Today, Explained - Trump’s World Cup

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

The biggest sporting event is coming to North America this year. Here’s what it means that President Trump will get to host the world. This episode was produced by Dustin DeSoto, edited by Amina Al-Sadi with help from Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Laura Bullard and Andrea Lopez-Cruzado, engineered by Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Astead Herndon. President Donald Trump places the FIFA Peace Prize around his neck after receiving it from FIFA President Gianni Infantino. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at ⁠vox.com/today-explained-podcast.⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The biggest sporting event in the world is coming to the U.S. No, not the Olympics. The FIFA Men's World Cup. 48 national teams, 16 host cities, and the final right here at MetLife Stadium. Now, if you're going, don't tell me, because I will either die of jealousy or make a stupid financial decision.

The World Cup is my Super Bowl, and in fact, it's way bigger than the Super Bowl, with nine times the global viewers. It's also expected to attract a million tourists to the U.S. this summer. This, of course, has caught the attention of one President Trump, who is already seeking to shape the tournament in his image. You look at the numbers, nobody's ever seen anything like the kind of numbers we're doing. The early ticket sales are through the roof.

So how and why did Donald Trump come to love soccer? That's coming up on Today Explain from Vox. Packages by Expedia, you were made to occasionally take the hard route to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We were made to easily bundle your trip. Expedia, made to travel. This is today Explained. My name's Adam Crafton, and I'm a report. at The Athletic, primarily covering soccer, the business of soccer, the politics of soccer,

the money of soccer, and all the stories that come with that. Can you remind us just about the bidding process here? How did the U.S., and, of course, Canada and Mexico in conjunction, even get these games in the first place? The way it works is nations bid, and they bid quite a long way out. The process for this was kind of around 2017. It was actually during Trump's first presidency. Well, thank you very much. We very much appreciate the fact that we have won a very important event, the World Cup, in 2026, and we'll be hosting it along with Mexico and Canada. It's interesting to look back on because now, you know, at any moment President Trump gets the opportunity to take credit for it, he will do.

But actually, you know, we've reported on the athletic. One of the motivating factors for joining forces was kind of this concern about whether America, America, the USA, could win a bid by itself because this was coming off the back of, if you remember, the FBI's criminal investigations into FIFA and the DOJ's involvement. We are here to announce the unsealing of charges and the arrests of individuals as part of our long-running investigation into bribery and corruption in the world of organized soccer. And there was this concern about whether FIFA membership, which was kind of one member, one vote across the world, would actually go for it, just an American bid. So they joined forces with Canada and Mexico, slightly softer, I guess, landing. And also just this feeling at the time of, you know, Trump at the time was saying some pretty disparaging things about other parts of the world. You'll be shocked to hear. You mean to tell me, and Donald Trump, it's disparaging other countries. And even during the bidding

process, like, I spoke to people part of that bid. And they would be going around saying to people things like, oh, you know, Trump doesn't really mean what he's saying, or don't worry, he won't be the president by the time this comes around. So let's see, 2026. I won't be here. I won't be here. Maybe they'll extend the 10 because I know they'd love to see something. And yet here we are. And Trump, you know, I think Trump likes it, basically because he can claim credit. He can say, I was here when we won this, I brought this, and now I'm here to deliver this. Now, I, you know, I really want to focus on FIFA's relationship, how they've oriented themselves to Donald Trump.

You know, the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, has become someone a kind of legend in the soccer world for both maybe good and bad reasons. You're going to help us understand a little more about him. Who is he, and where did he come from? So he is the son of Italian immigrants in Switzerland. As a child, they called him Piccolo, the little one. Because they know. what it means to be discriminated, to be bullied as a foreigner in a foreign country. As a child, at school, I was bullied because I had red hair and I had this red, how do you call them?

Freckles. Frikels. And he actually, he's got this kind of quite interesting multicultural background. As a child, you know, he's spoken about being pretty poorly and needing a blood transfusion. He was kept alive by blood from donors from England and also from Belgrade. So what's now Serbia, former Yugoslavia. And then he has this kind of story of emerging as a soccer bureaucrat. So he was originally in the legal department at the European Confederation, which is called UEFA. There's the different confederations around the world.

