Illegal wars, racism and genocide: USA World Cup 2026 should be boycotted

Four years ago, when https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/qatar">Qatar hosted the World Cup, Keir Starmer had a fit of the vapours.

As leader of the opposition, he blocked Labour MPs https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/labour-qatar-lucy-powell-england-wales-b2203583.html">from attending.

Though personally a keen football fan (he https://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/article/british-pm-starmer-congratulates-arsenal-as-title-celebrations-go-deep-into-the-night/">supports Arsenal), Starmer announced that he would https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/keir-starmer-human-rights-issues-labour-refuse-to-go-to-qatar-DWzMCX_2/">not attend the final even if England was in it.

The Qatar World Cup turned out to be a success, and many of the criticisms against the Gulf Arab state on https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/human-rights">human rights grounds were exaggerated or invented.

Four years later, Starmer is https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/uk">Britain’s prime minister.

And in a characteristic display of double standards, we’ve heard not a squeak of protest from Downing Street about the https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/us">US World Cup - yet the case for boycotting President Donald Trump’s United States is more powerful than the case against Qatar.

Far more powerful.

Three months ago, the US and https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel">Israel launched a criminal and unprovoked attack on https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/iran">Iran.

The assault was not authorised by the United Nations, meaning that the US and Israel were guilty under https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/3/are-us-israeli-attacks-against-iran-legal-under-international-law">international law of an act of aggression.

The Nuremberg tribunal, set up to punish Nazi criminals after World War Two, https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/NR/rdonlyres/6B2BA9C6-C5B5-417A-8EF4-DA3CA0902172/282974/07022011_ImplicationsoftheCriminalizationofAggress.pdf">described this type of action as the “supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole”.

Regardless, Starmer’s Britain was happy to allow the US to use https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c36rny6xgppo">British bases for what were euphemistically called “defensive” actions.

On the first day of the war, https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/tehran-calls-us-statement-minab-school-strike-appalling-lie">more than 170 schoolchildren and teachers were killed in a US strike on a girls’ school in Minab. 

Sadly, that is not the worst of the atrocities committed by the US since the Qatar World Cup.

Menace to global peace

For the last two and a half years, the US has been a partner in what most scholars and experts now accept to be a https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/israel-genocide-gaza">genocide in Gaza.

Among those slaughtered in the https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine">Palestinian territory with US help were https://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/167951">more than 500 footballers. 

Incredibly, the US is today protecting Israelis wanted on war-crimes charges - including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - by https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/06/trump-sanction-icc">imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC). 

In another violation of https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/international-law">international law, the US earlier this year bombed the South American state of Venezuela in order to seize its president, https://www.war.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4370431/trump-announces-us-militarys-capture-of-maduro/">Nicolas Maduro.

Any other country with a remotely similar record as a rogue state and menace to global peace would face a boycott campaign

Trump has threatened to https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-chagos-islands-buy-threat-b2991394.html">invade Greenland and appears to be planning to https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/6/8/the-retaking-of-cuba">invade Cuba.

The US has also killed https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/fact-checking-u-s-military-boat-strikes-in-the-caribbean-and-pacific-as-death-toll-passes-200">more than 200 people in strikes against boats in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean - without providing a shred of evidence to justify its claims that the victims were drug traffickers. 

There is an overwhelming case that Trump, and the toxic coterie that surrounds him, should themselves face trial on war-crimes charges.

Any other country with a remotely similar record as a rogue state and menace to global peace would face a boycott campaign, as Qatar did four years ago over a comparatively much smaller controversy.

And now we come to the World Cup itself, whose opening ceremony is today.

It is already a shambles. 

Four years ago, in the heat of Qatar, https://inside.fifa.com/sustainability/news/legacy-in-action-qatars-revolutionary-stadium-cooling-technology">seven out of eight stadiums were supplied with state-of-the-art solar-powered air conditioning.

By contrast, only https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/5/14/fifa-warned-gruelling-heat-could-impact-quarter-of-world-cup-games">three of the 16 stadiums (across the US, Mexico and Canada) have AC. Players and fans will boil in soaring temperatures.

In Qatar, every spectator was provided with https://inside.fifa.com/tournament-organisation/world-cup-2022-sustainability-report/environmental-impact/greenhouse-gas-emissions/public-transportation">free use of public transport.

Nothing similar is contemplated in the US. 

