The World Cup draw on Friday at the Kennedy Center in Washington was as much about President Donald Trump as it was about soccer.
At noon, Andrea Bocelli sang Puccini’s “Nessun dorma,” a Trump rally staple. The Village People closed the event by performing “YMCA,” another Trump rally regular. FIFA President Gianni Infantino implored the crowd of soccer and sports luminaries to applaud Trump, who watched the proceedings from a box overlooking the stage.
The World Cup draw was held to reveal which countries will play each other in the opening stage next year. But the event effectively became a star-studded Trump rally.
Soccer’s international governing body created a FIFA Peace Prize and awarded it to the self-anointed peacemaker-in-chief (including a gold medal the president promptly hung around his neck). The announcement included a four-minute montage lionizing Trump. “This has been a presidency marked by actions to pursue peace around the world,” the narration intoned, omitting mention of the administration’s controversial boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific.
FIFA’s two-hour World Cup draw was held to reveal which countries will play each other at stadiums across the U.S., Canada and Mexico in the opening stage of next year’s tournament. But with the familiar playlist, the gold trophies and the fawning praise, the event effectively became a star-studded Trump rally, though the dress code was more black tie than red hat.
The takeover of the grand white-marble performing arts center in our nation’s capital — where Trump revamped the previously bipartisan board of trustees earlier this year — is the latest example of FIFA debasing itself to cater to the presidentInfantino joined Trump on a trip to Saudi Arabia and Qatar in May — leading to his own hours-late arrival at a FIFA congress in Paraguay (where several European delegates walked out in response). He also traveled with Trump to Egypt in October. Infantino has visited not only the Oval Office but also Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
Meanwhile, soccer’s governing body has also appeared pliant to please Trump. After the president said Infantino would “very easily” move World Cup games away from cities the administration deems “dangerous,” a FIFA spokesperson hedged that safety and security are the host government’s responsibility. FIFA has not pushed back against the White House travel ban on Haiti or its plans to prevent fans from Haiti, which qualified for the tournament, from entering the United States.
The tournament itself could be the site of enforcement of controversial Trump policies, potentially displacing people without homes in host cities and helping profile spectators in immigration raids. Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House’s World Cup task force, refused this month to rule out the prospect of raids at World Cup matches.
But there’s a deeper reason to be upset by soccer’s international institution joining the president’s collection of sport curios, in such bizarre company as the UFC fight to celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States next summer.
By catering to Trump, FIFA is making itself exclusionary. And that’s everything that American soccer is not.
Since the beginning of soccer’s push toward mainstream American audiences in the 1970s, inclusivity has been key.
Since the beginning of soccer’s push toward mainstream American audiences in the 1970s, inclusivity has been key. In that era, American soccer leagues showcased diversity on and off the pitch, with Black and Latino players, most notably Brazilian soccer icon Pelé, featuring as stars after racism and discrimination left them overlooked by teams in Europe.
It had such an impact that even at Friday’s draw, Trump mentioned watching Pelé play in the United States in the ’70s.
Major League Soccer is one of the nation’s most diverse sports leagues. The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport found in 2022 that more than 60% of MLS players and over a third of all head coaches were people of color. By comparison, it found a similar rate of diversity among NFL players but a diversity rate of just 18% among the league’s head coaches.
On the women’s side, in the 1980s and 1990s Title IX helped girls find athletic opportunities in soccer. The U.S. women’s national team formed in 1985 and won the World Cup in 1991 and 1999. The women’s national team’s multiyear fight for equal pay has fostered a culture in which players and fans alike stand up for social justice causes. Stars such as Megan Rapinoe and Abby Wambach have entered public consciousness as much for their off-field advocacy as for their on-field greatness. In the men’s game, the 1994 World Cup, hosted in the United States, led to the creation of MLS two years later. By catering to Trump, FIFA is making itself exclusionary. And that’s everything that American soccer is not. MLS clubs have grown since then in large part thanks to sizable Latino fan bases. Even as the Trump administration sent federal law enforcement into U.S. cities this year, soccer fans held firm across racial and cultural divides. Examples of soccer fans visibly pushing back against Trump policies this year include Nashville SC fans holding banners saying “we are not all here” in May, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids sent many Latino fans into hiding; Los Angeles FC fans holding a silent protest in June before briefly breaking into anti-ICE chants; and fans of the National Women’s Soccer League’s Washington Spirit chanting “Free DC” at every game since the National Guard arrived in their city in August. The Trump White House and FIFA co-opting a cultural space for its glossy World Cup draw tramples on the welcoming environment fans, players, teams and leagues have built for decades in American soccer. Whatever gold trophies FIFA wants to award Trump, one hopes that American soccer will remain truer to its values than becoming a Trump sideshow.
Roey Hadar is a producer for MS NOW, working on “The Briefing with Jen Psaki” and “The Rachel Maddow Show.” 
