2026 World Cup: The murky ties between FIFA and the USA

In the later years of his long life, Sepp Blatter no longer recognizes FIFA. At 90, the Swiss former president of the world football organization, which he led from 1998 to 2015, views the 2026 World Cup with great disapproval: "With 48 teams and 104 matches, it exceeds all limits!"

For the tournament, which will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, Blatter's compatriot and rival Gianni Infantino has increased the number of participating teams from 32. As a result, FIFA expects record revenues: $13 billion for the 2023–2026 cycle.

But in Blatter’s eyes, there is something even more problematic. For him, the “bromance” between current FIFA president and US President Donald Trump since the vote in June 2018 that awarded the 2026 World Cup shows that “FIFA’s political activities, which are not in line with its statutes on the organization’s obligation of neutrality, have reached their peak.” With Infantino’s help, Blatter complained, “the United States has had no problem establishing itself as a major football power.”

To better understand the rise of American soft power in world football, one must go back more than 15 years. In Zurich on December 2, 2010, Blatter announced in a tense voice that Qatar had won the 2022 World Cup over the United States, by 14 votes to eight in the fourth round of voting. For the American delegation, it was a betrayal and an insult.

"Qatar bought votes"

“We believed we had the best bid, but we weren’t chosen. The rules that were in place at the time were not designed to provide the fairest possible process,” Sunil Gulati, former president of the U.S. Soccer Federation from 2006 to 2018, told French investigators in 2021, during the French investigation into alleged corruption in the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar. “Those rules left a relatively wide space within which we conducted our bid very honorably and with moderation. They also left a very large space for acting outside the rules,” he added.

In the eyes of the Americans, Blatter's FIFA was inexcusable, guilty of allowing members of its executive committee to be influenced by Qatari interests. Thus was born the "Qatargate" scandal, which marked the beginning of the end of Blatter's reign.

“Qatar bought votes,” Blatter now says, as if forgetting that he himself had approved the Gulf microstate’s bid in 2008 during a meeting with Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. That claim was rejected by a Qatari government official, who said in a statement to Le Monde on May 25 that the comments by “the former FIFA president, who was shamefully suspended from football following serious allegations of corruption during his term (...) are nothing more than a transparent attempt to remain relevant on the eve of another World Cup.”

According to Blatter, "the tacit agreement within the FIFA executive committee on the Russia-United States package for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups" was overturned by "French influence by Nicolas Sarkozy and Michel Platini on the decision" in 2010 - an allusion to the now infamous lunch at the Élysée Palace on 23 November 2010, which brought together the French president, the president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and the Emir of Qatar. That meeting was later overshadowed by serious suspicions of collusion and favour-for-favour arrangements, which remain at the centre of an investigation by French justice. Platini denied Blatter's allegations before French investigators and admitted that he had initially considered voting for the US, before ultimately supporting Qatar.

When questioned by the French National Financial Prosecutor's Office in late 2017, the former French national team captain admitted that he had "done everything as UEFA president" to dissuade the United States from bidding to host the 2018 World Cup and to encourage them to bid for the 2022 tournament instead. "After the vote, in an informal conversation that same day, Blatter told me that he voted for Australia, then Japan, the United States and finally Qatar, because, as he himself said, he wanted to 'be with the winner'. (...) It's a world of liars. I should have said I voted for the United States, so no one would have given me any problems," Platini insisted. Blatter denied this, claiming that he supported the United States "until the very end."

Massive FIFA bonuses

In an effort to restore its reputation, FIFA’s leadership tried in the 2010s to create the appearance of wanting to shed light on what one former official now calls “the unjustified vote for Qatar.” Michael Garcia, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former member of the George W. Bush administration, was then tasked by FIFA with investigating the circumstances surrounding Qatar’s victory. Having promised to expose everything, he resigned in December 2014, raising a great deal of controversy, disgusted by the summary of his report prepared by German lawyer Hans-Joachim Eckert, then president of the FIFA Ethics Committee’s judicial council. In the 42-page document, Eckert pointed to some questionable elements, but of a “very limited scope,” and therefore insufficient to call into question the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

Pressed against the wall in this heated atmosphere, Blatter's inner circle was already considering the possibility of awarding the 2026 World Cup to the United States, a member of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF). Behind the scenes, FIFA's marketing department had begun working, more than a decade before the tournament, to secure deals that would give the three North American television networks - Bell Media (CTV), Fox and NBC - the rights to broadcast the 2026 World Cup.

