Since 1930, the inaugural year of the FIFA World Cup, the tournament has always been hosted by one nation. However, in 2002 , FIFA selected Japan and South Korea from the Asian Confederation to be the first co-hosts.

It was an efficiently run tournament which saw Brazil, the darlings of world football, win its fifth title. Apart from the six-year period — 1939 to 1945 — of the Second World War, the tournament has never experienced any sort of turmoil, be it geopolitical or meteorological.

Now another tournament is going to be co-hosted, this time by three countries from Concacaf — Mexico, United States, and Canada.

Mexico, the veteran of the trio, hosted in 1970 and 1986. By hosting again in 2026 they will be the first nation to host three World Cups. America first hosted in 1994, while Canada is hosting for the first time

It would appear, however, that because of geopolitical antagonisms, there is a strong probability that the tournament will not proceed as it normally has. The USA, which hosted the most profitable tournament in history, has become, in my opinion, a regrettable and unfortunate impediment to the 2026 staging.

The new political trajectory of America has resulted in global animosity towards 75 nations, eight of which have already qualified for the World Cup. So, for instance, Iran, from the Asian confederation, a seven-time qualifier for the ‘Mundial’, was not allowed to participate in the December 5 function in Miami, Florida, where the itinerary of matches for the 48 participants was circulated. This snub had been preceded by a horrific bombing attack on the Asian qualifier in June 2025, and based on recent pontifications by the main host, hostilities are likely to resume in a few days. This time around, however, the Irianians have vowed to, and are expected to, retaliate.

Then there is Haiti, from the Concacaf confederation, who last qualified a half-century ago. They, unlike Iran, were allowed to attend the final draw party function for all matches in the group stages. Haitian fans, however, will not be permitted to cheer their team in either Boston, Philadelphia, or Atlanta where their group matches will be played. Undocumented Haitians currently residing in the US who are legally protected under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) programme are understandably scared and apprehensive of attending matches due to fear of being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents since TPS status was rescinded on February 3. Partially empty stadiums in Group C are a definite possibility.

Within the African Confederation, four-time qualifiers Senegal and South Africa, along with two-time participant Ivory Coast have all been subjected to this unprecedented level of discrimination, with the common denominator being the colour of their skins.

The major ironic twist to this depraved situation is that although it has been the black and brown-hued countries which are being subjected to this level of discrimination, traditional European allies are anything but pleased.

Four-time champions Germany have conducted polls in which 47 per cent of the German citizenry have expressed desires to boycott the entire Mundial if the main host refuses to change its current bellicose position as it relates to attacking and invading other North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries and kidnapping leaders of neighbouring countries.

England — the 1966 winner — along with 1974 and 1978 losing finalist the Netherlands are being urged to contemplate a boycott. Denmark, France, Switzerland, and others of a Caucasian persuasion are also against the globally disruptive mindset of the Americans.

Traditional allies of the United States have been issuing travel advisories to their citizenry that they should think long and hard before travelling to the US. They state that the political climate and racial relationships are unstable, unpredictable, and extremely volatile, thus making the guarantee of one’s safety problematic or even impossible. Never before, since the conclusion of World War II, has America’s traditional allies been so antagonistic towards the supposed leader of the free world.

There are several schools of thought that articulate as well as postulate that the staging of the 2026 World Cup will be the most chaotic in the history of the tournament. The US doesn’t seem to have many friends globally, as was evidenced by the cascade of boos that recently greeted US Vice-President JD Vance at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy — extremely embarrassing, and there are some pundits who contend that if it were the president who had been at the Olympics, the booing would have been louder and more prolonged.

One is forced to speculate that if the greeting of an American leader was so acrimonious more than 4,000 miles from the mainland, one shudders to think what will transpire during the 78 matches throughout the 11 stadiums in American cities.

Requests for over half-a-billion tickets have been received by the organisers, but requests do not mean that cash was spent or promised. Reports are that in January 2026 over 16,000 prospective attendees cancelled their non-refundable tickets. Such high levels of cancellations a few months before the opening ceremony is anything but positive and doesn’t augur well for the profitability of the tournament.

The game of football is more popular globally than the winter and summer Olympics combined, so it should be interesting to see if the stadiums are empty or full. Mexico and Canada may just end up being the real beneficiaries from the probable American disruptions. Both Canada and Mexico are more than ready to take up the slack if FIFA decides that the main host will be unable to provide that feeling of comfort and fan security that has usually been the norm at previous World Cups.

Fans of the Beautiful Game can travel unperturbed, confident they won’t encounter any visa problems or immigration police. The only problem being the demand for the football product will be far more than the 26 matches equally shared between the two other co-hosts.

The main host’s lion’s share of 78 matches might be the first time in the history of the World Cup that stadiums will have more empty seats than occupied ones. Anti-climactic reverberations of monumental proportions will be remembered and felt many decades after 2026.

When one takes into consideration that the 2026 tournament is the precursor of the 100-year celebration in 2030, a disastrous, chaotic World Cup would be a real let-down and greatly tarnish the reputation of America as a serious host of international sports events.

This is all happening because of the geopolitical aspirations of a nation which fails to realise the importance of sports as a unifier and not a divider, but it has time to get the ball rolling in the right direction, or many people who would have been attending will be watching the number one sporting spectacle on the planet on television. So sad, but oh so true.