And he was there. And he was one of the beneficiaries of kind of the collapse of FIFA in 2000. 2015, 2016, because this space emerged where he was able to kind of deliver himself to be kind of like a change maker. Some people don't want change. Some people hoped maybe, well, new president, but we continue as before. Well, no, we don't continue as before. Well, we have our two main characters here then, President Trump and Gianni and Fentino, President of FIFA. Can you tell me about their relationship and how it's shaping the World Cup?

Yeah. Well, their relationship was born out of the bid. So the beard joined Trump's first presidency. Infantino kind of got himself into the Oval Office a couple of times. That was how it started. But what actually happened was, whereas a lot of people obviously turned on Trump kind of towards the end of his first presidency and certainly after January the 6th, Infantino didn't.

There was no point where Infantino, publicly distance himself from Trump. He played a pretty judicious game where he kind of, either because he liked Trump or because he was a smart political animal and recognized that there was a chance you might have to work with him again. He stayed close.

You know, he went to Mar-a-Lago. When Trump was out of office? Yeah. He maintained that relationship. And actually, there was a pretty memorable moment at Davos. this was when I think Trump was still in power, but it was the week where the ground rules were being laid for the Senate, I think the first impeachment hearing.

And it was around that time, and Infantino actually introduced Trump to speak at Davos and spoke about him in these glowing terms, described him as a fighter, almost like a gladiator, compared him to one of the great soccer players. I am lucky enough in my life to come across some of the most talented athletes. in soccer, and President Trump is made of the same sort of fiber.

And I think Trump, you know, whatever people think of him, he's clearly someone who remembers those who are loyal to him and doesn't like those who turn on him. And when Trump was then out of office, FIFA found it really difficult to penetrate the White House. You know, there was no picture with Joe Biden in the Oval Office. There was no even visit to the Oval Office for Infantino joined that time. And FIFA were finding it hard to get stuff done during that period.

And then when Trump wins power last November, Infantino is immediately on the front foot. I mean, like on Instagram, every other day, praising Trump. What a fantastic victory. He went to his pre-inauguration rally. And Trump would like keep name-checking him at these events. The president of FIFA, Johnny Infantino, FIFA, FIFA, where's Johnny? Oh, Johnny, my boy. I didn't know he was going to be here.

He's big stuff. And it was pretty odd. Like, for those of us who have followed Infantino as a job, kind of this like soccer bureaucrat, to all of a sudden see him, you know, basically being on first-name terms with the US president. Infantino has been in the Oval Office more than any foreign state leader, for example. That's extraordinary.

Wait, wait, wait, wait. that again. I want to make sure I got that right. He's been in the Oval Office more than any other foreign state leader, any other kind of dignitary, you know, he's, I mean, at this point, it seems as if he's like, you know, top of the list of Trump allies. Yeah. I mean, like, if you think of, like, at least in public appearances, you know, like where you see those kind of joint Oval Office affairs, like the one that, for example, Mamdani had with Trump in the Oval Office, there's been like several of those with Trump and Infantino. So, you know, he has gone above and beyond before for host nations. But I think what we're seeing now with Trump,

I mean, firstly with the Peace Prize, is kind of another level. You mentioned the Peace Prize. Can you explain that? What is this Peace Prize? Yeah. So at the FIFA World Cup draw at the start of December, Donald Trump was presented with the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize. Please welcome the very first winner of the FIFA Peace Prize, the 45th and 47 President of the United States of America, Mr Donald J. Trump. FIFA has never had a peace prize. Nobody has ever asked FIFA to do a peace prize as far as we know. And the background of this is, earlier in autumn 2025,

a kind of unofficial campaign kind of coming out of the wide. and outriders of the White House started to suggest that President Trump should be winning the Nobel Peace Press. And actually, the day before the Peace Prize was announced, of course, the day before Infantino goes out on Instagram and actually says President Trump deserves it. I mean, there's no reason for the President of FIFA to be kind of inherently be making these declarations about who deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Why is Infantino going out on a limb in this way?

There's a few theories on this. The first is just Infantino loves it, right? He loves being around, rich, powerful people, sees himself as this kind of head of state for soccer, if you like, the king of soccer. The second view is there is a pragmatic need for FIFA to go above and beyond, right? And maybe they just think this is what we need to do to make sure we get what we need. And there are things that FIFA need. So the host cities, the 11 host cities in this state, had needed 625 million, I should say, worth of federal security funding for the tournament.

