As the 2026 Fifa World Cup kicks off in North America, the tournament is already living up to expectations of a hostile and exclusionary reception by its main host nation.
With dozens of national teams from around the globe descending on the United States for the tournament, reports are already surfacing of harassment of players at US airports and denials of visas for federation staff members, foreign journalists and fans.
This treatment comes mere weeks after more than 120 rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International, issued an unprecedented travel warning for visitors to this summer's games, citing gun violence, violent immigration enforcement, invasive surveillance and what it described as a "deteriorating human rights situation".
If the mass shooting near England's base camp in Missouri wasn't enough of an American cultural experience, the treatment of World Cup visitors by immigration authorities was perhaps an even clearer expression of the chauvinism the US has long displayed towards the rest of the world.
Iraqi striker Aymen Hussein was questioned for seven hours at Chicago's O'Hare Airport after arriving with the national team, while a team photographer was barred from entry altogether.
