Category: Politics

President Donald Trump’s call to FIFA President Gianni Infantino urging him to review U.S. striker Folarin Balogun’s red card has thrust the politics of global sport back in the spotlight — and it’s raising questions about how the Olympic movement plans to navigate a White House that has an interventionist approach toward the world’s biggest sporting events.

Trump’s involvement — along with that of other senior administration officials — with the global governing body for soccer highlighted just how deeply FIFA has cultivated its relationship with the White House.

But with Los Angeles set to host the 2028 Summer Olympics, Olympic officials have charted a markedly different course. So far, newly elected IOC President Kirsty Coventry has yet to appear publicly alongside Trump.

While FIFA has been the primary organizer of the 2026 World Cup, the International Olympic Committee will rely on LA28 — the independent local organizing committee — to execute the games.

That structure has allowed the IOC to keep more distance from Washington. Asked in January whether she could learn from Infantino’s approach to courting Trump, Coventry suggested the Olympic movement would take a more measured path.

“If we weren’t seeing good relations six months before the World Cup I would get worried,” she said. “As we get closer to the Olympics you will see the relations continue … and only get stronger.”

For now, the personal relationship with Trump has largely been managed through Casey Wasserman, the chair of LA28, who has emerged as the Olympic movement’s chief interlocutor with the White House.

Wasserman appeared alongside Trump in the Oval Office last year when the president signed an executive order establishing a White House task force focused on the 2028 Games. But it’s a sharp contrast with Infantino’s regular presence at the president’s side, his proclivity for praising the president in public and catering to his ego. After supporting the effort to have the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Trump, Infantino created FIFA’s first-ever Peace Prize and awarded it to the president.

“My understanding of the Casey way is keep your head down, do the work, have your leaders lead the day-to-day, and worry about the most important things to make sure the event is successful, right?” said one person who has worked closely with Wasserman. “It’s not grandstanding and placating the way Gianni has done. It’s just a different approach. Look, maybe it’s just too soon, but he’s not a peace prize-giving kind of guy.”

Behind the scenes, however, cooperation between LA28 and the administration has already begun.

According to people familiar with the discussions, organizers have been working closely with the White House Olympic Task Force on a range of logistical issues, including plans for a pro-am golf tournament at Trump’s Los Angeles-area golf course before the Games.

At the State Department’s request, LA28 has also helped develop a dedicated visa processing portal for Olympic athletes and officials. The system has already been used to facilitate the entry of a small number of LA28 support staff into the United States, according to people familiar with the effort.

As the World Cup has unfolded this month, Trump’s interest in the Olympics has hardly diminished — they are the two events taking place during his second term that he takes credit for bringing to the U.S., based on decisions that were made during his first term.

“The beautiful thing about what I did is I ran [for president again]. I never thought of it, and then all of a sudden I realized, you know, I just got the Olympics, and I totally got that myself, and I just got FIFA,” Trump said on Monday. “I got that myself.”

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The head of FIFA’s anti-discrimination partner — which has dispatched human monitors to every World Cup match so far — said Thursday that the group has submitted “a number of reports regarding matches involving Mexico.”

Piara Powar, executive director of the Fare network, declined in an interview with POLITICO to say what incidents the reports allege.

But the existence of the reports could spell trouble for the Mexican Football Federation, which has faced a number of sanctions over the past decade from FIFA related to discriminatory practices at its games.

FIFA declined to comment on any specific report Friday, and an inquiry to the Mexican Football Federation’s press inbox went unanswered.

In a statement, the world soccer governing body said “potential incidents are handled by FIFA’s judicial bodies in line with the relevant regulations and match reports, and taking into account the specific circumstances at stake.”

A potential subject included in the reports: Mexican fans repeating an anti-gay chant that has loomed over the national team since it emerged during the 2014 World Cup.

Sometimes referred to as “El Grito,” the chant involves the crowd winding with a prolonged “ehhhhh” as the opposing goalkeeper sets up for a goal kick, followed by a thunderous “puto” as the ball launches upward.

The latter word, which roughly translates to “male prostitute” in Spanish, is listed as a homophobic slur within the global guide to discriminatory practices in soccer authored by the Fare network, an umbrella organization set up to counter discrimination in world soccer.

The chant was audible during broadcasts of Mexico’s last-16 match against England and appeared during the federation’s final group stage tilt against Czechia. The Mexican national team played all of its World Cup matches on home soil, in Mexico City and Guadalajara.

Whether these reports will result in a material penalty is unknown. Powar said that, in most cases, sanctions are announced following the end of the World Cup and are preceded by an investigation and hearings related to the report. Previous punishments have ranged from six-figure fines to forcing the national team to play in front of an empty stadium.

The Mexican federation has unsuccessfully tried to stymie the chant’s popularity. During the 2018 World Cup, Mexican forward Javier Hernandez pleaded with Mexican fans to not invoke it after FIFA announced it was investigating its use during an earlier match.

And ahead of the 2026 tournament, the federation launched a campaignexplicitly encouraging fans to support the team by ditching the chant in favor of a stadium-wide wave — a now unanimous-practice that traces its origins to the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.

Powar said change is still possible.

“It’s not the case that, you know, this culture is fixed or that you can’t change it into a more positive direction, particularly when you’re getting fined the sort of sums the Mexican Federation have over the years,” Powar said.

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This may be the only World Cup where Palestinian flags have so noticeably outnumbered Italian ones. At the first global tournament after Oct. 7, 2023, symbols of Palestinian solidarity have been widespread despite the fact that Palestine has never competed in a World Cup.

