmer’s reaction to the sign, they said: “The World Cup might not be ours, but the Falkland Islands definitely are. Our position is unchanged. Self-determination rests with the islanders and our commitment to the Falklands will never waver.“More broadly, potential action is a matter for Fifa, but it’s been a fantastic World Cup and we’ve said throughout that politics should stay out of football.”Earlier on Thursday, Kyle told the BBC that the banner was “an egregious violation of the rules of not having political activity as part of the football”.He added: “The World Cup has one of its central tenets that politics is separate from football. That is now a matter for Fifa. I expect Fifa to do its investigation thoroughly.” The PM’s spokesperson said Starmer endorsed Kyle’s comments urging Fifa to investigate.As to whether Thomas Tuchel should consider his position after England were comprehensively outplayed for long sections of the match, the spokesperson said this was a matter for the England head coach. “Thomas Tuchel and his team have taken us deep into the tournament this World Cup, giving us thrilling matches against teams like Mexico and Norway that people in England will never forget, and he thinks that the team have represented England wonderfully, both on and off the pitch.”The semi-final was predicted as potentially likely to inflame disagreements over the Falklands. A 1982 war after Argentina invaded the islands killed more than 900 people.Argentina has complained that HMS Medway, a Royal Navy vessel, went through its national waters without permission while sailing from the Falklands to Chile this month.Starmer’s spokesperson said the UK rejected this. “We notified the Argentinian government in advance of HMS Medway undertaking a routine logistics visit to Chile between the 5 and 8 July to support British Antarctic Survey operations, which will deliver essential stores and supplies to sustain scientific research in Antarctica.“The Royal Navy always operates in full compliance with international law and the transit from the Falkland Islands to Chile was carried out via the most direct practicable practical route, considering operational safety and weather factors to ensure timely delivery.”The Falkland Islands government said: “The Falklands government is disappointed – though regrettably not surprised – that the Argentine football team decided to tarnish the result of last night’s World Cup football semi-final – a game that did not in any case involve the Falkland Islands. “That said, it is hardly news to anyone that the people of the islands were victims of an aggressive invasion in 1982, which left many traumatised. The banner displayed by Argentina last night, therefore, was particularly insensitive for many people in the Falklands … We hope Fifa will make good on their promise to keep politics out of sport, and sanction all behaviour of this nature in line with its own rules.”