Not all are welcome as US braces to host biggest show on earth

The FIFA World Cup 2026 may have been branded as the ‘biggest’ of them all with 48 teams and a whopping 104 matches, but all are certainly not welcome. The rigid US visa rules — which saw a leading African referee on the panel being the latest to be denied entry — and the controversy over ticket distribution and pricing has left thousands of fans bitterly disappointed.

Close on the heels of the Iranian football team’s complaint of delays in receiving visas while its support staff, including the Iranian Football Federation chief, were denied entry came the news that FIFA had to drop Omar Artan — set to be the first Somalian referee in the showpiece — from the officials’ list.  Somalia is one of several countries on a travel ban list introduced by President Donald Trump’s administration.

In another shocking development, Iran complained on Tuesday, 9 June that FIFA has now revoked the country's share of tickets for travelling fans, which means Iranian fans cannot be present at the venues. FIFA regulations state that each federation involved in the World Cup receives 8 per cent of tickets for each of their matches to distribute to supporters.

The Iran football federation added that it had already begun selling tickets but can no longer provide them to fans, some of whom have already made travel arrangements. ''Depriving Iranian supporters of access to their lawful and official allocation of tickets is an action contrary to the spirit of governing international competitions and the principle of equality among participating countries," the statement said.

Artan, the 2025 Confederation of African Football (CAF) men’s referee of the year, was barred from entering the country at Miami International Airport and is currently in Turkey. A helpless FIFA gave in after speaking to US authorities as their statement read: ‘’FIFA can confirm that match official Omar Abdulkadir Artan will be unable to train and officiate at the FIFA World Cup 2026 after he was denied entry into the United States.’

‘’FIFA is not involved in host country immigration processes, including visa adjudications, and has been informed by authorities that Mr Artan’s status will not be changed at present. In line with previous FIFA events, a host government ultimately determines who receives a visa and who is admitted into their country.’’

Speaking in a statement to Reuters, Artan said despite the circumstances he was in a positive mood and focused on the next challenge. ‘’I would like to thank FIFA and CAF for all their support and I promise to keep my refereeing levels up as I concentrate on the future,’’ he said. ‘’I want to thank the football family for their messages and wish my colleagues all the best success during the World Cup and I look forward to joining them again in future competitions.’’

The world governing body has so far betrayed a weak-kneed attitude in terms of earning any kind of bandwidth from the US, leading many to question the logic of them wooing Trump with a peace award last December. FIFA’s greed to maximise profits from ticket sales — despite expanding the event by 16 teams at one go as well as the number of matches — has also faced a heavy flak as they introduced ‘variable pricing’ for the first time, whereby prices can fluctuate based on real or perceived demand.

Between October 2025 — when they threw open the ticket window — and April, FIFA hiked prices in at least one ticket category for 95 of the World Cup’s 104 matches: the average increase being 35 per cent. Media reports say that a Category 1 ticket to the final now costs $10,990, up from $6,730 back in October. Group-stage prices ranged from $140 in Category 3 for less important games to $890 in Category 1 (Colombia vs Portugal) and nearly $3,000 for the World Cup opener between Mexico and South Africa. 

Ticket prices, as of April, were more than twice that of equivalent tickets in Qatar 2022. FIFA boss Gianni Infantino had, on his part, justified the prohibitive pricing by calling the US a very special market when ‘’no one complains’’ about ticket prices “when you go to a concert or an NFL game”.

The huge backlash from fans worldwide has led FIFA to a damage control measure of alloting $60 tickets for around 1,000 supporters per match. This is, of course, a drop in the ocean as many were still left staring at prices far beyond any they’d ever seen — while FIFA continued to defend its pricing as a reflection of “existing market practice for major entertainment and sporting events” in North America.

The run-up to World Cups has often not been smooth — be it reports of human rights abuse in Qatar in 2022 or public outrage about extravagance on the eve of Rio 2014. However, when the 'Big Brother' hosts an event of this magnitude, one expects better.