Just a few days remain, and only a handful of matches are left before the end of the 2026 World Cup — an edition that will be remembered as the most controversial in history. It was not the excitement of the matches, nor the beautiful goals, nor the passion of the fans or the quality of the performances that defined it, but rather the events that unfolded, revealing how football can be run.
FIFA, which had long boasted of being the most powerful governing body in world football — one that no one could influence, whose regulations no one could break, and whose integrity no one could question — was stripped bare and exposed for what it truly is by US President Donald Trump, with a single phone call.
Trump: "Mr Infantino... I know sport and football. What does a red card mean? How can our player miss the next match? Please, cancel the sending-off." Infantino: "Mr President... we are FIFA, and there are independent committees, but... of course... done. Your wish is my command!"
And so the sending-off of US national team player Folarin Balogun was rescinded — an incident that occurred for the first time in World Cup history. Yet what was strange, and went largely unnoticed, was that the US team itself had never submitted a request or an appeal to overturn the red card. Then came the sending-off of England defender Koansu — who was shown a red card in the match against Mexico and handed a two-match ban rather than one. The English Football Association submitted an appeal to have the sending-off overturned, only to receive the reply: "Sorry, appeal rejected."
Beyond that incident, the tournament has been marked by a great deal of controversy: bizarre referee appointments, and the treatment of certain star players and national teams in ways that have aroused suspicion — all of it now clearer than daylight, debated the world over with extraordinary bewilderment, to the point where some have been driven to distraction by what they have witnessed.
Regrettably, what has happened during the current World Cup has revealed that FIFA has sunk to its lowest point in terms of the absence of fairness. Nothing seems to matter to it any longer — not regulations, not rules, not even its reputation in the eyes of the world — as long as it achieves the goal it is pursuing. It has been transformed from an organisation that governs the world's most popular game into a mere corporation, like any other company seeking to maximise its profits.