The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off Thursday — and HuffPost is live-blogging every twist, turn and controversy of what’s widely shaping up to be the most political soccer tournament of all time.From the action on the pitch to the potential chaos off it, the storylines are already piling up: Iran’s possible non-participation amid Donald Trump’s war, the president’s close relationship with FIFA’s Peace Prize-awarding President Gianni Infantino, and simmering tensions between the U.S. and fellow host nations Mexico and Canada fueled by Trump’s tariffs and divisive rhetoric.Trump’s travel bans have kept some fans and officials out, there’s been fury over soaring ticket prices, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents could be present at games as the Trump administration continues its anti-immigration crackdown.Not to mention extreme heat concerns that scorched all those involved the last time the U.S. hosted the tournament some 32 years ago, in 1994.And that’s all before a ball has been kicked.U.S. President Donald Trump received the FIFA Peace Prize from FIFA President Gianni Infantino in December.Andrew Harnik via Getty ImagesOn the field, the men’s national teams from 48 countries will compete in a record 104 matches across the three host nations in what will be the biggest World Cup in history.Mexico will take on South Africa at the iconic Mexico City Stadium in the opening game on June 11. The U.S. will play Paraguay in Los Angeles on June 12, Australia in Seattle on June 19 and Turkey back in Los Angeles on June 25, in the group games, before potentially competing in the later knockout rounds.The final will be held on July 19 at MetLife Stadium, which is being temporarily rebranded as the New York/New Jersey Stadium for the competition.Current European champions Spain are favorites to lift the trophy. Defending champions Argentina, of Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi fame, along with France, England and Brazil, are also expected to be in the mix.Check out the full games schedule on the FIFA website.Follow along with our coverage below:U.S. Embassy In Mexico Issues Travel Warning Ahead Of World CupJust before the World Cup kicks off, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico issued a warning to travelers about the potential danger of heading south of the border.In a social media post on Tuesday, the embassy advised potential visitors to "check the latest travel advisory level and risk information before you travel."The U.S. State Department has warning levels assigned to each Mexican state as well as Mexico City, ranging from Level 1 ("exercise normal precautions"), Level 2 ("exercise increased caution"), Level 3 ("reconsider travel") and Level 4 ("do not travel").World Cup games are scheduled for three venues in Mexico, and one of those sites is given a Level 3 warning: Zapopan, near Guadalajara in Jalisco.The other two Mexican World Cup host cities, Mexico City and Guadalupe, near Monterrey in Nuevo Leon, are listed as Level 2.The overall advisory from the U.S. State Department regarding Mexico warns of the risk of terrorism, crime and kidnapping or hostage taking. U.S. citizens are advised not to travel between cities after dark, not to wave down taxis on the street and to avoid traveling alone, particularly in remote locales.The Mexican national team will play two of its three group-stage games in Mexico City, including the tournament opener Thursday against South Africa, and another in Zapopan. In all, 13 World Cup games will be held in Mexico, concluding with two in the round of 32 and one in the round of 16.The U.S. team will not play any of its group-stage matches in Mexico.Latest Live UpdatesArgentina Fans Denied U.S. Visas Get Unexpected World Cup Consolation PrizeDozens of Argentines who were denied visas to travel to the United States to see the World Cup will at least have a new free television to watch the games.Argentine conglomerate Newsan promised to give out local brand Noblex televisions to the first 100 people who lined up on Wednesday outside its Buenos Aires office with paperwork in hand showing they had been denied a visa between January and June of this year to visit the United States."Give us your denied visa and take a free TV," an advertisement on Instagram said.One of the lucky winners was Tomas Vageller, a 24-year-old professional videogame player."I went to get a visa because we all think it will be Messi's last World Cup," he said. "It's very sad I won't be able to see it, but well, I'm leaving with a gift."In three-time World Cup winner Argentina, soccer fever has been unusually tempered days before the 2026 World Cup kicks off in North America - much less feverish than in 2022, which many saw as Argentina's last hope to win the tournament under Lionel Messi's leadership.Trump-Allied FIFA Chief Has Bizarre 'Just Chill, Relax' Response To World Cup ControversyFIFA President Gianni Infantino defended World Cup ticket prices on Wednesday, saying “if we do something wrong, then probably everyone selling tickets in North America is doing something wrong.”Infantino also said it was unfortunate Somali referee Omar Artan was denied entry to the U.S.