There are post-tournament statements from governing bodies and there are post-tournament statements from governing bodies that require the governing body to describe the same tournament that produced US staffers suspended for racist abuse, a Falklands sovereignty banner on the pitch, VARgentina, a Milei victory tweet, Argentina’s coach calling his players “the most oppressed team in the whole World Cup,” and Iran’s team requiring “last-minute travel changes” as featuring “no violence, no incidents, 100% safety and security, only joy and happiness,” and Gianni Infantino has published the second kind.
Infantino posted an open letter on FIFA’s website Sunday, per HuffPost’s confirmed live blog today, addressing critics of the 2026 World Cup. “To those behind their pens and papers, behind their screens spreading hate and false rumours, I want to say that while you are sitting behind, we at FIFA are on the front lines organising, working hard, and delivering the best show in the world,” he wrote. “While you divide, we unite.” He described the tournament as having produced “no violence, no incidents, 100% safety and security, only joy and happiness,” and claimed that FIFA “worked tirelessly to reconcile differences between Tehran and Washington,” adding “Iran entered the United States without incident or conflict.”
Iran’s coach said his team was “the most oppressed one in the whole World Cup,” citing last-minute travel changes that affected the team’s preparation. Two US staffers were suspended during the tournament for racist abuse. The British government filed a formal complaint with FIFA about Argentina’s Falklands banner, which FIFA has still not announced an investigation into. The VARgentina controversy produced an ITV rules analyst saying the technology had entered the “re-refereeing area” it was specifically designed to avoid. Milei sent a pre-scheduled victory tweet after his country lost. Argentina’s goalkeeper made 11 saves in the final. Trump was edited out of Spain’s official celebration photograph.
Infantino did not address any of these in his letter. He described only joy and happiness. “We experienced no violence, no incidents,” he wrote, of a tournament in which US staffers were suspended for racist abuse and a government lodged a formal diplomatic complaint.
The letter is published. The Iranian coach’s quote is also published. They describe the same tournament.
When the FIFA president publishes a letter about joy and happiness and the Iranian coach describes his team as the most oppressed, what exactly did the tournament produce?
Sources
HuffPost: Live Updates July 28, 2026
Raw Story: Dem calls to investigate FIFA president Gianni Infantino
