Mexico beat South Africa 2-0 in a drama-filled opening match at the Estadio Azteca on June 11, launching a 48-team tournament co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada that will run for nearly six weeks before the final in New Jersey on July 19. Later that day, South Korea beat the Czech Republic 2-1 in Guadalajara, with substitute Oh Hyeon-gyu scoring the decisive goal in the 80th minute in a stadium that was far from full.

The opening day’s festivities, though, played out against a backdrop of disputes over visas, ticket prices and the politics of three host nations, two of them under the immigration regime of US President Donald Trump.

Omar Artan, a Somali official named the Confederation of African Football’s referee of the year for 2025 and set to become the first Somali to officiate at a World Cup, was refused entry to the United States after landing in Miami from Istanbul. US Customs and Border Protection said Artan, who held a valid visa, was found inadmissible after further inspection “due to vetting concerns.” Somalia is among the countries covered by the Trump administration’s travel restrictions.

On the eve of the tournament, FIFA president Gianni Infantino called the episode “unfortunate” but said the organisation does not “control everything”. He added: “Sometimes it’s good to chill, relax, we work on everything, we try to solve everything.”

Days later, UEFA announced that Artan would referee the European Super Cup between Paris Saint-Germain and Aston Villa in August. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said the move was meant to show respect for Artan and his “outstanding officiating skills”.

Artan was not the only one affected. Iraq’s forward Aymen Hussein and the team’s photographer were held for seven hours at Chicago’s O’Hare airport; the photographer was ultimately denied entry, while Hussein was let through. The International Sports Press Association has written to FIFA over visa refusals for Iranian and African journalists seeking to cover the tournament.

Haiti’s homecoming, minus its fans

Haiti’s men’s team reached the World Cup for the first time since 1974 after beating Nicaragua 2-0 in November 2025, a result that, midfielder Louicius Deedson said, electrified a country with little to celebrate. The team has not played a home match since 2021, as armed gangs control much of Port-au-Prince and millions have been displaced. Most players train and live scattered across the United States and Europe; one, Woodensky Pierre, was left waiting for a US visa before the tournament.

Haitian nationals, though, face a full US travel ban. The government has separately moved to end Temporary Protected Status for an estimated 350,000 Haitians already living in the country, a step that rights groups say has deepened fear in diaspora communities of more than 800,000 concentrated in Miami and New York. Haiti’s opening match, against Scotland in Boston, was scheduled for June 13. More than 120 American civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, issued an advisory in April warning of the risk of rights violations around stadiums and fan zones.

Iran arrives under a fragile ceasefire

Iran’s place in the tournament was in doubt for months after the United States and Israel struck the country on February 28, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior officials and triggering a wider regional war that has killed more than 1,200 people. Iran’s sports minister, Ahmad Donyamali, said at the time that the country could “under no circumstances” take part. By mid-May, the Iranian football federation confirmed that the team would play.

Iran’s delegation switched its pre-tournament training base from Tucson, Arizona, to Tijuana, Mexico, and is not required to enter the United States until June 14, the day before its opening match against New Zealand in Inglewood, California. More than a dozen Iranian officials, including federation president Mehdi Taj, were denied US visas, the federation said, and FIFA revoked the ticket allocation reserved for Iranian fans entirely, leaving the team to play in front of supporters who are largely absent.

The price of a seat

Tickets for some matches have been advertised at more than $30,000, drawing criticism from fans and football associations. Infantino defended the pricing on the eve of the opener, saying FIFA’s average ticket price of under $500 was “again the lowest of the American sports on average” and pointed to a limited release of $60 tickets introduced after the backlash.

For supporters from countries under travel restrictions, though, price is often beside the point. A Senegal fan, Djibril Gueye, told the news agency AP that if the United States is going to bar visitors, “it shouldn’t agree to host the World Cup”. An Ivory Coast fan association told the BBC it would not be sending anyone to the tournament at all.

A friendly in the White House

Infantino’s relationship with Trump has drawn scrutiny through the run-up to the tournament. At the December draw, Infantino presented Trump with FIFA’s inaugural Peace Prize, and the FIFA president has credited Trump directly with making the event possible, saying that without his “engagement and involvement”, staging a World Cup in the United States would have been “impossible”.

Trump, in turn, has positioned himself at the centre of the tournament’s preparations, announcing a “FIFA Pass” priority visa scheme for ticket holders and directing his administration “to do everything within their power to make the 2026 World Cup an unprecedented success”. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said more than 400 additional consular officers had been deployed worldwide to process World Cup-related visa applications, cutting wait times in roughly 80 per cent of countries to under 60 days.

FIFA projects the tournament will generate $13 billion in revenue and draw five to ten million visitors to North America. As the opening matches were played out in Mexico City and Guadalajara on June 11, that scale sat uneasily alongside the absences: a referee sent home from Miami, a team training in Tijuana rather than Arizona, and fans from at least four qualified nations who, whatever happens on the pitch, will not be in the stands to see it.

With inputs from news agencies.

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