The Political Game Behind the Beautiful Game
When Gianni Infantino took the helm of FIFA, he presented soccer as a unifying force that could transcend borders, yet the reality is far more tangled. His recent decision to award a ‘FIFA Peace Prize’ to Donald Trump was as much a gesture of flattery as it was a political calculation, especially as the 2026 World Cup looms under a second Trump administration that has embraced hard‑line immigration policies.
The tournament’s history is already steeped in politics; the second World Cup was staged in Benito Mussolini’s Italy, and the event has repeatedly served as a stage for statecraft. Infantino’s alignment with Trump’s travel bans, which restrict the movement of players and officials, illustrates how the governing body can be co‑opted by nationalist agendas.
At the same time, the sport’s financial landscape has shifted dramatically. Wealth from petrostates and aggressive hedge‑fund investors has reshaped club ownership, a trend that began with Roman Abramovich’s 2003 purchase of Chelsea and continues with figures like Todd Boehly steering major clubs. This influx of capital has turned many teams into commodities, blurring the line between sport and speculative finance.
Franklin Foer’s 2004 travelogue ‘How Soccer Explains the World’ attempted to map these dynamics onto a broader narrative of globalization. While Foer celebrated the sport’s ability to bridge cultures, he also warned that the same forces he described — oligarchic ownership, tribal loyalties, and corruption — were already reshaping soccer’s future.
The book’s prescience is evident today, as petrostate sponsorships and sovereign wealth funds now fund entire leagues, and as figures such as Silvio Berlusconi and Ryszard Kapuściński have left indelible marks on the sport’s cultural footprint. Foer’s optimism about a harmonious, interconnected world has given way to a more sober assessment: soccer mirrors the world’s power struggles, offering a lens through which to view contemporary global issues.