Winners and losers of the 2026 World Cup: From Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe lighting up the tournament and Spain’s watertight defence to Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar’s sad farewells and Christian Pulisic missing his moment
While floating the idea of a 64-team World Cup, Infantino said that he believed “every nation should be allowed to dream of participating in the World Cup.” Clearly, though, he means every nation bar Palestine, where, on July 3, goalkeeper Saleem Khader al-Ashqar became the 567th member of the country’s footballing community to be murdered by Israeli forces during a genocide that has also claimed the lives and limbs of an entire generation of children.
FIFA unsurprisingly ignored Al-Ashqar’s death. Just as they ignored the assassination of Mohammed al-Wahidi, a former English teacher working for the Egyptian Relief Committee in Gaza who was organising World Cup watch parties in the city. Indeed, Al-Wahidi was killed by an Israeli air strike that also claimed the lives of two brothers, aged eight and 10, just a few hours before a screening of Egypt’s last-16 clash with Argentina.
That senseless slaughter only served to tragically illustrate why Egypt coach Hossam Hassan had accused the football world of failing an entire people on the eve of his team’s 3-2 defeat in Atlanta.
“I would like to say this is a shame on us,” he told reporters in his pre-match press conference. “It is, first of all, a shame on the decision-makers who leave human beings behind. But it is a shame on the entire world, not just the Arab world, a shame on everyone.
“If there is anyone in the world who does not feel for the Palestinian people, then they are not human – whether they are Arab, European, or American. Everywhere in the world, including in Europe or America, if someone hurts an animal, we see animal rights being defended and the whole world reacts. But it has become normal to hear that two or three thousand people die in a single day because of a missile.
“Regardless of religion… I am a human being before an Arab or anything else. My message, then, would be to use football as soft power. I urge all of you, the media, all athletes worldwide, regardless of their identities maybe we can convey a collective message.
“That is as follows: ‘Let the Palestinian people be, let them exist, let them live a life of their own.'”