Now, in normal circumstances, you would say this is an international global event. Of course the federal government's going to provide that. But actually, you don't quite know if they're going to provide that, right? So they got that, they got that through. recently and you know amid all the immigration policies that have been going on FIFA secured what has been called a FIFA pass which means that if you have bought a ticket for the World Cup you will get an appointment wherever you are in the world through a visa interview in your country they're saying within six to eight weeks so there are these

kind of concessions that FIFA have got but at the same time you now have four nations Haiti, Iran, Senegal, Ivory Coast, whose countries have travel bans, which mean their fans can't travel to the tournament. So there's some wins and there's some losses, but I think FIFA are wary of. At some point, someone in the White House might turn around, look at FIFA and say, hang on, they are a kind of a global organisation. You know, if I'm thinking in like Maga speak here, a kind of global organisation that get tax breaks from America, that get all this revenue from putting on a tournament on our soil,

and we're not getting a cut of the ticket revenue, of the parking revenue, of the broadcast, the sponsorship. Why are we helping these guys so much? And actually, does a Peace Prize go some way to just making sure that's always on his desk and reminding him, FIFA's great. Coming up, so it's the biggest sporting event in the world. What could possibly go wrong? Support for today's show comes from Quo. The new year can be a perfect time to give your business a reset. It's a time to look around and think about better ways to get things done.

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Otherwise, 1.00% APY applies. No min balance required. Chime card on-time payment history may have a positive impact on your credit score. Results may vary. See chime.com for details and applicable terms. It's Today Explained. We're back with Adam Crafton of The Athletic. I suppose to someone who works for FIFA the other day who said to me, like,

and they were very much speaking in a personal capacity, I should say. But they were basically saying, you know, despite our best efforts to fuck things up and bleak me out there, the games and the jeopardy mean this is an event that cannot fail, right? You know, this is an event that cannot fail. The drama's built in. Yeah. Now, this time around, what's different is the prices. FIFA fans say World Cup ticket prices are a monumental betrayal.

Just reading into the ticket prices for the World Cup next year, horrible. Absolutely horrible. I don't think we're going to the World Cup anymore, bro. It's just not happening. You know what? Screw FIFA. This is exactly, I knew this was going to happen. They're nonsense about all these pre-sales and, yeah, we're going to take care of our fans, blah, blah, blah.

No, you're not. No, you're not. FIFA have come to North America and to the States in particular, and they have adapted to what is their new favorite word, their new favorite phrase, I should say, which is local market conditions. Right? And local market conditions for premium sports events are really, really expensive.

Really expensive, and they also have dynamic pricing. Well, let's slow down and define these phrases. I mean, this World Cup has an expanded number of teams. So theoretically, you would think that this would mean it would give Americans more opportunities to go the games. What you're laying out here is that the conditions for these World Cup prices are different because of two things. Local market conditions and things called dynamic pricing. Can you define those for us? Yeah, so the local market conditions are that basically premium sports events and entertainment events in the United States are expensive.

They said, hey, they pay a lot of money over here, so we're going to charge them a lot of money. Yeah, I think they've probably looked at America as a little bit of an ATM, you know, to be honest. And, you know, their argument would be, you know, if there's people who are prepared to pay that, we can then take those revenues, distribute them all around the world to all the national federations, and, you know, develop soccer in parts of the world that requires it. So the reason, though, why the prices have started high and I think are going to stay high here is, because it's so spread around a massive country even though there's more games than ever

104 games across the three countries each region doesn't have that many games you know there's like eight I think it's seven or eight games in New York right that's not that many people to actually be able to go to games when you bring in diaspras and when you bring in travellers from outside of the country and that creates this incredible demand Can we put some numbers on it?

Like, what are we talking about in terms of the early run of ticket prices that we've seen? Is this like NFL ticket level? Are we talking about Super Bowl ticket prices? Like, what's the numbers? Well, I guess, you know, the Super Bowl comparison would be the final, right? So the price is released by FIFA a couple of weeks ago. Three categories. Category one, $8,680.

