SHAH ALAM: The 2026 World Cup promised to be the biggest celebration of football – 48 teams, three host countries and stadiums packed with record crowds.
But in its opening week the tournament has been rocked by a string of diplomatic, security and organisational headaches that are stealing the spotlight from the matches.
From geopolitical visa standoffs to bizarre locker-room-bound thefts, here is a breakdown of the major incidents, controversies and failures that have hit the tournament since opening day.
1. Somali referee Artan denied US entry
In what has been dubbed a major institutional failure, Omar Abdulkadir Artan – the 2025 Confederation of African Football (CAF) Men’s Referee of the Year – was barred from entering the United States upon arriving at Miami International Airport.
With FIFA's head of refereeing, Pierluigi Collina, mandating that all 52 tournament referees stay and train together at a centralised hub in Florida, Artan cannot simply restrict his duties to matches hosted in Canada or Mexico.
He has been officially dropped from the tournament list, with White House officials defending the decision by Customs and Border Patrol despite Artan traveling with valid diplomatic documents.
2. Iran’s delegation gutted by visa rejections
Geopolitical tensions have spilled directly onto the pitch for Iran. While players were cleared to travel, integral members of Iran's backroom staff and federation leadership were denied US visas.
Among those blocked from entry are Iran Football Federation (FFIRI) President Mehdi Taj, a vice president, team administrators and media officers.
Compounding the chaos, the US government revoked the ticket allocations for Iranian supporters just days before the tournament. Due to these ongoing issues and security concerns, Iran has already moved its entire team base camp to Mexico.
3. The $18,000 theft of England's gear (and Lego)
England's pre-tournament camp in Florida was hit by a literal highway robbery. A vehicle transporting equipment from Florida to their base in Kansas City was broken into, resulting in the loss of $18,000 worth of property.
While England's Football Association (FA) reassured fans that core football items like boots and keeper gloves were quickly recovered and did not disrupt their 4-2 opening win over Croatia, the bizarre inventory list turned heads.
Alongside three signed jerseys valued at $5,000 each, the thieves made away with training shorts, power strips, a JBL speaker, two stuffed lions and a Nike Air shoe Lego set.
4. The mandated ‘commercial’ hydration breaks
FIFA’s new player-welfare policy has quickly mutated into a massive point of friction for traditional fans.
The governing body now mandates three-minute hydration breaks in each half of every single match, regardless of the venue's actual temperature.
The policy backfired when a match in Toronto was halted in a chilly 19 degrees Celsius environment.
Critics accuse FIFA of carving matches into ‘American-style quarters’ purely to sell lucrative commercial blocks, with Fox even missing live action during the opener due to an ad break.
On the pitch, the reception is just as frosty – players like Dutch captain Virgil van Dijk and various managers have heavily criticised the mandatory stoppages for utterly destroying in-game momentum.
5. The Uruguay airport security viral standoff
Uruguay’s arrival in the US quickly turned into one of the tournament’s first massive social media flashpoints.
Following a frustrating transit delay in Mexico due to flight permit issues, the squad was met at the airport by intense US security teams who lined up all of their luggage on the pavement for a full inspection by sniffer dogs.
Many fans and observers called the treatment humiliating, arguing elite athletes were treated like criminal suspects rather than welcomed for the tournament.
Some defend it as standard security for major events in the US, but the visible roadside search and Manuel Ugarte's reaction made it a social-media moment.
Despite the mounting pile of off-pitch issues – most notably the high-profile visa rejections – FIFA has firmly deflected accountability, stating that it is not involved in host-country immigration processes and does not determine visa approvals.
This defense draws a sharp line through the tournament's rocky start: it shows that the underlying problem is not on FIFA’s internal tournament operations, but rather on the uncompromising, rigid geopolitics of the host nations themselves.
While football's governing body can control what happens inside the stadiums, it remains entirely at the mercy of domestic border controls and security apparatuses that refuse to bend, even for the biggest show on Earth.