A peculiar peace prize, sky-high tickets, threatened boycotts. The rocky road to the World Cup

Donald Trump takes the newly minted FIFA Peace Prize out of its box as Gianni Infantino watches on. (Getty Images: Kevin Dietsch) Link copiedShareShare articleA FIFA Peace Prize, astronomical ticket prices, hiked train fares, threatened boycotts and a consumer complaint. The build-up to the 2026 World Cup has been overshadowed by sociopolitical issues, which will continue to loom over the tournament. A lot of the headlines have been generated by US President Donald Trump, who has made various threats and promises in the months leading up to the World Cup, which is being hosted in Mexico, the US and Canada — though almost all of the issues have been in the US. But he's far from alone in causing angst among soccer fans across the globe, even here in Australia. While Australia prepares for the World Cup, controversy has come thick and fast for the tournament. (AAP Image/Rob Prezioso) So, as 48 teams finalise their preparation for the largest World Cup in history, let's unpick the long list of issues that have made headlines around the world. Buckle up, it's been a rocky ride to this tournament. Never heard of it? Well, that's not surprising, given it's been awarded just once, in December last year, to Donald Trump. The award, which FIFA described as being designated for a person who had "taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace" and "united people across the world". FIFA President Gianni Infantino presented Trump with the prize just a month after announcing its creation. Infantino had been a vocal supporter of the US president, even posting on Instagram that Trump should win the Nobel Prize. Australia midfielder Jackson Irvine hit out at the hypocrisy of the award when viewed alongside FIFA's Human Rights Policy. "As an organisation, you would have to say decisions like the one that we saw awarding this peace prize make a mockery of what they're trying to do with the human rights charter and trying to use football as a global driving force for good and positive change in the world," he told Reuters. It also sparked a formal complaint from human rights nonprofit FairSquare, which requested an investigation into Infantino's alleged breach of FIFA's statutory duty to be politically neutral. As it happens, while the war in the Middle East did nothing to ease tensions, Iran and the US were already engaged in a political battle over the World Cup. As far back as December, Iran threatened to boycott the above-mentioned World Cup draw, citing issues with visas. The FFIRI (Iran's football federation) applied for nine visas for the event, but was only granted four, with the organisation's president, Mehdi Taj, one of those denied. The issue stemmed, and continues to stem, from long-standing strict visa restrictions by the US on Iranians. Iran is one of two countries competing at the World Cup, along with Haiti, that has a full ban on US travel. Ivory Coast and Senegal have partial restrictions. Stay across the latest news, analysis and features from the 2026 FIFA World Cup here. The conflict in the Middle East has brought into sharp focus Iran's participation in the World Cup. In March, Iran's Minister of Sports and Youth, Ahmad Donyamli, said his country was not in a position to participate, following the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Those comments also followed Australia providing humanitarian visas to seven members of Iran's women's side following the Asian Cup, though only two remained in the country. Members of Iran's women's football team arrive at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang, Malaysia. (AP Photo/Azneal Ishak) Trump responded to Donyamli's comment by declaring Iran's men's national soccer team was welcome for the World Cup, but that it was not appropriate that they be there "for their own life and safety". Iran's response to that comment was as expected — that the US should withdraw from the tournament. Iran had also asked FIFA to move its scheduled matches, two in Los Angeles and one in Seattle, to Mexico. As you can see, there is a lot of back-and-forth from the US and Iran, but arguably the most left-field moment came when a top envoy to Trump asked FIFA to replace Iran with Italy at the tournament. Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third straight tournament after losing to Bosnia and Herzegovina in a penalty shootout. That was quickly dismissed. Italy's Sports Minister Luciano Buonfiglio said he would be offended if Italy were parachuted into the tournament. This saga has rolled right up to the start of the tournament. Iran was seeking guarantees over visas as recently as the middle of May, according to the BBC. Iran's participation at the 2026 World Cup has been under a shadow since the beginning of the US-Israel conflict with Iran. (Reuters: West Asia News Agency/Majid Asgaripour) Those guarantees included that all players, staff and officials receive visas, regardless of whether they had served in Iran's Revolution

A peculiar peace prize, sky-high tickets, threatened boycotts. The rocky road to the World Cup

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A peculiar peace prize, sky-high tickets, threatened boycotts. The rocky road to the World Cup

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