EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY – July 13, 2025. Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA, and U.S. President Donald Trump present the FIFA Club World Cup trophy to Chelsea captain Reece James following the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 Final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Michael Regan – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
FIFA via Getty Images
No matter which national team wins the 2026 World Cup on Sunday, US President Donald Trump will be on stage to lift the trophy. FIFA confirmed on June 23 that, in a break from recent practice, Trump will present the iconic World Cup trophy alongside Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) president Gianni Infantino. Soccer fans should not let Trump’s participation in the ceremony distract from his administration’s awful human rights record.
Governments have long used sporting events, including FIFA’s World Cup, to “sportswash” their reputations while continuing human rights abuses. Italian leader Benito Mussolini flooded the 1934 World Cup with fascist propaganda. The 1978 World Cup edition was played in and won by an Argentina ruled by a military dictatorship that forcibly disappeared thousands of people. The former FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, said he thought that Argentina’s victory in 1978 led to a “reconciliation” of the people of Argentina with “the military system at the time.” But the government’s killings, torture, and abductions continued for years after the final whistle had blown.
Blatter resigned in 2015 after a corruption scandal, with current FIFA leader Infantino elected in February 2016, promising change. “FIFA is fully committed to respecting human rights,” he said at the time. In 2017, FIFA adopted a Human Rights Policy, saying it was “anchoring respect for human rights in the bidding and hosting of our events.”
Over the past decade, however, FIFA and Infantino have enabled government leaders hosting the World Cup to launder their reputations, sportswashing human rights abuses.The 2018 Russian World Cup was a vehicle for President Vladimir Putin to project prestige while wielding a staggering crackdown on civil society and LGBT rights.
The Qatar 2022 World Cup led to preventable deaths of thousands of migrant workers who built stadiums and infrastructure worth US$220 billion to elevate Qatar’s status on the world stage. FIFA’s own human rights advisers later concluded that the organization “has a responsibility” to compensate workers and their families. Families of the dead migrant workers are still waiting for compensation.
The future looks no brighter. FIFA has awarded the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia, whose government has long used sporting events to deflect from the country’s image as a pervasive human rights violator. A single bid process that broke FIFA’s own rules delivered the tournament to the Saudi government, which commissioned a deeply flawed and one-sided human rights assessment. Migrant workers building stadiums for the tournament may face wage theft and extreme heat and other dangerous, sometimes fatal, working conditions.
Ahead of this year’s tournament, and with President Trump’s second term marked by pervasive human rights violations, FIFA deployed a novel tool for flattering a powerful host: the newly invented FIFA Peace Prize. FIFA said that the prize—awarded with no transparency, judges, terms of reference or selection process—recognized Trump’s “tireless efforts to bring people together in a spirit of peace.” Infantino told Trump, “This is what we want from a leader; a leader that cares about the people.”
The reality is that beyond the World Cup stadiums, the Trump administration’s abusive, discriminatory and often violent immigration operations have torn families apart and terrorized communities across the United States. Federal authorities have subjected record numbers of immigrants to mandatory detention, including in inhuman and degrading conditions, while gutting internal oversight mechanisms.
FIFA had the power to do more than lavish Trump with praise and an undeserved award. Human Rights Watch repeatedly wrote to FIFA to urge it use its leverage to address the impact of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, saying that they “would fundamentally undermine the inclusive spirit of the World Cup and the non-discrimination policies under FIFA’s Statutes.” FIFA did not reply.
Thanks to players, host cities and fans, this year’s World Cup has had–beyond sterling soccer by top national teams–much to celebrate, including Haiti’s joyous World Cup participation, Cape Verde’s Cinderella run, and rainbow flags flying at Pride Match Day in Seattle.
But the dark side of policies by the tournament’s principal host has also been inescapable. Between President Trump’s inauguration and the start of the World Cup, at least 54 people died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in the US—the highest number in many years. Two additional in-custody deaths have been reported since the World Cup began.
On July 7, as the World Cup was still underway, ICE agents fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas. Salgado, who had reportedly lived in the United States for nearly 35 years, leaves behind a wife and three children. His death, along with an ICE killing in Maine, has not been transparently investigated or explained.
After its tournaments, FIFA typically announces that it has just staged the “best-ever” sporting event. Infantino himself has already described the 2026 World Cup as “the most successful event in history.”
Perhaps the best World Cup ever would actually be one in which FIFA would do something it has never done—use its leverage to address human rights risks and push back against abuses even when the easier path is to burnish the reputations of abusive host governments.