Sepp Blatter disagrees with Trump’s 2026 World Cup
The former FIFA chief says the expanded 2026 tournament risks losing its soul amid politics and profit.
“In this World Cup, the real speculator will be the United States – not the spectators,” said the man who, for 17 years, presided over one of the most demanding federations in global sport. If there is one thing the 89-year-old Swiss official knows well, it is how to spot figures entangled in corruption, bribery or fraud – simply because that was the suit he himself wore in 2015, the year he stepped down after an unprecedented and deeply uncomfortable re-election.
The online world has hardly forgotten the record of Sepp Blatter, who is banned from holding positions related to international soccer. Yet some now speak of him almost as a saint compared with the current conductor of the global game, Gianni Infantino.
Still carrying visible remorse and fully aware of his past actions, Joseph Sepp Blatter has chosen to speak out against the upcoming World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada. He believes that “it is painful to see what football has become.”
A cash machine
When it comes to the soul of the world’s most beloved sport, Blatter dwelled on the sadness he says he feels at what he describes as the vandalism permitted by Infantino through his alliance with Donald Trump, president of the United States and, in Blatter’s view, the authority pulling the strings.
“There is a defamatory policy in the United States against anything foreign. It’s just ‘United States first, United States first.’ And it’s sad. It’s sad for the social and cultural value of football,” he said, adding that beyond the enormous financial gain for Americans, the U.S. has become a genuine slot machine – one that takes in far more than it gives back.
For the former president, money in bulk “was never the objective of a World Cup,” nor, he argues, is segregation.
“In principle, a World Cup should not be organized in a country that does not grant visas.”
His central complaint also targets the expanded format that has led this summer’s event to be labeled the largest World Cup in history. When he says the U.S. is “first,” he is referring to the expansion to 48 teams across three countries – a decision he considers poorly thought out.
“Two of those countries are receiving nothing more than crumbs,” he said.
An ironic complaint about dictatorship at FIFA
Few would deny that a new Blatter appears to have awakened, apologizing to the soccer world through a warning: keep politics away from the game. The media have offered him ample space to voice that position. Yet revisiting 2015 and reopening the files that detail the fraud and damage he inflicted on the sport he now claims to defend carries a note of irony.
Blatter insists the organization did not simply change after his departure in 2015 – it changed for the worse.
He contrasts the current climate with what he says existed during his presidency. There were tensions and disputes within the executive committee, he acknowledges, but he argues that today a culture of silence and internal deals prevails. According to him, current officials “are tied down” and neutralized through financial incentives or promotions.
“To silence someone, you give them money or a promotion,” he concluded. Blatter is clear about his intention: to stop soccer from becoming a political tool and to encourage FIFA members to stand up and say that what is happening is not right.
“We are still in time to do something.”
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