The final will be held in the https://www.theguardian.com/football/video/2026/jun/05/is-it-possible-to-walk-to-metlife-stadium-from-new-york-city-video">MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, which fans can’t reach on foot.

Usually, the return fare to the stadium is $13, but the price has now surged past $100. 

In summary, spectators face being ripped off, even though the infrastructure for the US World Cup is nowhere near the quality of Qatar’s. 

Racist treatment of fans and players

Much more troubling is the racist US treatment of foreign fans and players, especially from Middle Eastern countries.

Iranian fans recently learned that their https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/iran-says-ticket-allocation-world-cup-withdrawn-days-before-tournament-2026-06-09/">ticket allocation had been cancelled just days before the tournament was set to begin.

Visa concerns meant that the Iranian team’s https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/6/7/irans-world-cup-squad-lands-in-mexico-amid-us-visa-row">training camp had to be shifted from Arizona to Mexico at the last moment; some training staff had their visas https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/iran-usa-world-cup-visas-latest-b2991262.html">rejected outright.

This was blatant political interference.

The same applies to the https://www.france24.com/en/sport/20260610-somali-referee-denied-us-visa-gets-hero-s-welcome-back-home-vows-to-attend-next-world-cup">denial of entry to Somali referee Omar Artan, who was put on a flight https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/49016259/us-official-somalia-omar-artan-suspected-terror-ties">back to Istanbul after arriving in Miami.

Trump, it should be recalled, has called Somalis “https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-mn-condemns-presidents-racist-remarks-targeting-somali-americans/">low IQ” and “https://abcnews.com/Politics/trump-describes-somali-immigrants-garbage-amid-feud-minnesota/story?id=128069199">garbage”.

He’s imported this open racism and bigotry into the 2026 World Cup finals. 

It’s heartbreaking.

Artan, who was voted Africa's referee of the year in 2025, would have been https://web.facebook.com/esohnanetwork/videos/the-2025-caf-referee-of-the-year-omar-abdulkadir-artan-received-a-heroic-welcome/863004756326070/?_rdc=1&_rdr" target="_blank">Somalia’s first official at a World Cup.

In addition, https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/iraq">Iraq’s Aymen Hussein - who is among the country’s top all-time https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026/qualifiers/play-off-tournament/articles/aymen-hussein-mohanadali-amir-al-ammari">goal scorers - was detained for seven hours at Chicago’s O’Hare airport https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/iraq-world-cup-aymen-hussein-detained-ohare-photographer-talal-salah-denied-entry/">last week.

Let’s try a mental experiment: imagine that any other country had launched an illegal war three months before it was due to host a World Cup. 

Let’s stretch credulity and further suppose that this same county had collaborated in what the United Nations https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/israel-has-committed-genocide-gaza-strip-un-commission-finds">defines as a genocide for the previous two and a half years. 

There’s no way this World Cup would be going ahead if the host was any country other than Trump’s US. 

Gross double standards

Fifa President Gianni Infantino bears comparison to his despicable British predecessor, Stanley Rous, who held the post from 1961-74.

The wretched Rous kept South Africa in world sport for years, https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/titles/peter-oborne/basil-doliveira/9780751534887/">insisting there was no anti-Black discrimination in the apartheid state. 

https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/2026-world-cup-gianni-infantino-101500601.html">Infantino can also be compared to the reactionary monster https://www.ushmm.org/exhibition/olympics/?content=favor_participation&lang=en">Avery Brundage, the sports chief who successfully resisted calls for a boycott of Hitler’s 1936 Olympics in https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/germany">Germany.

This year's World Cup has exposed western claims to global hegemony as corrupt, cynical and morally worthless

One huge question lurks behind the obscene footballing jamboree that lies ahead: how long can the US and its allies in Europe and Britain get away with such gross double standards?

Western global hegemony has long been based on the promise that institutions such as the UN and the ICC stand for fair dealing and the rule of law.

The US was at the heart of that system, with Infantino’s Fifa part of its wider apparatus of cultural and sporting validation.

The 2026 World Cup is, of course, a sporting event.

It cannot be remotely compared in horror or moral seriousness to Israel’s annihilation of Gaza.

Like Gaza, however, this year’s World Cup has exposed western claims to global hegemony as corrupt, cynical and morally worthless.

Additional research by Haroun Lalji.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.