Communities in World Cup host cities across the United States are organizing to ensure the tournament delivers on its promise to make soccer a force for good.
SoFi Stadium employees protest outside the FIFA World Cup 26 Los Angeles office to demand a ban on ICE from the World Cup on May 1, 2026.
(Frédéric J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images) With the FIFA World Cup matches fast approaching, FIFA is indulging in price hikes for front row seats. In New Jersey, the transportation company charges exorbitant prices for transportation and parking. Beyond the mistreatment of fans, the matches are the subject of protests by activists who highlight the growing inequalities in their communities. In the host cities of Miami, Kansas City, Los Angeles and Atlanta, they are organizing to fight ICE raids, prison expansion plans, rising housing costs and homelessness.
Anyone who follows soccer knows that the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, known as FIFA, is no stranger to scandals: in 1978, the Argentine dictatorship probably fixed a World Cup match; vote rigging in 2018, he elevated Sepp Blatter to the presidency of FIFA; and Qatar gave million dollar payments to members of the FIFA executive committee in order to obtain the right to host the World Cup in 2022. Like Dave Zirin written in The nationFIFA is “not only a totally corrupt and immoral entity, but also a supporter of dictators and a bulwark against democracy”.
The organization attracted further criticism when, on December 5, 2025, it reward the first ever FIFA Peace Prize awarded to President Donald Trump for his efforts to, in the words of FIFA President Gianni Infantino, “promote peace and unity throughout the world”. In the midst of growth feeling of embarrassment Regarding the price, FIFA doubled down, saying it still “strongly” supported the decision. Of course, after attacking Iran, Trump’s claims that “the president of peace» become more and more absurd.
In the United States (Mexico and Canada also host matches), FIFA promoters and cities are working to capitalize on the games, but communities are also making sure they benefit. On the ground, trade unionists, abolitionists and immigrant rights activists are working together to ensure the World Cup delivers on its promise to make football a force for good.
Miami activists issue travel advisory
Florida is at the forefront of Trump’s immigration crackdown. The state is home to the infamous Alligator Alcatraz. And more than 280 local and state agencies across the state are authorized to carry out immigration enforcement. At the same time, Miami is the host city of the next World Cup. Football legend Cristiano Ronaldo will play there in what will likely be his last World Cup. Miami expects to welcome tens of thousands of soccer fans from around the world.
Current number
As the state embraces Trump’s war on immigrants, a coalition of human rights groups released a report. recommendations for travelers for visitors to World Cup matches in Miami which warns: “Florida is no longer a safe destination for international tourists. With the arrival of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Miami, travelers could face unprecedented risks of racial profiling, wrongful detention in inhumane conditions without consular access and heinous human rights violations, regardless of their legal travel status.”
Yareliz Mendez-Zamora, policy coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee, a coalition member, said that compared to games in California, New York and New Jersey, the games in Florida will likely be particularly dangerous for foreign tourists. “We are seeing a very policed state when it comes to immigrants,” she said. “We have heard stories from tourists with valid tourist visas who were involved in this operation.”
The Florida Immigrant Coalition organized a demonstration in front of the FIFA offices in Coral Gables, a city in the Miami metropolitan area. He asked FIFA to prevent federal agents from attending soccer matches. Méndez-Zamora cited the story of Los Angeles last year, when DHS agents were denied access to the Dodger Stadium parking lot.
This represents more than a a dozen countries have issued travel advisories in response to the increasingly repressive political climate in the United States.
Kansas City battles ‘World Cup prison’
A new prison is being built in Kansas City, Mo., which officials say is necessary to promote public safety during the games. The abolitionist group Decarcerate KC is leading a coalition to protest what they have dubbed the “World Cup Prison”.
“The city made it clear,” said Amaia Cook, executive director of Decarcerate KC, “that the prison needed to be built before the World Cup.”
In November 2025, the City Council approved a $25 million plan to have a jail ready to go by June, when the games begin. Kansas City currently relies on neighboring county jails and says there is a shortage of beds. The new establishment has a capacity of 100 beds. It is built by Brown and Root, the multinational construction company (formerly Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, the company of which the late Vice President Dick Cheney was once CEO) that built X-ray camp at Guantánamo Bay for detainees captured after 9/11.
At a recent City Council meeting, drone footage of the prison’s construction was shown, prompting several council members to comment on how it resembles one of the warehouses being built by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “It looks like an ICE detention center,” said Councilwoman Melissa Robinson. observed. Indeed, public pressure forced the company to withdraw of the agreement for an ICE warehouse in south Kansas City.
Activists suspect the city of wanting to sweep away unhoused people to make the city more “presentable” for tourists flocking to the city for the soccer tournament. Last year, the city council passed a anti-loitering ordinance. Cook said the law could be used during the World Cup “to corral people and get them off the sidewalks, get them out of areas, in order to arrest them and possibly detain them.”
The coalition says the prison will disproportionately harm black, immigrant and working-class communities. A survey carried out with the help of Prison Policy Initiativea national nonprofit, found that although Kansas City is 26.5 percent African American, 71.2 percent of people sent to prison are black.
Organizers recently held a rally called “We All Deserve a Chance” in a park near the prison. Protesters called on city leaders to divest from incarceration and fund services for unhoused communities, public transportation and schools. As the coalition said in a press release, “Soccer, the world’s sport, belongs to the same immigrant families, working-class communities, and communities of color that would be most affected by the new facilities.” »
Atlanta loves the game
In Atlanta, Play ATL Fairly brought together a coalition of about 30 organizations that span labor, housing, immigration and criminal justice issues to ensure that World Cup matches there will “benefit — not criminalize — Atlanta’s communities.”
“Our whole coalition is big soccer fans. We love the sport. We want the World Cup to happen. We just don’t want this to happen to people. We want this to happen to people. And so far, it’s happening to people,” explained Michael Collins, director of Play Fair ATL.
The World Cup in Atlanta is estimated to generate $1 billion in revenue, but the city only expects to make $4 million. “The money all goes to the companies,” Collins said, “but we don’t see a cent. We pay for this World Cup, but we don’t benefit from it.”
Many Atlantans still remember when the city hosted the 1996 Olympics. Before those games, the city moved thousands of people from their homes and imprisoned individuals without housing in order to make room for the influx of athletes and fans. Play Fair ATL worked with Georgia State University students to host a panel discussion on the 1996 Olympics and a historical walking tour of affected neighborhoods.
The group organized a “People’s Cup” tournament in April to raise awareness about high ticket prices, immigration issues and the city’s lack of engagement with the community.
Additionally, the group pushes for policy changes, such as the recent resolution passed by the City Council to expand diversion services for low-intensity arrests in advance of the World Cup. They are trying to create a tenant advocacy office for the city. Working with state and local legislators, they support a ban on ICE detention warehouses. They also advocate for a responsible contractor policy so that workers can receive a fair wage.
“It’s not just about the World Cup,” Collins said. “We’re preparing for mega-events in general. Atlanta will have the Super Bowl in 2028 and the Final Four in 2031.”
LA Show
In Los Angeles, matches will be held at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, the World Cup’s newest and most expensive stadium. For many Los Angeles residents, the stadium symbolizes gentrification black and Latino neighborhoods in South Central Los Angeles.
In August 2025, the Antifascist Football Coalitiona transnational coalition of 50 organizations, launched a boycott of World Cup matches in the United States. Ajamu Baraka of the Black Peace Alliance, one of the coalition members, said in a statement statement that the United States has become a “hostile environment for the people of the world, especially for Black, Brown, Indigenous, migrant, and non-European people” and should not be allowed to “normalize its violence and international gangsterism.”
After the United States bombed Iran and Trump threatened to wipe out its “entire civilization”, it is unclear whether the Iranian football team will participate in the matches. Iran is scheduled to play on June 16, 2026 in Los Angeles, at SoFi Stadium, against New Zealand. Shortly after the bombing began, Trump said that he did not think it was “appropriate” for Iran to participate in the World Cup “for its own life and security.” Iran’s sports minister said that under these circumstances, the possibility of Iran’s participation the team at the World Cup matches is “very weak.” Iran wants to move its games to Mexico.
“The United States should not be allowed to host World Cup matches,” said Eric Sheehan of NOOlympic Gamesan organization founded to combat such mega-events in Los Angeles and a member of the coalition calling for the boycott. “And Israel should be excluded from international football. »
People’s Football Club games, similar to those in Atlanta, were held in South Central Los Angeles to support pro-Palestinian and anti-ICE causes. “The dream is to merge the sports side of Los Angeles with the organizing side,” Sheehan said, “and hopefully radicalize people to understand how life in the Imperial core relates to these shows.”
The movement is also gaining ground among the main trade union organizations.
UNITE HERE Local 11, the union representing SoFi Stadium workers, is threaten to strike just weeks before the start of the World Cup matches. He calls for affordable housing, fair wages, protection from ICE raids and that jobs not be replaced by automation and artificial intelligence.
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Many union members are football fans, said union co-president Kurt Petersen: “They’re excited about the games, of course, but they want to make sure the games benefit themselves and their communities.” »
There are 2,000 workers in the newly constructed SoFi Stadium, including bartenders, servers, cooks and dishwashers. There are so many workers, Petersen said, because the stadium is designed around high-end suites. “They’re built for wealthy people, and those suites have a higher number of workers per guest. Because they’re paying so much more for those seats, the expectations are higher.”
Half the workforce is Latino, “but there’s no daylight between [them] As far as our position on ICE,” Peterson says. “When we had our first bargaining session, we had five or six workers, from all different backgrounds, who told the company, ‘No ICE in games.’
The union filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against the operators of SoFi Stadium and FIFA. “The presence of ICE,” Petersen argued, will “paralyze” collective bargaining because workers are afraid.
Despite its efforts, the union has not received a response from FIFA. “FIFA is the powerhouse of these games. They took over the stadium,” Petersen said. “They manage everything in the stadium to their own standards. So it’s really about FIFA deciding whether the ICE is good for the matches or not.”
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Brian Dolinar Brian Dolinar is an independent journalist who works on issues of mass incarceration and immigration.
