Red Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the Fifa Greed Machine

The World Cup is here, but what function does a worldwide tournament play in an increasingly belligerent police state, with Donald Trump at the helm?

Publishing on the eve of the soccer World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, this concise, power-packed philippic provides a critical take on the dark underbelly of the beautiful game at its most storied moment.

At the heart of this analysis by acclaimed sportswriter and scholar Jules Boykoff, who himself played soccer professionally, is the concept of sportswashing, where political leaders use sports to stoke nationalism and legitimize themselves on the world stage, deflecting from chronic problems at home. Step forward the recipient of the newly cast FIFA Peace Prize, Donald J. Trump, a titan unrivaled in squeegeeing every drop of personal wealth and prestige from hosting the competition. In this, he is ably assisted by a governing body of global soccer dripping in patronage and corruption.

In these pages Boykoff demonstrates that it is possible to simultaneously treasure the skills and athleticism displayed on the pitch while lamenting their exploitation by malevolent powerbrokers for whom love of the game means nothing next to turning a buck or harvesting prestige. And, as Red Card so skillfully shows, this bait and switch is not confined to soccer. Precisely the same legerdemain will be used to distract and enrich when the Olympic Games come to Los Angeles two years from now.

Jules Boykoff is the author of Kicking, a memoir about his former life as a professional soccer player and his current life as a critical academic of sport. He has written six books on the politics of the Olympic Games, including What Are the Olympics For?, NOlympians: Inside the Fight Against Capitalist Mega-Sports in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Beyond, and Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics. His work has appeared in outlets such as The Nation, The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, Jacobin, Folha de São Paulo, and Common Dreams. Boykoff teaches political science at Pacific University.