LAST December I tried (not too hard and unsuccessfully) to acquire a media credential in time for the repellent spectacle of the World Cup draw. If all you remember is obsequious Trump toady and Fifa president Gianni Infantino presenting the US president with a vulgar gold Fifa “peace prize,” that about sums it up.

Since then, however, I have been on the receiving end of Fifa’s public relations materials. Reading them, it would be easy to mistake the World Cup for some kind of entertainment extravaganza — with extravagant being the operative word here. Based on the Fifa PR output, I have no idea who is actually playing in the World Cup. 

Playing for it? Well, that would be the Rolling Stones, to their eternal shame, for starters. Not that their apparently apolitical complicity should come as much of a surprise. Mick Jagger took the knighthood after all (there could, but never will be, a Sir Kenneth Loach). Keith Richards did say he would turn down the so-called honour if offered, to give him credit, with the immortal remark, “I wouldn’t let that family near me with a sharp stick, let alone a sword.”

According to Fifa, the Stones’ collaboration “will see three limited-edition Fifa World Cup 2026 vinyl album covers created for The Rolling Stones’ forthcoming Capitol Records album release, Foreign Tongues, alongside a special remix of the band’s new song, In the Stars, which features on the Official Fifa World Cup 2026 album. To further celebrate this collaboration, a range of clothing and headwear merchandise will soon be released and available for fans to purchase.”

The cost of that merchandise is actually shockingly modest — T-shirts and caps are around £40 — compared to the eye-watering price of tickets to see the actual football matches. These latter are so exorbitant, with single tickets in the thousands of pounds, that the opening match in Mexico, with the home team facing and trouncing South Africa, was attended mainly by the country’s elites.

In protest, Mexico’s socialist president, Claudia Sheinbaum, boycotted the Mexico City opening match (and a seat next to Infantino) to join the populace watching in a public space downtown. (She gave her ticket to Indigenous amateur football player, Yolett Cervantes Cuaquehua.)

But back to football? No, instead, I read that “Fifa Announces Kraken as Official Crypto Exchange Supporter of the Fifa World Cup 2026,” reminding us that gambling and sport go hand-in-hand.

As exposed so irresistibly in Ben McKenzie’s enjoyable documentary, Everyone Is Lying To You For Money, many if not all cryptocurrency schemes are scams. Kraken is considered legitimate and reasonably secure, but the company was charged in 2023 by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for operating the company’s crypto trading platform as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, dealer, and clearing agency. 

Another Fifa email, sent in February, clamoured “Fifa and the Board of Peace announce strategic partnership to drive recovery and peace through football.” This initiative claimed it would “build a complete football ecosystem, delivering world-class infrastructure, structured community programmes and sustainable economic opportunity to Gaza, Palestine.” 

Those orchestrating this scheme are Fifa Board of Peace members Yakir Gabay, a Cypriot-Israeli billionaire real estate businessman; centre-right Bulgarian politician Nickolay Mladenov, whose appointment was announced personally by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; and Palestinian technocrat Ali Shaath.

Shaath’s approach to “rebuilding” Gaza has been roundly criticised, including by Gaza-based Palestinian political analyst Mustafa Ibrahim, who told The New Arab that “Prioritising technocrats and civil administration ignores the fact that Gaza’s tragedy is fundamentally political.” 

Ibrahim added that “reconstruction cannot be separated from ending the occupation and lifting the siege. Any talk of rapid rebuilding clashes with realities on the ground and Israeli restrictions.”

To drive home the point, when a former player and a current member of the Palestinian women’s national team were arrested and abducted by Israeli authorities earlier this month, Fifa remained silent. Former Palestinian squad player, Natalie Abu Diya, is still in Israeli custody, held in the notorious Ofer Prison, widely regarded as a horrific torture centre.

But Fifa “cannot solve geopolitical problems,” claims Infantino.

That’s presumably why Fifa is doing nothing to protest against the White House decision to deny entry to the US for Somalia’s first-ever World Cup referee, Omar Artan. As Jeremy Corbyn said in his Guardian article on Saturday, the ban smacks of “racism.” Artan was turned back after arriving at Miami airport on June 6.

“… this disgraceful decision is just the tip of the iceberg,” Corbyn wrote. “Somalia is one of 39 countries – including Laos, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and South Sudan – on a US travel ban list. This means fans from more than a quarter of the countries taking part in the World Cup are facing visa rejections and restrictions; so much for Fifa’s claim that ‘football unites the world’.”

Infantino called Artan’s ban “unfortunate,” adding at a press conference: “We don’t control everything. Maybe sometimes it’s good just to chill, relax.” And listen to the Rolling Stones? 

“We are not the kings of the world who rule over governments and police forces and I don’t know what,” Infantino claimed, describing to a T the very malevolent overlord, Donald Trump, he so obediently bows to.

Artan’s ban was also addressed by Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the White House Fifa Task Force, who said the Somali was denied admittance for a “very good reason” without saying what it is. Giuliani is a nepo baby appointee, the son of disgraced and disgraceful former New York City mayor and Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.

But back to football.

“Madonna, Shakira and BTS to co-headline historic Final Halftime Show,” Fifa announced. “Madonna, Shakira and BTS are global icons whose music transcends borders and generations,” Infantino crowed.

This particular spectacle will take place on July 19 at a stadium in New Jersey. Presumably, there might be a football match played there as well.

Linda Pentz Gunter is a writer based in Takoma Park, Maryland, and the author of No To Nuclear. Why Nuclear Power Destroys Lives, Derails Climate Progress and Provokes War, published by Pluto Press.