The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off in Mexico on Thursday with joy and fanfare, but a different story is unfolding in the United States. Visa bans targeting people of color and those attempting to fly from countries on the federal government’s “travel restriction list” are seeing their entry into the United States denied, which […]
The 2022 World Cup failed to deliver on its environmental promises. From air travel emissions to heat-related dangers, the 2026 edition will be even worseSoccer fans are increasingly watching preparations for the 2026 World Cup through their fingers. The most popular sporting event on the planet is awash in controversy, whether it’s the eye-watering ticket prices, the question of Iran’s participation while the president of one of the host countries threatens war crimes against it, or the role that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement may or may not play in policing the event. And yet, lost in the political pyrotechnics is a fiasco that carries as much long-term peril as any: the tournament’s staggering contribution to runaway climate change.The 2026 World Cup is not only the most politically combustible tournament in modern history, but it is also on track to be the “most polluting” World Cup ever, with total greenhouse gas emissions hitting nearly two times the historical average. Scientists conservatively project that the tournament will generate around 9m tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Air travel comprises approximately 7.7m tons of this carbon budget, and more than four times that of the average for tournaments held between 2010 and 2022. The researchers note that the worst-case upper estimate for air transport is about 13.7m tons of CO2. That may sound bad, but that’s just because World Cup emissions have never been worse. Continue reading...
State department grants waiver for ticket holdersTrump administration has cracked down on immigrationThe Trump administration is suspending a requirement that would have required visitors from five World Cup-qualified countries to pay a bond of up to $15,000 in order to enter the United States for the tournament.The US state department imposed the bond requirement last year for countries that it said had high rates of people overstaying their visas and other security issues as part of a broader crackdown on immigration. Travelers to the US from 50 countries are required to pay the bond, and five of those countries have qualified for the World Cup – Algeria, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Tunisia. Continue reading...
A team of Iranian football officials left Canada before the start of this week's FIFA Congress due to the "inappropriate behaviour" of immigration officials at Toronto airport, Iranian media reported Wednesday. The Iranian federation's president is a former member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, which is a designated terror group in Canada.
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