According to court documents seen by Le Monde, the negotiations were concluded in 2014 and 2015. For FIFA, the outcome was lucrative bonuses, or “host country contributions” – $182 million from Fox, $115 million from NBC and five million Canadian dollars from CTV – that the North American broadcasters were to pay if the US and Canada were chosen to host the 2026 tournament, which will be formalized in June 2018. The New York Times revealed on May 24 that FIFA had already extended the contract for the 2026 edition with Fox, which already had the broadcasting rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, in 2014, without calling for tenders. The three television networks did not respond to Le Monde’s questions.

Through these bonus clauses, Blatter's FIFA has merely maintained a mechanism that Al Jazeera Sports had already imposed in November 2010. Qatari television agreed to pay an additional $100 million to the umbrella organization if the gas-rich Emirati state was chosen to host the 2022 World Cup, as stipulated in a contract that is of particular interest to the French judiciary. In 2021, Infantino also confirmed before French judges the existence of bonuses that North American broadcasters paid FIFA if "the Cup were held in North America". "In the future, we must separate commercial negotiations from voting and such contracts must not be concluded before the vote," admitted the current FIFA president.

According to a FIFA lawyer who was called to testify before the Swiss Attorney General’s Office in December 2015, the agreement reached with North American broadcasters “meant at the time that the 2026 World Cup would be held in the United States.” In his view, “the game had already been decided” even before the FIFA Congress in June 2018 voted on the host of the tournament. “Everyone is preparing for the 2026 tournament, which will be held in the United States,” Niklas Eriksson, FIFA’s director of television, said internally as early as 2014, based on his conversations with the “Blater clan.”

Scandal FIFAgate

While Blatter's FIFA, obsessed with commercial interests, paved the way for the US to become the future host of the 2026 World Cup, a legal storm from New York has plunged the umbrella organization of football into the deepest moral and political crisis in its history.

At dawn on May 27, 2015, Swiss police, at the request of American authorities, arrested seven FIFA officials at the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich for extradition to the United States. Thus began the scandal known as "FIFAgate."

The US Department of Justice and prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York have indicted 14 people, including nine officials linked to FIFA, on charges of “conspiracy to commit racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering.” The investigation found that $150 million in bribes were paid to individuals involved in the scheme since 1991 “to secure lucrative media and marketing rights for international soccer tournaments.”

At the root of this major operation were tips and recordings provided to American investigators by whistleblower Chuck Blazer. This American, the former secretary general of CONCACAF, accused of tax fraud and corruption, became the FBI's top informant. The information he provided led American authorities to investigate the awarding of the 1998, 2010, 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

On the same day, May 27, 2015, a court-ordered search of FIFA's headquarters in Zurich was carried out, this time as part of an investigation by the Swiss Public Prosecutor's Office into the "Catargate" affair. The house of cards began to collapse rapidly.

Although he was elected to a fifth term as FIFA president on May 29, the 79-year-old Blatter was forced to "resign" on June 2, under pressure from people in his inner circle and the American lawyer Quinn Emanuel, who represented the interests of the international federation.

"For FIFA to survive and not be viewed as a criminal organization by the US authorities, it had to cooperate, conduct internal investigations through its US lawyers, and Blatter had to go," recalled one judicial source.

Infantino comes to power

In the months following the raid on the Baur au Lac hotel, events unfolded at lightning speed. The clear favorite to succeed Blatter, then-UEFA president Michel Platini, fell over an old case: an allegedly suspicious payment of two million Swiss francs, or 1,6 million euros at the then exchange rate, made by Blatter's FIFA in February 2011.

In the fall of 2015, the suspensions of Platini and Blatter by the FIFA Ethics Committee fueled the ambitions of the man who was then UEFA Secretary General: Infantino, Platini's right-hand man. As a shadow man, the door to advancement seemed closed to him by the expected electoral victory of his French boss.

