Whose World Cup is it?: As visas tighten, prices soar and teams fall away, the ‘global’ game feels increasingly exclusive

Oh, the brouhaha over Italy failing to hitch a ride to the World Cup! Especially for a nation living by the ‘sweet life’ and ‘don’t worry’ fundamentals. Their football team just seems to have perfected it. Capirai!

Italy didn’t make it.

Russia were denied the chance to make it. Iran, it seems, wouldn’t make it. Nigeria, Cameroon, Poland, Ukraine, Denmark failed to make it.


And, it seems there are many fans who also wouldn’t be able to make it.

For this new-format, highlight of a ‘football’ event, to be staged largely in the lands of ‘soccer’, maybe bigger – up from 32 to 48 teams and 104 matches from 64 — but it doesn’t look better for them.

Just last month, co-hosts USA’s state department added 12 more countries to a list of nations that requires visa applicants to post bonds up to $15,000, though refundable! Qualifiers Tunisia are on this list, while Algeria and debutantes Cape Verde were already on it. Senegal, Haiti, and Ivory Coast supporters will not be able to cheer for their teams unless they have an alternative, non-restricted passport.

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“Everyone will be welcome in Canada, Mexico and the United States for the FIFA World Cup next year,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in 2025. And, this week itself, FIFA once again raised ticket prices for many matches, most of them being of the big draw teams like Brazil, Germany, England, Argentina. The Category 1 tickets that were $6,370 in the first sales window now cost $10,990. Even though seemingly less consequential in the larger scheme of things (read countries with lower average incomes vis-à-vis the North American market), co-hosts Mexico’s opening game against South Africa in Mexico City now costs $2,985 from an initial $1,825.

As per a DW report, if a Brazilian fan spent a little more than $10,000 to attend the Qatar edition, the expenses for the 2026 are already $40,000+, and counting. And, this is without attending some other country’s matches too. “As an ordinary person you really have no chance of affording this tournament,” the report quoted a Germany-based US fan.

And, then there is that presence called ICE (US immigration and Customs Enforcement). An Amnesty International report released this Monday warned fans, players, journalists of significant human rights and immigration risks during the World Cup. “This World Cup is no longer the ‘medium risk’ tournament that FIFA once judged it to be…,” Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s Head of Economic and Social Justice, says in the report. Even though Mexico and Canada host only 13 matches each, the report points out the high levels of violence and heightened police presence in Mexico, and the state of homeless in Canada. It also raises concerns over demonstrations that often find a stage in such big events as ‘across the USA, Canada and Mexico, there have been restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly’.

Money-wise, though, this World Cup will definitely fulfill its promise of being a trailblazer.

Driven by tickets and hospitality revenues, this edition is projected to see a 56% rise in revenues as compared to the 2022 Qatar World Cup. The data analyzed by Sports Value, based on FIFA Annual Reports, project the revenues to reach $10.9 billion, with broadcasting rights expected to surpass $4.2 billion for the first time, and matchday revenues could make as much as $3 billion. The latter were around $950 million in Qatar. That is a 216% increase!


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Another silver lining being the fact that Italy, whose ouster crushed dreams across the globe, could actually come back this time.

Russel ‘Gladiator’ Crowe, must have been furious enough at the fall of the Roman empire all over again, to call it ‘A dark dawn for Italy…’ on X. Italy lost the playoff final on penalties to 65-ranked Bosnia-Herzegovina, and missed the World Cup bus for a third time in a row. And, bowing down to the tricks of a poker pro at that!

Bosnia-Herzegovina coach, Sergej Barbarez, is a former footballer and an ex-professional poker player. Apart from donning the colours of BosniaHerze govina, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, Barbarez also qualified for the World Series of Poker, making it to the final two times.

Bosnia-Herzegovina had also ousted Wales from the World Cup in the previous playoff in a penalty shootout again.

But how glad Crowe, who has Italian roots, would be when Iran’s ‘force majeure’, which could officially be quite last-minute, opens the gates for Italy. For, if Iran withdraws, by choice or force, as per its regulations, FIFA could either make Group G as a three-team section, or replace Iran with another team. And, as far as substitution is concerned, well, FIFA can do whatever it wants.

Had someone whispered that to him, the OG trickster of Italy 2006, coach Gennaro Gattuso might have gone for a Terminator-esque “I’ll be back” rather than the ‘mutually terminated’ contract.

Though his boys might still make the trip to America, the absence of scores of others – willingly or otherwise, financially or politically — raises the question: Whose ‘World’ Cup is it?