The World Cup & the Olympics Deserve a Better Host

The FIFA Club World Cup is not the most glamorous soccer tournament around. It doesn’t have the history of the World Cup or the mind share of the UEFA Champions League, but it is an international competition that features well-known clubs like Chelsea, Flamengo, Bayern Munich, and others. This year, the tournament is being held in the United States—the first time it has been held in the Western Hemisphere since the inaugural tournament in 2000, which was held in Brazil.

In a since deleted Facebook post, the US Customs and Border Protection stated that it would be on site in Miami to provide security for the opening match between Al-Ahly and Inter Miami. With ongoing raids and anti-ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) protests, this announcement suggested that fans coming into the country for the tournament should have documentation to avoid being detained.

These fears loom large as the Club World Cup is the tourism appetizer that will precede a massive double entrée of hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2026 and the Summer Olympics in 2028. As families are torn apart and immigrants are being detained inhumanely, there must be a seed of doubt that surrounds the competency of the United States as a viable host for these massive global events. And crucially, continuing with the country as a host nation violates what these events are supposed to be about.

The Current State of America

Donald Trump says a lot of things. To many of us, it comes out as blusterous nonsense laced with falsehoods. He is a fear-mongering caricature that thrives off fabricating division and radicalizing his base to gain momentum. Leading up to his election for a second term in 2024, Trump made immigration a primary focus of his messaging.

Anyone that voted in the 2016 election knows that this isn’t a new fascination of his, as he frequently promised the construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border that was never built. The messaging in his first term was centered around keeping foreigners (specifically from Mexico) out of the country. His focus the second time around has been to find undocumented immigrants and expel them from the United States.

He has done this through ICE raids performed in sanctuary cities and has expanded the policy to allow the raiding of schools, hospitals, and places of worship. By leveraging the Alien Enemies Act, the Trump administration has deported suspected illegal immigrants to be imprisoned in El Salvador with limited or no due process.

This aggressive deportation initiative has caused many who voted for Trump to regret their vote and ultimately feel deceived. There is a particular grossness that comes with the way that the administration is handling the backlash of their actions. US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has often been photographed in what can only be called propaganda shots—posing in front of inmates in an El Salvadoran prison in an ICE outfit.

More and more, Trump has fashioned himself as a fascist dictator as opposed to an elected ruler in a democracy. The abandonment of due process was the initial step. And since then, he has engaged in fruitless trade wars and held a military parade in honor of his birthday.

In response, many Americans are attempting to make their voices heard through “No Kings” protests and widespread condemnation of racist and white nationalist policies that have made America a place where many people no longer want to be. The WTTC, a global body representing the Travel & Tourism private sector, estimates that the US will lose $12.5 billion this year in tourism revenue.

The world has lost faith in the United States, and the country has in turn embraced isolationism and division. When asked about foreigners coming into the country for the upcoming World Cup and Olympics, Vice President JD Vance suggested that any visitors should leave immediately after the games to prevent involvement from Kristi Noem. In essence, Vance is threatening to deport and imprison tourists.

A Land of Immigrants No Longer

When I was in elementary school we had a pen pal program. Each student was assigned a student in another country (for me it was someone from Brazil) and letters went be sent back and forth throughout the school year. It was a way of connecting the world and learning about other cultures. A tool like this is no longer needed in the internet age, but its mere concept feels like something that this version of America would oppose.

The current state of America has emphasized the importance of “American exceptionalism” and sold the idea that every other culture is inferior to what is offered within its borders. There is often rejection and arrogance that comes when we visit other countries. Countless people over the years have complained about the “ugly American” that doesn’t take the time to understand the culture and nuances of the places that they visit.

What could have been excused as misunderstanding or naiveite in the past has been transformed into an identity in Donald Trump’s America. People from other countries are considered the enemy, and any place that is not America is a “sh*thole” that wishes it can be the United States.

What we have seen in both iterations of the Trump administration is that diversity is not welcome, replaced by the ideals of White Christian nationalism. This has been proven out with the various travel bans, trade wars, deportations, and stripping of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) efforts throughout government.

