Eight days after Spain were crowned champions in New Jersey, Gianni Infantino sat down to write. And what came out was not an assessment, but a direct response: those who criticized the 2026 World Cup are “consumed by hatred” and spread “false rumors” while hiding “behind their screens”.
The FIFA president said that seven million people from 200 countries passed through the 16 venues in Canada, the United States and Mexico, and concluded with a forceful statement: “zero incidents, zero hostility and zero violence”. He also defended the review of the red card shown to American Folarin Balogun, one of the tournament’s most controversial moments.
What Infantino did not mention with the same enthusiasm were the visa restrictions that kept fans, players and referees out before it began. For him, football overcame all of that. For many, the story was not so simple.