By Graham Dunbar
The two biggest events in world sports are coming to America. And if President-elect Donald Trump is not thinking about them yet, organizers of the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Los Angeles Olympics certainly are.
The World Cup and the Summer Games are rare globally shared cultural moments with potential for unifying people. But there are questions around issues like granting visas and providing security that will cross Trump’s desk.
And that requires diplomacy.
Soccer body FIFA seems in a better place to resume warm relations with Trump from his first administration compared to the International Olympic Committee based on public reactions this week and previous interactions.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino used his Instagram account to congratulate Trump even before the Electoral College win early Wednesday. There has been a public silence from the IOC, though it follows a more formal protocol code.
IOC President Thomas Bach made one visit to the White House in June 2017 that is part of Olympic lore for how badly it went.
“Pray for our world,” Bach was heard to say on a cellphone call later that day in Washington D.C.
This summer, at a campaign rally, Trump falsely labeled two female Olympic champion boxers as men and pledged to “ keep men out of women’s sports.” It’s the type of issue that could arise from the Trump administration despite top-tier Olympic sports track and field, swimming and cycling already excluding from women’s competitions any athletes who went through male puberty.
FIFA, meanwhile, seems to have an open line of communication with Trump to talk through potential challenges such as Iran’s probable qualification to the men’s World Cup and the political implications it may bring.
Trump called Infantino “ my great friend ” at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2020.
Infantino also recently moved to Miami, just 70 miles south of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
The tradition for the head of state of a host nation is to present the trophy at the World Cup final and formally open the Summer Games.
Ceremonial duties for Trump at the World Cup — which the US is co-hosting with Mexico and Canada — and LA Olympics — held after Bach leaves office — in moments watched by hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide, are in some ways the easy bit.
“My personal view would be that Trump has a very astute appreciation of being on the world stage,” Michael Payne, an IOC insider since the 1984 LA Summer Games as a marketing executive and consultant, told The Associated Press.
“The challenge will be the year counting down to the events — how that doesn’t compromise the agenda of everybody turning up,” Payne said in a telephone interview.
Asking for and getting permission from the IOC and FIFA to host their sprawling, multi-billion dollar events requires federal government guarantees on security and letting athletes, team officials and fans enter the country.
Trump’s first administration was involved in the bid campaigns — won in 2017 by LA and in 2018 by U.S. soccer officials bidding jointly with Canada and Mexico — and likely was made aware that FIFA, the IOC and fans see the events as belonging to everyone.
“The World Cup and the Olympics, I was responsible for getting both of them, actually,” Trump told Bill Belichick this month on the Let’s Go podcast.
During those campaigns, when both American bid teams faced questions about a backlash by global voters against Trump’s rhetoric, U.S. soccer and Olympic bid officials noted he wasn’t expected to be in office when the sports events opened.
Even Trump, in a meeting with Infantino at the White House in August 2018, didn’t factor in the possibility of losing the 2020 election, which opened the door for him to run again four years later and return to office in time for the 2026 World Cup.
“2026, I won’t be here,” said at the time.
Hosting games and races that make the world stop to watch, that create a rare sense of shared global experience, is seen as a privilege. Even when the athletes and teams come from countries that were insulted by President Trump, whose politics include travel bans and deportations.
“That responsibility extends to making people feel welcome and that the visa regime is open,” said Piara Powar, executive director of anti-discrimination group Fare that works with FIFA to monitor offensive incidents at World Cup games.
Iran, a power in Asian soccer, is on track to qualify in March for its fourth straight World Cup. The Palestinian national team is still contesting one of the eight guaranteed places from Asia in the 48-nation tournament lineup. Trump has a history of support for Israel though has vowed to bring peace to the Middle East. Africa, demeaned by Trump in his first term, has nine guaranteed entries.
“Congratulations Mr President!” Infantino wrote about the man he visited twice at the White House, and also joined in Davos for a dinner event at the high-end Swiss ski resort. The post predicted “a great FIFA World Cup. Football Unites the World!”
In contrast to Trump’s kind words for Infantino at Davos, there was no such public warmth exchanged with Olympic leader Bach.
Trump and Bach met once at the White House just over seven years ago. Then, the IOC was moving toward making winners of both 2024 Olympics bid rivals Los Angeles and Paris by bringing 2028 into play.
The meeting did not go well. That was suspected at the time but only confirmed years later in private conversations.
No photos, nor a readout, ever were published of Trump hosting the Olympic delegation that came from Switzerland, Los Angeles and Colorado Springs. The U.S. president was apparently dismissive of Paris and questioned why the IOC wanted the city, which hosted an acclaimed Olympics this year.
Asked why there was no formal acknowledgment of Trump’s win this week, the IOC cited its tradition of neutrality and not taking political sides.
Still, in May 2017, within days of French President Emmanuel Macron first being elected, his telephone call with Bach was reported by the IOC to have included praise for a “brilliant” win.
Macron was on the field in Moscow in July 2018 for the World Cup-winning France team to receive the trophy in torrential rain. Only one umbrella was provided, held over the head of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The next day, Putin met with Trump in Helsinki in neighboring Finland.
Infantino was closely tied to Putin ahead of and during that World Cup and they were in an iconic photograph at the opening game, Russia’s 5-0 win over Saudi Arabia. The other man in the photo, Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, also is now close with Infantino and Saudi Arabia’s hosting of the 2034 World Cup will be confirmed in Zurich on Dec. 11.
When a Middle East diplomatic deal, known as the Abraham Accords, was signed at the Trump White House in September 2020, Infantino was there on the South Lawn during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If FIFA and Gianni Infantino have a good relationship with Donald Trump then we hope that could be used for the good of the World Cup,” the London-based Powar said in a telephone interview, “and to ensure that it’s an open and inclusive World Cup. That is the risk at the moment.”
At the past two World Cups a match ticket counted as a visa and, Powar noted, in Qatar in 2022 “everybody did have the opportunity to travel there with a ticket, there were no restrictions.”
Russia and Qatar — and 2022 Winter Olympics host China — know well that sports fans, administrators and media often see domestic events and legislation through their own lens.
“It puts a magnifying glass on the issues,” said Payne, a close-up observer of Olympic Games for 40 years. “They take on a profile and political dimension with greater impact because everyone is watching.”
AP