As Platini faced obstacles, Infantino announced his candidacy, with the behind-the-scenes support of Kuwaiti Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah, who had close ties to the US, and set off around the world to canvass votes, using UEFA’s war chest. Even before he officially announced his candidacy, Infantino, according to our sources, traveled to New York twice in October 2015. For what purpose? He has never explained his motives. Through FIFA, he continues to reject “unfounded allegations” by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung about an alleged “grand bargain” between him and the US.

According to the newspaper, Infantino was then being questioned by US authorities in an attempt to gain "immunity" over a controversial television contract signed in 2006 on behalf of UEFA with an offshore company owned by businessmen who have since been indicted by New York authorities. The "Panama Papers" revealed the contract in 2016.

According to information obtained by Le Monde, Infantino also traveled to Miami, where Sam Gandy, CONCACAF's American legal advisor, organized a dinner for him as part of his election campaign. Following the event, several Central American federations publicly announced their support for Infantino. "Infantino's problem was finding support outside Europe," recalled a person familiar with the matter.

According to the same source, Infantino “wanted the support of the US federation” ahead of the FIFA election congress, scheduled for February 26, 2016. That’s why he traveled to New York a few days before the vote. “But after the Baur au Lac operation, the US was not particularly popular with FIFA members, and significant support from demanding Americans would not have been a good thing for Infantino,” said one US justice source. “He was annoyed and never really understood why the US didn’t officially support him.”

The day before the congress, at the Baur au Lac hotel, Infantino met with Gulati, who had supported the other candidate, Jordanian Prince Ali bin al Hussein, in the first round. The two agreed that Americans would support the European candidate in the second round. On the day of the vote, Gulati fulfilled his promise and, together with Gandhi and Canadian Soccer Federation president Victor Montagnani, worked in the hall to convince CONCACAF representatives, as well as several African and Oceanian officials, to vote for Infantino.

“The key was to convince voters that with Gianni they would get more funding and money through development programs,” said one American observer of the backstage maneuvers. In the second round, Infantino was elected FIFA president, defeating Sheikh Salman al-Khalifa of Bahrain, the powerful president of the Asian Football Confederation.

"The United States helped Infantino get elected," Blatter now says.

Office in Trump Tower

In 2020, the charm offensive continued with Infantino’s visit to the US Department of Justice headquarters and a meeting with Attorney General William Barr, as part of a “cooperation” between FIFA and US law enforcement. That same year, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York formally charged three former South American members of FIFA’s executive committee with accepting “bribes and kickbacks” in December 2010 for Qatar. In 2021, the US Department of Justice granted FIFA “victim” status and awarded its foundation $201 million in damages for “illegally obtained funds” by former officials in the “FIFAgate” scandal.

The closer ties between the organization now led by Infantino and the United States became apparent when Loretta Lynch, the US attorney general from 2015 to 2017 and a vocal critic of Blatter's regime during the "FIFAgate" scandal, participated as a speaker at several summits organized by FIFA in 2020 and 2023. The rapprochement culminated in 2024, during the presidency of Joe Biden, when FIFA opened new offices for its legal and compliance department in Miami, Florida, near the headquarters of CONCACAF, which has been chaired since 2016 by Victor Montagnani, a longtime Infantino ally. The offices are also just an hour's drive from Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. A year later, FIFA would even buy space in Trump Tower in New York.

At the beginning of his term, Infantino's main goal was to repair his image as a reformer committed to "transparency" in the process of awarding the 2026 World Cup. FIFA could no longer afford to make mistakes after the controversies and suspicions of corruption that marked Qatar's successful bid for the 2022 tournament. From then on, the hosts of the 2026 World Cup would no longer be chosen by the twenty or so members of the organization's executive committee, but by the 211 national associations that are FIFA members. The vote was scheduled for 13 June 2018 in Moscow, and each country's vote was to be made public. The decision had been made by the FIFA Council three months earlier.

Change of strategy

In 2017, two bids emerged: one from Morocco and one from a North American trio consisting of the United States, Mexico and Canada. Still shaken by the defeat by Qatar, the Americans changed their strategy. “In 2010, we went it alone and lost,” said one supporter of the North American bid. “We had hundreds of stadiums that could accommodate FIFA matches. We had the infrastructure, the airports, the hotels. But the decision to join forces with Canada and Mexico was supposed to show a sense of unity, of solidarity among neighbors. It was a way to show that the United States was capable of working with others. That image could convince voters from smaller countries.”

