Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

World Cup 2026: FIFA and the U.S.’s White Supremacist Colonial Partnership is already on Full Display
Black Alliance For Peace
17 Jun 2026
🖨️ Print Article
ICE assault protester

FIFA has shown itself to be a colonial instrument that serves white supremacy and U.S. imperialism. Referees, players, and fans from non-white nations are being harassed, denied entry, and brutalized while FIFA looks away.

Originally published in Black Alliance for Peace.

The World Cup has begun, and we are witnesses to the contradictions of the full, bloody arc of 250 years of U.S. history, manifesting through the state’s partnership with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, FIFA.  In just the last few days leading up to kickoff, we have seen an award-winning Somali referee barred from the opportunity to officiate, Senegalese and Uzbekistani players harassed and searched by state forces, the Haitian team forced to change their jersey and denied the ability to wear a celebration of their national independence, an Ecuadorian fan brutalized by police, dozens of members of the Moroccan and Iranian delegations denied entry. Meanwhile, Iranian players are treated not as competitors but as enemies to be monitored, disciplined, and made examples of in the service of imperialist war, and incarcerated freedom fighters hunger strike for justice at Delaney Hall. The World Cup exposes the racial geography of imperialism: some bodies move freely, while others are subjected to suspicion, exclusion, humiliation, and violence. 

In its acceptance of and complicity in these acts, FIFA has reminded the world that it serves as just another colonial instrument of the global white supremacist, imperialist structure headed by the United States and the capitalist elite. The decision not to pull the games from the U.S. – while that country engages in a war of aggression against Iran, funds and aides genocides and domestic repression against non-European peoples, supports the terror unleashed in the West Bank and Gaza, and tightens its inhumane collective punishment and strangulation of Cuba – shows FIFA’s true nature, and that despite its sordid past, it has found new depths to sink to in its abdication of morality and humanity. The bloody stain upon these 2026 World Cup Games will never be clean.

We condemn FIFA as the racist colonial entity that it is. In response, we continue to call for the international community, the peoples and nations of the world, to Boycott the World Cup and Boycott the U.S. 

Boycott is the weapon of the colonized, the sanctioned, the dispossessed, and we refuse to be spectators to our own subjugation.

No Compromise No Retreat!

BAP National Co-Coordinators

Austin, Erica, Tunde

FIFA
Colonialism
World Cup
white supremacy
Immigration
travel ban

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Bertin M. Louis, Jr.
Anti-Haitianism: A Hemispheric Rejection of Black Humanity
29 July 2026
From the United States to the Dominican Republic to the Bahamas, the violence, collective scapegoating, and mass deportation of Haitians lay ba
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Bulletin on Domestic Militarism and Repression - Vol. 1 Issue #4
22 July 2026
The National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 (NSPM-7) reveals dangerous policies that many don't know exist.
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist , Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
The White Supremacist Imperative on Violence: A Black Radical Perspective on the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination
15 July 2026
The U.S.-EU-NATO axis remains intact, and its commitment to militarism represents an existential threat to the world.
Black Alliance For Peace
The Anti Fascist Football Coalition Joins the Call for the Remaining Teams in the World Cup to Withdraw and Urges People of Conscience to Fight Back Against U.S. Fascism
15 July 2026
FIFA allowed a nation that commits genocide and runs detention gulags to host the World Cup, and the Anti-Fascist Football Coalition says stayi
Djibo Sobukwe
FIFA, World Cup 2026, Sports and the Contradictions of US/EU Colonial Hegemony 
15 July 2026
Haiti qualified for the World Cup on the anniversary of its revolution, the DRC brought the spirit of Lumumba to the pitch, and Iran wore pins
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
“Don’t Worry Be Happy”: The World Cup as an International Psy-Op
17 June 2026
FIFA uses the World Cup to present the United States as a legitimate nation, but the U.S.
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
Sportswashing: How Capitalism Kills the Game for Poor and Working Class People While Normalizing How Imperialism Oppresses and Kills Them
17 June 2026
A single working mother could once take her child to a Yankees game for $40, but today that money would not even cover the online ser
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: All the World’s a Ball, Eduardo Galeano, 1998
10 June 2026
“Professional soccer does everything to [destroy] that energy of happiness, but it survives in spite of all the spites.”
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
The Beautiful Game Can’t Hide the Ugly
10 June 2026
The United States should never host the World Cup because it is a country built on racism, repression, and endless war.
Black Alliance For Peace
Black Alliance for Peace Calls On International Community to Boycott the 2026 World Cup Games Scheduled for the United States
03 June 2026
The World Cup is meant to be a celebration of global unity, not a propaganda shield for a superpower waging genocide abroad and running detenti

More Stories


  • SPEECH: (Re)Centring African Epistemologies: An Intellectual Journey, Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí, 2021
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    SPEECH: (Re)Centring African Epistemologies: An Intellectual Journey, Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí, 2021.
    09 Feb 2022
    Nigerian scholar Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí’s speech upon acceptance of the African Studies Association’s Distinguished Africanist Award offers an important reminder of the role of racist and sexist hie
  • The current crisis in Ukraine had its beginnings in 2014, when the U.S. allied itself with right wing, white supremacist forces to overthrow an elected government. Supposed leftists in this country were largely silent about the danger and were themselves supportive of white supremacist politics carried out by the U.S. and its NATO partners. 
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    Left-Right White Solidarity Basis of Support for U.S./EU/NATO Wars on Global Humanity
    09 Feb 2022
    The current crisis in Ukraine had its beginnings in 2014, when the U.S. allied itself with right wing, white supremacist forces to overthrow an elected government.
  • Eight times the United States Has Used Biological and Chemical Weapons Since WWII
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Eight times the United States Has Used Biological and Chemical Weapons Since WWII
    09 Feb 2022
    U.S. accusations of human rights abuses elsewhere ring hollow.
  • Activist Journalist Frank Sterling on Trial
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Activist Journalist Frank Sterling on Trial
    09 Feb 2022
    A KPFA reporter experienced violent encounters with police in Antioch, California and advocates on behalf of others.
  • The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Has a New Corporate Megadonor
    Donald Shaw
    The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Has a New Corporate Megadonor
    09 Feb 2022
    Amazon donated $1.7 million to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation last year as it faced allegations of illegal anti-union work.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us