We watched in 2018, as Vladimir Putin, having consolidated his grip over Crimea and just years from invading Ukraine, inaugurated the world’s biggest sporting extravaganza in Moscow. We watched again in 2022, as Qatar became the first monarchical, petro-state to play hosts. Our televisions beamed images of the 800-odd players who tussled in stadiums, but not the thousands of migrant workers who perished in their construction. Their blood trickled through the sand upon which later airflown grass would sprout, far below the suits and sheiks running the show. Perhaps never before has a single event so encapsulated global injustices, the hierarchy of the jungle washed in the desert.

For jaded football fans, the decision made by FIFA—the sport’s governing body—in 2024 to award the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia caused further consternation. Should we worry about the kingdom’s human rights record or cheer “progress”? Is MBS a great reformer or killer of journalists? How many more South Asians is the world willing to sacrifice for sport? The only solace at the time was, well, time: another ten years before we had to unpick our messy tangle of feelings. With the 2026 World Cup scheduled for North America (Canada, Mexico, and the US) and the 2030 World Cup for the western Mediterranean (Morocco, Portugal, and Spain), it felt as if FIFA had offered the faithful a moral interlude, a chance to renew our sporting vows at the altars of more salubrious temples.

Then came Trump version 2.0. The US president is (unsurprisingly) adept at the glad-handing of superstars with immense global reach. In recent months he separately hosted Argentine Leo Messi and Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, icons even at the tail end of their careers, at the White House. But away from the glamorous facade of sporting affinity lies a harsher reality of prejudice, brutality, and the upending of a rules-based order. Greenland, Venezuela, and ICE caused consternation among many. But two recent incidents stand out. There was the overt bigotry of the video that portrayed the Obamas as apes, roundly denounced by a footballing world still struggling to stamp out racism. And then the illegal war against Iran, whose team is due to compete this summer. The World Cup’s host has attacked one of its guests, in other words, and banned its fans (and others) from attending. And now, it wants to ban the Iranian team itself from competing. The notion that sports should float above politics today sounds ignorant and grotesque.