Oh, I'm already out. Right? Category two, $5,575. category three, $4,185. However, since then, there has been such a strong backlash that they have now introduced basically a fourth category of $60 tickets. FIFA just announced it's slashing the price of some World Cup tickets for teams' most loyal fans. The organization says a $60 ticket option will be made available for every game at the tournament in North America. Which will be only for

1.6% of tickets per game, but for every game. But those tickets won't be for your casual fan in America. They will be given, they will be split evenly between the two nations that are competing to the federations of those nations. So say, for example, the final is England against Brazil. 0.8% of those tickets will be given to the English Federation to distribute to their most loyal fans, i.e. the fans who have been to every qualification game in Albania, Serbia, blah, blah, blah,

during the qualification, and the same to Brazil. But that's kind of as good as it gets. You know, we focused on ticket prices, but I also want to ask about other complicating factors when we think about next summer. What about the mixed messages we've seen from the White House and DHS when it comes to the prospect of ice raids at the World Cup matches? Is that a legitimate possibility? Yeah, I mean, this is an area where I'm really cautious of, like, minimizing or downplaying

what the risks are, because ultimately, like, I can't tell people ICE aren't going to do stuff. U.S. Customs and Border Protection suggested in a social media post earlier this month, they'd be present at this summer's FIFA Club World Cup Games. Now, that post has since been deleted. Concerns for FIFA fans as we count down. to the 2026 World Cup. Immigrant advocates are calling on the organization

to use its influence to protect fans from ICE agents. Look, I think there is a desire within the administration for this tournament to project very well on America. And I think if you look at President Trump

as someone who sees the world through ratings and a little bit of vanity, he knows the world. knows the World Cup has a huge global audience. That's why he wants to be involved in it. He has the vanity of saying, I delivered this thing. So he wants it to go well because it came in his first term. Therefore, I think it would be politically strange for fans going to these games to be the target of raids. However, that doesn't mean there aren't people

within the administration who might see it as an opportunity or a good idea. And it also won't mean that there could be events that take place through kind of normal actions of soccer fans that lead to arrests, you know, whether it's, I don't know, a fight breaks out or a bit of hooliganism or people drink too much. One thing soccer fans are going to do. You know, like people drink too much and there's disturbances. And then following arrests, there could then be checks on. papers and do you have your papers and ice?

Yeah. You know, there will be big diaspora tendencies at these games. You know, I think of games like Ecuador playing Germany at MetLife Stadium. Huge Ecuadorian diaspora will make that stadium look like a home game. Now, does that make those fans more reluctant to go to games? I don't know. Let's say I don't care about soccer at all. Let's say I am your classic American sports ingested.

and it's all existed as kind of like Eurofowl ridiculousness to me. And I'm hearing about this World Cup coming next summer, but I don't fully know what it means. Is there a case of why this event will still be something worth following? Okay, so if I'm giving the pitch on why this could be fantastic, right?

And if I think of what Americans get excited about when it comes to sport, it's moments and its characters. So you're going to have these, moments that a World Cup always produces because there's going to be so much jeopardy on the field. You'll have penalty shootouts. You'll have, you know, big nations going out possibly quite early, who knows. But you're also going to have this real jeopardy of major names like Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi having their final tournaments. You're going to have Mosala being there with

Egypt. And I also think from an American perspective, it is one of those times where the multiculturalism and the diasporas of the United States can produce really fabulous moments. You're going to have games in New Jersey where it looks like a home game for Ecuador, games in Miami where Argentina or Brazil will just fill that stadium and the blur of colour that you will see.

These fans will take over the beaches, they'll take over the street. I sound like Trump now. They're going to take over the streets and the beaches. But in a positive way, it'll be a blur of kind of music and color and vibrancy and jeopardy, all of those ingredients that you want in big sporting events. That's what the hope is. Adam Crafton, reporter at the athletic.

Today's show was produced by Dustin DeSoto and edited by Amina Alsadi, with some help. from Joe Lee Myers. Patrick Boyd and Bridger Dunnigan engineered. Andrea Lopez-Cruzado and Laura Bullard fact-checked the show. This is actually the last show that Laura will be fact-checking. We will miss her, but can't wait to have her back as a reporter guest on the show. I'm a Sten-Hurndon. This is Today Explained. I don't know.

Thank you.