According to Gulati, “the change in the voting body, as well as a set of rules for the candidacy,” convinced the US to re-enter the race. “The only reason the United States re-entered the race was because we had confidence in the new FIFA’s ability to establish an open, transparent, fair and just process for selecting the host,” added one influential figure in American sports.

While the campaign for the North American trio was “tight, intense and almost military,” the same source recalled, the evaluation criteria imposed by FIFA angered Moroccans. “FIFA emphasized the commercial revenue criteria (30 percent of the final score) to favor the American candidacy. Infantino secretly supported the joint candidacy with all his might,” complained a senior representative of the Moroccan candidacy committee.

"America had to win the World Cup. Infantino pushed the American bid," Blatter said. In a statement, FIFA claimed that "the 2026 World Cup bid process set a new standard of transparency and rigor. Any suggestion of collusion in the bid process is simply absurd."

“Between 2016 and 2018, Infantino was very interested in a North American bid from a commercial perspective,” admitted a former aide to the FIFA president. “His main criterion was to maximize FIFA’s revenue from ticket sales, stadiums, sponsorships and broadcasting rights. The United States is a commercial power. For Gianni, it’s all about money, nothing but money.” The formation of the international federation’s evaluation working group, which included senior members of its administration, was also seen as a maneuver by Infantino to weaken the Moroccan bid.

"There was no 'deal' behind closed doors, nor was the decision to award this World Cup to North America the wish of the FIFA president. Infantino never interfered, supported anyone or took sides - he remained neutral," insisted a person involved in the North American campaign, arguing that the joint bid was simply "the best."

Erasing political borders

Although Trump, then serving his first term in the White House, did not directly engage in the campaign, the award process was nevertheless marked by his vociferous intervention. In a tweet on April 27, 2018, he threatened: “The United States, together with Canada and Mexico, has prepared a STRONG bid for the 2026 World Cup. It would be a shame if countries that we always support lobby against the American bid. Why would we support these countries when they do not support us, including at the United Nations?” One Moroccan analyst, looking back, noted: “Since the voting in FIFA was public, the United States realized that they had to threaten.”

In Moscow on June 13, 2018, the verdict was clear. Morocco, which FIFA rated as inferior to the joint bid of the three countries and whose commercial ambitions were half that of their competitors, was defeated for the fifth time in the vote to host the World Cup. The kingdom suffered a heavy defeat by the North American trio - 134 votes to 65. On stage at Moscow's Expocentre, Infantino celebrated: the American victory had won FIFA a prize. "I am not worried about any political interference. I don't think anyone can take over FIFA, FIFA belongs to football and to FIFA's members," he dismissed the remarks when asked about Trump's tweet.

Sitting on a pile of gold, the head of world football continued to cultivate a closeness with the US president ahead of the 2026 World Cup. Infantino relied in particular on his advisor Carlos Cordeiro, who did not respond to requests for comment from Le Monde, a former president of the US Soccer Federation from 2018 to 2020 and an advisor to the White House task force related to the tournament. Infantino and Trump have met frequently in the Oval Office. On one occasion, in August 2018, the US president waved a red card in front of reporters.

In January 2025, a smiling Infantino attended Trump's inauguration in Washington. "There is a blurring of political boundaries at all levels. How is it possible that the FIFA president is attending this inauguration?" exclaimed one influential figure in world football. The FIFA president's efforts to curry favor with the US authorities - after awarding Morocco the 2030 World Cup as a consolation prize with Spain and Portugal - continued with the award of the 2034 World Cup to Mohammed bin Salman's Saudi Arabia, a staunch US ally during the 2018 vote.

The “bromance” between Trump and Infantino reached its peak in December 2025, when the US president was awarded the controversial FIFA “Peace Prize” during the globally broadcast ceremony for the 2026 World Cup draw. Consultant Peter Hargitay, a former advisor to Blatter, said that Infantino “is driven solely by opportunistic self-interest in his relationship with Trump, which always seems to have a monetary component.”

"The World Cup is not a political event and must not become one," Infantino told Le Monde in 2018. The FIFA president seems to have forgotten that promise as he prepares to organize the most political World Cup in history with his friend Trump.

Translation:NB