Every four years, normal life seems to stop as the world comes together for a little over a month to watch the beautiful game. Football, or soccer, depending on where you’re from, will captivate the planet on a national level this summer when the FIFA World Cup makes its way to North America. For the first time in history, the World Cup will be held in three countries: Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Though there are so many amazing things about the upcoming tournament, questions have been raised about its exclusionary pricing, as well as growing concerns in the United States about the current administration, immigration policy, and recent events in the Middle East.
The spirit of the game
I recall the last World Cup as a fabulous and glittering few weeks in the winter of 2022. I was a senior in high school, and I vividly remember students of all grades pulling up games on the school-issued iPads to watch during class. If we were particularly lucky, our teacher would project games on the whiteboard and leave us to our own devices as we half completed classwork and half watched in agony as Brazil lost to Croatia in overtime in the quarterfinals. Poor Neymar. But Argentina, headlined by Lionel Messi, took home the trophy that year, giving the greatest of all time a World Cup at long last. Suffice it to say, this tournament means so much to so many people, and it elicits a sense of unity that only a massive sporting event can.
This year’s World Cup is shaping up to be brilliant on the athletic side of it. From June 11 to July 19, 48 countries will be competing for the trophy. Although the last few teams of the 48 that will compete still need to qualify, familiar favorites such as Brazil, Argentina, Portugal, and England will be present and fighting tooth and nail for the chance to hold the trophy. It is uncertain whether or not players of my childhood, such as Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Neymar Jr., will be competing with their respective countries this year. The World Cup presents club football fans the opportunity to put bias and bitter distaste for certain players aside as they valiantly fight for their country. Surprisingly, I’m a massive fan of the England men’s national team and will momentarily pause my disliking of Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham in hopes that he will help England go far. Unfamiliar favorites, such as Norway, brought to you by the remarkable Erling Haaland of Manchester City, and Scotland (which is separate from England!), defied odds to compete against the big dogs of international football. Among the great things that the World Cup offers, several issues have prompted fans to pause and wonder about the state of the tournament this summer.
Ludicrous prices
An area of concern that has confused fans worldwide is the goliath cost of tickets per game. After shelling out an arm and a leg for a round-trip flight, accommodations in the most expensive cities in North America, transportation, parking, a travel visa, and food and drinks, fans hoping to attend need to purchase tickets for the fixtures. After facing immense backlash, FIFA introduced the Supporter Entry Tier, which will have some tickets available for $60 per match. That being said, these tickets are only made available to supporters of the designated teams in each match. There are also only a set number of these tickets at this price, and they ultimately encompass a small percentage of the total number of tickets. Most tickets run from the high hundreds into the thousands. As for the final, the cheapest tickets are on sale for a whopping $4,185, and the most expensive will run a fan $8,680. Prices vary depending on the source, but most are reporting around that cost. In my opinion, these prices are egregious, and it is an embarrassing affront for FIFA to ask fans to pony up this amount. Association football is supposed to be the world’s game, and to me, these prices bar a good portion of the world from accessing the sport.
Host country anxieties
Unfortunately, recent developments in the United States, one of the three host countries, have caused me to wonder whether the location selection was a good one. The president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, created a peace prize for the organization this past year and awarded it to President Donald Trump in December 2025. According to ESPN, Trump was awarded the FIFA Peace Prize for promoting peace around the world and was a shoo-in for the award for his attempts to organize a ceasefire in Gaza. This prompted suspicion for me because, in my opinion, FIFA has no place doling out awards for this sort of thing. It’s strange and out of place.
Another cause for concern is the increased presence of border patrol agents in the U.S. Across the nation, ICE agents have been arresting and harming people in broad daylight, and Vice President JD Vance has suggested that ICE agents are “protected by absolute immunity.” This is a cause for concern not only for residents of the United States but also for any football fans wishing to make the journey to the U.S. from other nations. Alongside the immigration crackdown happening in the U.S., as of June 2025, Trump’s travel ban either fully bans or partially restricts 38 countries from entering America. So far, Côte d’Ivoire, Haiti, Iran, and Senegal are the qualifying countries facing this issue. Fans of these countries will be unable to travel to enjoy the World Cup because of these restrictions, which is unfair to people who have waited for the opportunity to see their country compete. Even for citizens of countries allowed to enter the United States, the significant increase in federal agents is sure to make people uncomfortable. According to former Arsenal and England national team footballer Ian Wright, members of certain countries “can’t get visas…this is the world’s game…if this was Qatar, can you imagine how everybody would be going on?” The last World Cup was held in Qatar in 2022, and tickets were far less expensive, and the restrictions on travel were slim. “You should have seen what I had to go through just to get [to America] myself…honestly, it’s ridiculous,” said Wright.
A final point of contention for this year’s World Cup is the qualification of Iran in the World Cup and recent strikes on Iran by the United States and Israel. FIFA is currently “monitor[ing] developments in Iran.” Secretary General of FIFA, Mattias Grafstrom, stated that “[their] focus is on a safe World Cup with all the teams participating…Everybody will be safe.”
Is the game truly gone?
In recent years, fans, players, and managers have been stating that the game’s gone. A general loss of footballing spirit and an increase in softness and corporate interference have prompted this accusation. When the World Cup settles in North America this summer, it is sure to be met with excitement. However, the problems of exorbitant prices, blatant flattery to the current administration by FIFA’s president, recently imposed travel bans, and unrest between participating countries have caused hesitancy and worry to fester. I worry that the state of my favorite sport is becoming another sign of the times, and I worry that the game’s gone because of these issues.
The bottom line is, this sport should be accessible to the entire world. The spirit and camaraderie the World Cup provides is something that FIFA can’t tack a price tag on. The restrictions of the upcoming tournament are not what soccer is about, and changes must be made to secure a future of football that everyone can be a part of.