“We don’t control everything. We try. We’ll discuss, we will speak, we’ll see. Maybe sometimes it’s good as well to just chill, relax,” he said. “We try to solve everything. Sometimes to immediately start screaming and shouting has the opposite effect of finding a solution. Believe me when I tell you, or don’t believe me if you don’t want, but we try always to find solutions, always. But then we need to respect that we are not the kings of the world who can rule over governments and police forces.”Read more here:U.S. Team Receives Major Player Lift For World Cup OpenerHeading into their World Cup opener on Friday, the U.S. men's national team received a massive lift when defender Chris Richards declared himself ready to go against Paraguay.Richards, 26, who suffered a pair of torn ligaments in his left ankle while playing for Crystal Palace of the Premier League on May 17, has been a full participant at practice this week for the first time since the injury."I'm ready to go," Richards told reporters Wednesday, adding that he has not been informed of any minutes restrictions. "It's the World Cup. I was going to make myself ready regardless. ... If there's any time to sacrifice yourself, it's now. I know I'm able to play Friday but I don't make those decisions."Richards sat out both of the pre-World Cup friendlies against Senegal and Germany while rehabbing his ankle ahead of the opener, and said the recovery time was just what he needed ahead of the Group D opener at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif."Rehab is rehab. It's never really fun," Richards added. "It's been long days of just trying to get my ankle right, swelling, whatever the case is, trying to get everything right. It took about as long as I expected, honestly. Initial diagnosis was day-to-day but, for me, I was aiming for 2-3 weeks. I think we're on schedule."Fear did creep into Richards' mind that an injury would force him to miss his second consecutive World Cup. In 2022, a persistent hamstring injury that sidelined him for months kept him out of the tournament in Qatar."When I first came out with the injury, I was pretty devastated, and I was honestly fearing the worst," he said, adding that he does not feel any restrictions regarding movement. "But I kind of forced myself back on the pitch to prove to myself that it was doable."Richards' teammates are elated to have the defender -- one of the team's leaders and keys to its success -- back on the pitch in time for the opener."Chris is one of the most important players on the team, but my best friend as well," winger Tim Weah said. "Seeing him healthy and playing is everything."Haiti's War-Scened World Cup Shirt Gets Red Carded By FIFAHaiti has changed its World Cup shirts, which depicted a war scene from the country's battle for independence, after FIFA said they had violated its regulations on political speech, manufacturer Saeta said on Wednesday.Colombia-based Saeta said it had collaborated with the Haitian Football Federation on the design, which it said "celebrated the pride, resilience, and spirit" of the Haitian people and was not intended as a political statement."During the review process, FIFA determined that certain visual elements could be interpreted differently under its equipment regulations and ultimately requested modifications to the design," Saeta said in a statement."While this interpretation differed from our intention, Saeta respected the process and implemented the final requirements communicated by FIFA."Soccer's world governing body FIFA, the Haitian Football Federation and the team's media officer did not immediately respond when asked by Reuters for comment.Haiti open their World Cup campaign against Group C opponents Scotland on Saturday in Boston.British Magazine Perfectly Skewers Donald Trump's Ego With New World Cup CoverBritish satirical magazine Private Eye marked the imminent start of the FIFA World Cup with a new cover mocking Donald Trump.Read more here:Katy Perry, Alanis Morissette, Shakira And More Set To Headline World Cup Opening CeremoniesA bevy of artists is set to headline 2026 FIFA World Cup opening ceremonies on Thursday and Friday, with festivities planned in Mexico, Canada and the U.S.The opening ceremony in Mexico will last 90 minutes and will be held before the tournament's first match, between Mexico and South Africa, at 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT on Thursday in Mexico City. Performers Shakira, Burna Boy, Alejandro Fernández, Belinda, Danny Ocean, J Balvin, Lila Downs, Los Ángeles Azules and Mana will make appearances.Canada's ceremony will take place 90 minutes before the Canada vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina match, which begins at 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT on Friday at BMO Field in Toronto. Among the performers scheduled to appear: Alanis Morissette, Alessia Cara, Elyanna, Jessie Reyez, Michael Bublé, Nora Fatehi, Sanjoy, Vegedream and William Prince.The U.S. ceremony will also take place on Friday, 90 minutes prior to the start of the United States vs. Paraguay match at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Katy Perry, Future, Anitta, LISA, Rema and Tyla are slated to perform.Protesters Call On FIFA To Kick Iran Out Of World Cup, Citing Regime InvolvementInstead of pride, many Iranian-Americans feel shame about the Iran team’s participation in the World Cup and are demanding that FIFA boots the country out of the competition, protesters said on Wednesday.The team’s presence is outraging many who see the Iranian government as using the competition as a way to sportswash its killing tens of thousands of dissidents since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, with many thousands killed as recently as during widespread protests in January. Those deaths have included hundreds of athletes, protesters said. “Bringing them here and having them play basically presents a calm face to the world, when in fact back home there is no calmness, there’s only execution and suffering that the regime has brought,” said 21-year-old American-born