With just under two months until the start of the 2026 World Cup, it seems that FIFA executives have finally looked up at the horizon, seen the looming shitstorm, and are now scrambling to head it off. The Athletic reported on Tuesday that top FIFA heads have sought to convince Gianni Infantino to make a "president-to-president" appeal to Donald Trump and ask if he can find it in his heart of hearts to give his ICE jackboots a summer vacation.
Specifically, the idea FIFA wants Infantino to run by Trump is that there be a full moratorium on ICE activities in the United States for the 39-day duration of the World Cup. From The Athletic's report:
"The Athletic has been told Infantino informed senior FIFA management he was receptive to this idea and he would seek to make a president-to-president ask of Trump to reduce ICE’s role during the tournament. [...] It is not known at this stage whether Infantino has yet made the request, or if he will follow through on it, or indeed whether the White House would be prepared to countenance such a request regarding domestic policy in the United States from FIFA."
FIFA is one of the world's most powerful organizations in any field, so it's rather funny that the best these executives can do in the face of Trump's maniacal xenophobia is to beckon Infantino to ask nicely that ICE not terrorize the assembled fans at the world's most popular sporting event. It might not be a bad strategy, though. Trump famously loves to have his ego massaged, and few are better at kissing this particular ass than Infantino, as he has exhibited ever since Trump returned to office in January 2025.
Aside from showing up at Trump's inauguration, Infantino also put the global marketing power of FIFA to work by giving Trump the first ever FIFA Peace Prize, clearly with the hope that it would curb some of Trump's worst impulses for the seven or so months it would take for the World Cup to run. Since then, Trump has overseen the invasion of Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro, the continued genocide in Gaza, the escalating economic warfare on Cuba, and the assassination of Ali Khamenei and the threat of nuclear war with Iran, just to name a few. Even in the most cynical person's mind, the Peace Prize sham couldn't have gone worse for FIFA.
Still, you can't rule out the possibility that the Peace Prize and all the ass kissing have curried Infantino a modicum of favor with Trump, so asking him to return the favor by chilling out on the ICE stuff for a few weeks isn't necessarily doomed to failure. As The Athletic correctly points out, though, sending ICE ghouls out to round up anyone who looks, in the vaguest possible sense, like they might not be "American" is a core tenet of the Trump administration's policies:
The FIFA officials even hypothesized about the possibility of pitching to the White House that they could jointly make an announcement of an ICE moratorium, which they argued could be framed as a positive news story for both FIFA and the Trump administration. It is unclear, however, how the White House would respond to this framing considering a crackdown on illegal immigration via ICE raids has been a key priority of the administration. The FIFA officials discussed framing this under Infantino’s preferred slogan of “FIFA Unites the World.”
FIFA has backed itself into a corner here. While I'm sure Infantino loves dealing with Trump when it benefits both of them, and sees himself as some kind of horse whisperer trying to coax sanity into this sociopath, far smarter, more charismatic, more important people than Infantino have learned the hard way that Trump has no interest in being tamed. Logically, an ICE moratorium would indeed earn Trump some good press heading into the World Cup, but when has Trump ever done anything logically? Knowing that the best place to scratch Trump is always his ego, maybe Infantino will sell this idea to him by concocting another bogus prize (the FIFA Greatest Leader on Earth Award, perhaps?), or by convincing him that a scandal-free World Cup would be a boon to his legacy. I don't know, I'm not in the business of trying to figure out how to get Trump to be less of a piece of shit. What I do know is that FIFA continues to eat shit in the face of a 79-year-old lunatic who thinks he's Dr. Jesus Christ, and despite all of the suffering that lies at Donald Trump's feet, watching the world's biggest, most powerful, and oftentimes most corrupt sports organization eat shit is darkly funny.
