FIFA Club World Cup: A dress rehearsal for USA-Canada-Mexico 2026 amid escalating anti-Trump protests

The United States remains the elusive promised land of world soccer. The largest market for television rights and ticket sales is resisting the allure of the sport that inspires the most passion worldwide. FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who maintains a close relationship with Donald Trump, wants the Club World Cup and, above all, the 2026 World Cup for international teams, which the United States is hosting alongside Mexico and Canada, to serve as a catapult to boost the game’s popularity. But Trump’s policies, including hostility toward his neighbors, his immigration and trade decisions, and entry bans on citizens from multiple countries, in addition to the recent protests against the president’s policies that erupted in Los Angeles — including a curfew — threaten to overshadow both events.

Infantino attended Trump’s victory rally in Washington on January 19, where the Republican mentioned him five times, always by name. “Thank you, Gianni, for the World Cup.” “This is FIFA at its most respectful,” the FIFA president said in a video on Instagram. “To be mentioned by the new president of the United States of America at his victory rally, in his victory speech, is something unique. It’s beautiful,” he added.

The FIFA president was one of the select guests at Trump’s inauguration at the Capitol the following day. He also accompanied the U.S. president to Saudi Arabia and Qatar during his Middle East tour, even at the cost of arriving late to the FIFA assembly in Asunción, Paraguay, to the astonishment and anger of those in attendance.

“The last minute changes to the timings of the FIFA Congress are deeply regrettable [...] to have the timetable changed at the last minute for what appears to be simply to accommodate private political interests, does the game no service and appears to put its interests second,” UEFA complained in a statement after a hint of a standoff.

“I felt I had to be there to represent all of you, to represent football,” Infantino apologized. “As FIFA president, my responsibility is to make decisions in the best interests of the organization,” he argued.

“I think it is absolutely crucial for the success of a World Cup to have a close relationship with the president,” the FIFA chief said in February. Trump, meanwhile, considers Infantino a “great friend.” They have played golf together, see each other relatively frequently, and shower each other with praise. “President Trump is definitely a sportsman. 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. He is a competitor. He wants to compete, he wants to win. He wants to show who is the best,” Infantino said of him in 2020 when introducing him at a dinner with executives in Davos.

Trump is, in principle, the person who will present both the Club World Cup and the World Cup. The golden trophy destined for the champions of the world has been in the White House for weeks.

Soccer, however, remains a second-class sport in the United States, where football (both the NFL and college football) is the undisputed king of sports. According to a Gallup poll published in 2024, gridiron football is, at 41%, the favorite sport of most Americans, followed by baseball (10%) and basketball (9%), although at least soccer (5%) has overtaken ice hockey (4%). The sports are not mutually exclusive, but when citizens are asked if they are fans, soccer’s relative position does not improve.

Not even the Messi phenomenon has caught on with broad segments of the population, despite the fact that the Argentine star’s arrival at Inter Miami caused a surge in team jersey sales and ratings for MLS in general. Soccer, however, is gaining ground and has a somewhat stronger position among the younger segment of the population and the Latino community. Therefore, the double World Cup presents itself as a unique opportunity.

The Club World Cup kicks off this Saturday with Messi’s Inter Miami in the opening match. Thirty-two teams are participating, but peculiar qualification rules have allowed four Brazilian and three MLS sides into the draw, while Spain, England, Germany, and Italy have only two representatives each. Something is amiss when Al-Ahly, Al-Hilal, and Al-Ain are participating, but not Liverpool, Barça, or Napoli, the latter three champions of their domestic leagues this season.

It will, in a sense, be a dress rehearsal for the 2026 World Cup, the largest in history, with 48 participating countries, compared to 32 in 2022. The United States will have 11 host cities, where 78 of the 104 World Cup matches will be played. Canada will host 13 matches in Toronto and Vancouver, and Mexico will host another 13, spread across Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara.

“The United States is on the verge of becoming the soccer power in the world. You don’t know it yet, but it’s coming faster than you think,” Infantino said in Davos in January 2020. “President Trump has been in this venture from the very beginning. He wanted it to be organized, together with Canada and Mexico, in prelude of the great trade agreement that you just signed last week. So, soccer is in advance of trade as well,” Infantino said at the time. This is the trade agreement Trump has torn up at the start of his second term.

Overall, Washington’s relations with its neighbors are far from the unifying ideal with which the candidacy was presented. Trump has flirted with the idea of annexing Canada, provoking a nationalist backlash in the country. Tariffs and immigration policy have deteriorated relations, and no one knows how they will evolve until the start of an event that requires logistical coordination and agility at the borders. Canadian tourist arrivals have plummeted, and visits to the United States in general are declining due to Trump’s hostile immigration and border policies.

Last month, the Trump administration’s 2026 World Cup Task Force insisted that all fans would be welcome and claimed supporters would be able to enjoy a “seamless experience,” in Trump’s words. “I know we’ll have visitors from close to 100 countries,” Vice President J.D. Vance said. “We want them to come, we want them to celebrate, we want them to watch the game. But when the time is up, they’ll have to go home.”

Last week, Trump issued an executive order banning entry into the United States for citizens of 12 countries and placing severe restrictions on those of seven others. Among the banned countries is Iran, a 2026 World Cup qualifier. The executive order includes an exception for soccer players participating in the World Cup, coaches, their families, and necessary support staff, but not for fans. Furthermore, in other countries not subject to visa restrictions, the wait times and requirements for visas are such that they discourage attendance.

The Club World Cup has so far generated little excitement in the United States. The high price of tickets — those for the opening match were initially priced at between $300 and $500; now they’re selling for just over $50 — the deteriorating economic situation (also due to Trump’s erratic policies), the novelty of the tournament, the lack of prominent teams (and the presence of many marginalized ones), and the low popularity of soccer in general in the country all play against it. The setting of prime European viewing times for many of the matches is an implicit acknowledgment that soccer’s conquest of the United States will have to wait.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition