Controversies at the 2026 World Cup: "Football is political and the World Cup even more so"recalls journalist Grégoire Margotton

“Football is political and the World Cup is even more political than football,” recalls Thursday June 11 Grégoire Margotton, sports journalist at TF1 and consultant on France Inter for the World Cup, while the World Cup in North America opens against a backdrop of controversies.

In recent days, criticism has been raining down, particularly after Somali referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan was turned away by the American authorities upon his arrival in Miami, despite a visa being granted, and an Iraqi player was detained almost seven hours to the Chicago airport.

“Before the Olympic Games, before the World Cups, there are controversies”, underlines the journalist on France Inter. But this year, “the real difference is that there are lots of question marks” because“we have grown to 48 teams, we are bringing the world together even more and bringing the world together in 2026 is a bit complicated, especially for someone who has no football culture”explains Grégoire Margotton.

The journalist targets American President Donald Trump. “The chief organizer at the White House can invent something every day. So we’ll see. There will perhaps be other controversies day after day.”continues the journalist.

However, he hopes that the incidents will fade away: “In general, it calms down as soon as the ball starts rolling, we’ll see if that’s confirmed again this time.”