After the final whistle brought the FIFA World Cup to a close on Sunday, Football Supporters Europe (FSE) calls on the wider football community to hold FIFA to account and demand structural governance reforms to hand decision-making power back to the FIFA Council and Congress and ensure full consultation with clubs, leagues, players, and supporters.
The 2026 World Cup should have been a celebration of the game and the supporters who give it life.
Instead, it has too often become a case study in what is so deeply wrong with football today.
From the outset, supporters were asked to place their trust in FIFA and “chill”, but it prioritised spectacle and commercialisation over the match-going experience with key elements of football’s identity being messed with. Over the last month, we’ve seen football contorted to the whim of Gianni Infantino and the Trump administration.
Rampant exploitation of fans’ loyalty in ticketing pricing policies, the blatant commodification of match tickets, skyrocketing transportation costs, bending of rules and procedures, exclusion of swathes of the global population, and a lack of transparent communication, all this created an environment of confusion and distrust that has severely damaged the reputation of FIFA, the World Cup, and the integrity of football itself. FSE’s prediction back in December 2025 of ‘minimum certainty, maximum exploitation’ was unfortunately proved correct.
Ticket & transportation costs
Throughout this World Cup, FIFA has pushed supporters’ loyalty to breaking point through historically high ticket prices, dynamic pricing that turned access into a bidding war, and a de facto legalised black market of its own making via an unrestricted resale platform. At the same time, supporters with disabilities were left behind, with no complimentary companion tickets, and accessible tickets snapped up by touts and resold for profit on FIFA’s own marketplace. It is clear that fans with disabilities were neither meaningfully consulted nor adequately considered throughout the planning and decision-making for this tournament, creating an unwelcoming environment that excluded them from attending the tournament. This has then been compounded by opportunistic transport operators in some of the Host Cities ramping prices up for fans travelling to matches, which FIFA stood by and did nothing about. Promises from the original hosting bid on affordable ticket prices and travel options soon evaporated.
No sign of a “World Cup for all”
FIFA’s claim of a “World Cup for all” did not materialise. Throughout this World Cup, FSE and its fellow Sport and Rights Alliance partners have highlighted the unprecedented exclusion, discrimination, and misuse of power by the US Government. Supporters, officials, journalists, and even family members from several countries were shut out from entering the US during the tournament because of visa policies. Many LGBT+ supporters also simply decided not to travel to the World Cup, as they were left without any guarantee they would be safe while attending matches.
FIFA’s governance
The controversy around this World Cup of FIFA’s making has ranged from its bogus ‘Peace Prize’ to appease Donald Trump, the bending of its own rules to breaking point, changing the game’s identity beyond recognition, to government interference in playing matters. The quartering of matches with advert breaks masquerading as hydration breaks and the abandonment of a 15-minute half-time for a pop concert, Iran being barred entry into the US on non-match days, and the Balogun scandal being clearly visible low points. FIFA walks away from this World Cup with its reputation with supporters totally shattered having opened a void for distrust.
The lessons from this World Cup are clear: FIFA is unfit to govern global football. The future of the game cannot rest in the hands of a man who has proven yet again that he puts financial and political interests ahead of the future of our game.
From today onwards, the countdown to 2030 has begun
For FSE and its members, the focus now turns to all six co-hosts of the 2030 FIFA World Cup (Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay). From day one, the tournament must be planned with match-going supporters in mind. As a European organisation, we are acutely aware of the serious concerns for safety, security, and service standards at football matches in Spain and Portugal. Supporters regularly report disproportionate policing, police violence, invasive body searches, poor communication, and inadequate supporter services. Too often, supporters are treated as risks to manage rather than guests to welcome.
If Spain and Portugal want to be successful World Cup co-hosts, these issues, as well as those from this summer’s World Cup, must be addressed. These two countries are far behind the current European standards on fan dialogue and must adopt modern policies to bridge the gap. Supporters from across the world will rightly expect safe, accessible, welcoming, and well-organised matchday experiences, and those standards are non-negotiable.