The United States was once a place that helped people from all over the globe find their success. These days, there are more people talking about leaving than coming in. For events like the Olympics and the World Cup, that represent both athletic greatness and international cooperation, the United States in its current form is a bottom five candidate of suitable host locations.

When Idealism Meets Reality

Both the Olympics and the World Cup are events that have the eyes of the world on them. Every TV and phone in every country around the world is transfixed for a month, mesmerized by the universal language of sports. These events are moments that can foster unity and tell stories that reverberate across generations.

Both events feature athletes and fans from across every continent, bonded by national pride and the love of sports. Through this intermingling, foreign cultures can be celebrated and there is a general sense of peace in honor of the event. On the highest level, the World Cup and Olympics promote the idea that sports can bind us and show us that despite our differences we can co-exist with one another.

That is the utopian view of the competitions, which is true to an extent. Broadcasts will often feature shots of the host nation and explain their traditions. Events being held at multiple cities allow the viewer to travel to a foreign land and learn a lot about the host nation and what makes them unique.

There have been times when despite the good nature of the spectacle, real life troubles are simply too great to ignore, however. Countries have either boycotted or been banned from both the Olympics and World Cup historically for a myriad of reasons. Yugoslavia, Kenya, and Russia were banned from the World Cup for reasons of political unrest, while Japan and Germany were banned from the 1948 Olympics in London in the wake of World War II. Regardless of the feeling of togetherness, it seems that both FIFA and the IOC have an eventual line in the sand.

The governing bodies have themselves faced criticisms on allegations of corruption and simply accepting the whims of the highest bidder. The World Cup in Qatar has been viewed as an example of this, as the schedule of the tournament had to shift dramatically to accommodate the painfully hot summers in Qatar, throwing a wrench in the club schedule that year. The IOC has long been viewed as a corrupt body fueled by greed that has turned a blind eye to drug scandals and various improprieties through the years.

Despite all the modern scandals, one event sticks out to sports historians more than others: when Nazi Germany hosted the Olympics in 1936. There were concerns that the Nazi policies of racism and anti-Semitism would cloud the games, but they went on anyway. The intent by the Germans and Adolph Hitler was to showcase “Aryan supremacy” in athletics, a notion that was undone by the four gold medals of American sprinter Jesse Owens.

Hitler made promises about allowing Jewish and Black athletes to compete after several nations threatened to boycott the games. Several countries followed through on their threats, with athletes from France, South Africa, the United States, and others choosing not to participate in what would amount to the glorification of a racist regime.

Comparing any modern leader to Hitler is often a hasty exercise, but in the case of Trump’s policies around immigration and the stripping DEI initiatives, there is a parallel to be drawn. ICE Detention Centers are often characterized as inhumane with due process being relatively non-existent. The Trump administration, in its zeal to erase the accomplishments of any non-White person, has scrubbed records and memories of the achievements of people of color. It feels targeted, much how it must have felt in Germany in 1934, as Hitler was rising to power and Jewish people started to lose their rights.

That moment was also two years before a major international sporting event was set to take place. In half a year, Trump has seen multiple embarrassments to the United States on a global scale, a widespread national protest of his policies, and the looming threat of war thanks to funding an ongoing genocide in Gaza. At this point in America’s history, it is not fit to host these sorts of high-profile international events.

Most people living outside the United States have little desire to travel here in the current climate. This administration has alienated all its allies, and many of those allies have excellent sporting programs. The threats of deportation or detainment of visitors by JD Vance is merely the tip of the iceberg, and even that has led to mixed attendance figures for the start of the Club World Cup.

There was a time when America was considered a land of opportunities, where people can start their lives anew and have a chance at a slice of prosperity. Increasingly, it seems that that ideal only applies for White men that are born in the country. The United States government has devolved into the framework of a nationalist and authoritarian state that is not fit nor deserving of hosting the best athletes in the world on the global stage. It may be too late in the process, but we must wonder if we will look back at the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics the same way history remembers the Berlin Olympics in 1936: a grave mistake.