Ryan Salami, whose parents both fled Iran, in an interview at a protest in front of L.A. City Hall.Many protesters backed the National Council of Resistance of Iran’s call to dump Iran out of the tournament. Photographs of dozens of Iranian athletes who died in government custody were spread in an impromptu open-air gallery in front of Los Angeles City Hall. Speakers including a number of former Iran national team players mourned athletes who they say died after crossing the government and being taken into custody. “This is the ayatollahs’ team,” said Asghar Adibi, who was a member of the Iran national team in 1970, to the crowd. He said the team was controlled by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and it was wrong to allow an organisation “that kills people, tortures people, to have a team representing them”.Read more from Reuters here: Trump Not Planning To Attend Team USA's Opening World Cup Match: The AthleticPresident Donald Trump is reportedly not planning on attending the U.S. men’s national team’s opening World Cup match against Paraguay in Los Angeles on Friday, The Athletic reported. A press release from the State Department on Wednesday said Secretary of State Marco Rubio will attend Friday's game, alongside Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy and Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin.While Trump has not publicly said whether he will attend the game, people familiar with planning for the tournament told The Athletic they don't anticipate he will be present. Trump's absence from the match would break a streak of host-country heads of state attending their nation's opening match. The emir of Qatar attended in 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin attended in 2018 and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff attended in 2014. Read the full story from The Athletic here: Officials Try To Reassure World Cup Fans That Cartel-Attacked City Is SafeGUADALAJARA, Mexico — With the World Cup about to begin, heavily armed police and National Guard officers are patrolling the streets of Guadalajara as authorities try to reassure visitors and residents that security won’t be an issue in a city that was rocked by cartel violence earlier this year. Read more below.U.N. Human Rights Chief Urges 'Rethink' Of Trump's Immigration Policy, Especially Around World CupGENEVA (AP) — The United Nations’ top human rights official called Wednesday for a “massive rethink” of immigration policies especially in the United States around the World Cup.Issues around “racial profiling, surveillance and immigration enforcement” were cited by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk even before the 48-nation, 39-day tournament starts Thursday.Iran’s team was moved from a training camp in Arizona to Mexico, some Iranian officials were denied U.S. entry visas, Africa’s top referee from Somalia was refused entry in Miami and images circulated of a Senegal player being frisked by a security guard on airport tarmac.“We have seen some of the scenes,” Türk told reporters at a briefing at the U.N.’s human rights agency headquarters.“I hope that the issues around racial profiling, around surveillance, around immigration enforcement are not going to affect this World Cup in the way that they have already done,” the Austrian lawyer said.The U.S. is hosting most of the 104 games in a shared project with Canada and Mexico, though it is only the policies of federal agencies under U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration that have drawn criticism.“I really hope that there is a massive rethink of how immigration enforcement is respecting human rights and human dignity,” Türk said, “and that especially for the World Cup there is a rethink of the policies that we are unfortunately seeing prevailing especially in the U.S. at the moment.”Türk said global sports should be “where the world comes together in unity and in peace.”“It is clear that the environment in which mega sport events including the World Cup take place need to provide a dignified and safe environment, for the teams that compete but also for the supporters, for the whole society and frankly for the world,” he said.Fans from countries like Morocco and Scotland, who spent thousands of dollars on flights, hotels and tickets for the most expensive World Cup ever, have reported having their travel documents denied or revoked just days before they were due to travel.FIFA’s bidding rules in 2017 for nations wanting to host this World Cup stated visa processing “must be applied in a non-discriminatory manner,” with the caveat it must not “adversely affect the national immigration and security standards.”U.S. links referee to terror groupsIn the case of Somali referee Omar Artan, a U.S. official said he was refused admission due to “association with suspected members of terror organizations,” though without specifying details or providing proof.FIFA was unable to protect the referee it picked for World Cup duty despite its president Gianni Infantino building closer ties to Trump and administration officials in the past 18 months.FIFA also has aligned itself with UN guiding principles on business and human rights that it pledged should be respected at its tournaments.Türk highlighted a wider point about the treatment of people worldwide moving between different nations.“I also hope that the dehumanization of the other, the dehumanization of migrants, the dehumanization of refugees and asylum seekers is put to an end,” he said. “Nobody benefits from divisive and polarizing narratives.”___AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cupSee All Updates