After being adopted by teams and fans across the tournament, the Palestinian cause may have seen its last hurrah at this World Cup with yesterday’s elimination of Morocco.

The tournament that began with a record eight Arab nations, twice the previous high for any World Cup, now has none left to represent the region. The war in Gaza has woven Palestinian solidarity inextricably into many of their fanbases.

Celebrating his team’s historic Round of 32 win over Australia last Friday, Egypt head coach Hossam Hassan raised a Palestinian flag as supporters chanted “Free Palestine” at Dallas Stadium.

“To our Palestinian brothers and sisters, may God protect them,” Hassan said at a post-match press conference. “This victory is for the Egyptian people, for the Palestinian people and for the Arab people.” On streets in Gaza, Palestinians mirrored Hassan’s gesture, hoisting Egyptian flags, setting off fireworks and celebrating the victory as their own.

At this World Cup, emblems of support been impossible to miss or conflate with just any other team. Supporters and players of many nations — including Jordan, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, and Bosnia and Herzegovina — are among the many who have made their support for Palestine through flags and keffiyehs unmistakable. But with Morocco out, Palestine may have to find its champions beyond the Muslim and Arab worlds.

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Separatist politics have long spilled onto Spanish football pitches. In Catalonia, where nationalist sentiments run deep, clubs like FC Barcelona have historically served as powerful symbols of the pro-independence movement. Their matches have often become venues in which fans display separatist flags and placards, and at major games they’ve expressed their support for separatism by whistling while the Spanish national anthem is played and booing dignitaries like Spain’s King Felipe VI.

The national team, which plays a World Cup quarter-final match Friday against Belgium, has also found itself enmeshed in separatist controversy. But the political drama has largely been missing from this year’s squad.

In the nearly 9 years that have elapsed since the Catalan independence referendum, the pro-independence movement has lost steam and the region’s citizens have grown tired of the constant tension with the rest of Spain. Since regional elections were held in 2024, when nationalist parties failed to win a majority of seats for the first time since 1984, the Catalan government has since focused on normalizing relations with Madrid.

That shift is evident in football. While FC Barcelona remains the region’s most beloved team, it is today a much more international operation, a powerhouse with a commercial strategy that targets an international audience with global football stars like Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski.

They stand in contrast to figures like long-time Barcelona player Gerard Piqué, a much-decorated defender who was also a member of Spain’s national team.

When Piqué, who was born and raised in Barcelona, was first drafted to play on the national team, the Catalan separatist movement had not yet exploded, and the center back largely avoided publicly discussing Catalan independence. Indeed, after Spain won the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, he became a beloved figure across the country. Likewise, when he was drafted for the 2014 edition of the tournament in Brazil, he wasn’t associated with the growing push to separate Catalonia from Spain.

But in 2017 Piqué publicly declared his support for a proposed referendum on the region’s independence, and after the Spanish government moved to shut down the unauthorized vote, he criticized the violent crackdown that saw police deployed to polling stations. Although the footballer insisted that he was not a separatist, he stressed that Catalans should have a say in their future. “You should be able to vote yes, no, or abstain, but you should be able to vote,” he said at the time.

Piqué’s stance made him a controversial figure ahead of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. In the lead up to the tournament, he was verbally abused by spectators at training sessions, leading him to offer to drop out of the national team if he was determined to be too much of a distraction. He played, but announced his retirement from the group following Spain’s elimination from the tournament.

There’s no lack of Catalans on Spain’s current national team. The country’s biggest star, Lamine Yamal, plays for Barça and was born in a suburb of Barcelona, and he’s accompanied by eight other players born or raised in the region, among them Pau Cubarsí and Marc Cucurella.

While none of them are known for making pro-independence statements, three of them — Eric García, Dani Olmo, and Joan García — were recently embroiled in controversy after being photographed with a separatist symbol. After FC Barcelona won the Spanish league title last May, the players were seen waving esteladas — a flag associated with the Catalan independence movement — while parading through the regional capital. Although some conservatives called for them to not be included in the national team, all three were ultimately tapped to take part in this year’s tournament.

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Belgium’s Red Devils received some regal encouragement Thursday evening as King Philippe dropped by the team’s hotel less than 24 hours before its World Cup quarterfinal against Spain. He’s also the latest European royal to make a pilgrimage to this summer’s tournament.

According to Belgian news agency Belga, the king joined the squad for dinner before posing for a team selfie later shared on the official Belgian Red Devils X account, alongside coach Rudi Garcia. Philippe, who earlier in the tournament also joined Garcia, captain Youri Tielemans and striker Romelu Lukaku for a video call, kept his message short.

“A few days ago, my daughter and I watched you at 2 a.m. It was magnificent,” he told the players. “I have only one message for you: You must win. And I am confident that you will. But it will depend on you.” Soccer federation boss Pascale Van Damme presented the monarch with a signed Belgium shirt.

Philippe joins an increasingly crowded royal supporters’ club. Spain’s King Felipe VI, Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima, and Norway’s Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus have all turned up to cheer on their national teams, while elected leaders have been thinner on the ground.

Portugal’s prime minister attended matches and faced blowback, while Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney recently had to fend off criticism that his own World Cup trip amounted to a taxpayer-funded “jolly.”

Belgium and Spain kick off at 3 p.m. ET on Friday, with a place in the semifinals against France at stake.

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