Yeah, there are some big issues that we need to talk about.
Last month, Dallas officially announced the procurement of the 2026 FIFA World Cup International Broadcast Center. It will turn downtown’s Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center into a “nerve center” for thousands of international journalists broadcasting dispatches on the beautiful game back to their home countries.
While the tournament is slated to take place across 16 cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico starting next June, the swath of journalists reporting on the games will start arriving in Dallas in January 2026. However, officials within the U.S. Department of State have begun to worry about the effect federal policies on immigration could have on the international tournament, The Athletic reports.
Specifically, those officials are concerned that extended wait times for visa applications, President Donald Trump’s “America First” rhetoric and the administration’s hardline approach to deportation could threaten what FIFA President Gianni Infantino has claimed will be the “most inclusive World Cup ever.”
With Dallas’ head start on international arrivals only eight months away, the city could be the first to grapple with the complications a buckled-down immigration system during what could be the largest World Cup in history. The Observer was told by several individuals involved with North Texas’ World Cup planning that these are questions some have started asking, but concrete answers have yet to arrive.
“This is not FIFA’s first World Cup,” council member Omar Narvaez told the Observer. “Human rights are a huge tenet of FIFA. So I know that it’s been brought up, but not in a formal way. And as we learn more information, I know there are council members who will continue to ask those types of questions.”
The Observer contacted the North Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee to ask if recent changes to immigration and deportation policy had been discussed. We were directed up the chain of command to FIFA.
The organization has previously stated to national outlets asking these questions: “It is worth noting that the current administration was in office during the successful bid process for 2026, and signed the government guarantees as part of that process. We continue to work with various departments and agencies of the U.S. Government to ensure the U.S. can capitalize on this once-in-a-generation opportunity to tap into billions of dollars in positive financial benefits and goodwill and bring millions of people from different nations and communities together to celebrate in the United States.”
Concerns range from the amount of time that it is taking now to get a visa, for journalists as well as for the teams, the steep dropoff in foreign visitors in recent months, the reports of foreign travelers with valid visas being harassed and detained at airports and border entry points, and so on and so forth. You can make the same list of concerns for the 2026 World Baseball Classic, but this article was all about the FIFA event in North Texas. I can imagine a world in which things are more or less the same as they are now, and I can imagine a world where it’s much worse for everyone involved, but it’s hard for me to imagine a world in which things are substantively better. The wild card is our idiot President and whatever the meth-addled weasels that inhabit his brain are fixated on at any time. As a fan, I am eagerly awaiting the 2026 Cup and thoroughly dreading it in equal measure. Good luck to the various committees trying to make it all work. May you have as much inner peace and bottles of Tums as you can stand.