FIFA’s credibility crisis overshadows riveting World Cup

No matter their affiliation, fans from all 48 World Cup teams can agree on one enjoyable moment from the tournament.

It came during the semifinal between France and Spain, when FIFA president Gianni Infantino appeared on the stadium’s massive screen in Dallas.

Then, it seemed as if everyone in the crowd erupted in boos, while Infantino grinned awkwardly.

After six weeks and over 100 matches, two things can be true: the World Cup in the United States, Canada, and Mexico has been pretty great, but FIFA and Infantino have also made it worse than it needed to be.

One of the biggest concerns before the tournament – the sky-high price of everything – proved to be true. Tickets, transit, merchandise, and food were as absurd as feared. Months from now, when the books are balanced, it’ll be clear that FIFA raked in absolute gobs of cash.

Meanwhile, the annoying hydration breaks have united the world. The mandated pauses in the action have allowed broadcasters to squeeze in commercials under the guise of player safety. As the weeks wore on and the stadium crowds routinely booed the stops in play – honestly, great job by the ticket-buying public – Infantino abandoned making the player-safety argument and instead said the breaks were a way for coaches to speak to the team and impart new tactics. That point could be true, but it isn’t his place to decide on a whole new way to play and coach the sport.

There were smaller things, too: the bizarre insistence on showing Infantino in a luxury suite, sometimes surrounded by soccer luminaries or heads of state, multiple times in every contest he attended, which was most of them. No one cares, Gianni.

Even the frequent cutaways to celebrities in attendance – Penelope Cruz! Mick Jagger! Brad Pitt! – eventually felt bizarrely needy, as if FIFA were trying to prove that important people cared about the event. Guys, we get it: It’s the World Cup. You don’t need to prove to anyone that it matters.

Yet, none of the preceding issues will be what this particular tournament is remembered for.

Instead, the enduring legacy of this World Cup will center around questions of corruption and integrity. People won’t soon forget that the 2026 edition was the tournament in which one of the sport’s biggest stars, Cristiano Ronaldo, had a suspension paused so he could play in Portugal’s opening two games.

The event also saw U.S. star striker Folarin Balogun have his automatic one-game suspension effectively removed by FIFA after Donald Trump placed a call to his good pal Infantino. That little bit of presidential influence, strenuously denied by FIFA in a way few observers actually believe, backfired spectacularly on the Americans, who were dumped out of the round of 16 by Belgium.

John Todd/ISI Photos / ISI Photos / Getty

That FIFA had so clearly put its thumb on the scale in those two instances, tossing aside the integrity of the competition in the process, only increased the scrutiny on the officiating controversies that arose in the World Cup’s later stages.

When Switzerland scored in the second half of its quarterfinal match against Argentina to level the score at 1-1, it looked like the underdog was taking control. But just minutes later, Swiss striker Breel Embolo was sent off after receiving a second yellow card that only came about due to the intervention of VAR. The application of the “mistaken identity” rule – which allows a card to be switched from one player to another via video review and had never been used until this tournament – could just be a case of the officials applying the procedures as they understood them.

However, after Argentina benefited from fortunate officiating decisions in its comeback win over Egypt, neutrals could be forgiven for thinking the call that reduced Switzerland to 10 men was more proof that FIFA was giving breaks to Argentina and its marketable superstar, Lionel Messi.

Was there a pro-Messi edict from Infantino all the way down to the match officials? Almost certainly not, for the simple reason that such a thing would be almost impossible to accomplish in the moment and also keep quiet.

But given what happened with Ronaldo and Balogun, FIFA doesn’t really deserve the benefit of the doubt. If the governing body is going to discard normal procedures in those instances, can anyone really be confident that it wouldn’t do it to benefit one of the game’s greatest players in what is (likely) his last World Cup?

Indeed, if a big officiating decision goes in favor of Argentina in Sunday’s final against Spain, will anyone be surprised?

I don’t think they would, which is depressing. For this tournament, it would also be fitting.

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