In March, Bilal Lafta had the best soccer watching experience of his life in Monterrey, Mexico.
Lafta, a 27-year-old Iraqi American software developer based in New York, traveled to Monterrey with his father and brother to watch the Iraqi national team’s qualifying game against Bolivia for the FIFA World Cup, which kicks off on June 11 in Mexico City. They were met with throngs of Mexican spectators who embraced the Iraqi team, learning Arabic chants and asking questions about life in Iraq. “The Mexican fans said that we had similar cultures,” Lafta told Foreign Policy.
Iraq won the game, landing a World Cup spot for the first time in 40 years, and the neighborhood erupted in celebration. Outside the stadium, a Mexican policewoman allowed Iraqis to climb on top of her car to dance and wave their national flag. Lafta praised both the multiculturalism and safety of the setting, but said he could not imagine such a scene today in the United States, which is co-hosting the World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel bans and aggressive immigration raids have cast doubt over whether the United States will be welcoming to international soccer fans. Potential government harassment during the World Cup—whether at customs or on the streets—could negatively affect U.S. soft power, according to foreign-policy and sports history experts.
In contrast, they said, Canada and Mexico may be able to reap soft power benefits from the tournament. Officials in both countries are playing up their embrace of diversity. Mexico in particular—with its strong tradition of soccer and public festivals, plus its relatively low prices for tourists—has the building blocks for a great atmosphere. But there are still plenty of ways that Mexico could fall short of expectations.
A low-angle shot of a group of football fans celebrating outdoors at twilight. On the left, a man wearing a green Mexican national team jersey and a large straw sombrero looks toward other fans. On the right, a smiling man proudly waves an Iraqi flag while draped in another flag, as other people around them dance, cheer, and blow plastic horns.
Iraqi fans dance outside the stadium prior to a qualifying game for the 2026 FIFA World Cup between Iraq and Bolivia at Estadio Monterrey in Mexico on March 31. Azael Rodriguez/Getty Images
Beginning in 2009, Arturo Sarukhán, Mexico’s ambassador to the United States at the time, suggested that the United States and Mexico co-host the World Cup to show that they could be “partners in success,” he wrote in the Financial Times earlier this year. Then-President Barack Obama endorsed the idea of a tournament that also included Canada by 2013, Sarukhán wrote. It was designed to send a message of North American unity.
But by the time the joint bid was approved in 2018, a year into Trump’s first term, that very idea was on shaky ground; Trump had already triggered a renegotiation of the three countries’ free trade deal. Now, the unity narrative seems even more mismatched with reality. Trump has placed heavy tariffs on both countries, referred to Canada as a future U.S. state, and threatened to bomb Mexico.
The trade deal, now known as USMCA, may yet survive a review that is underway, and Sarukhán argued in his essay that the World Cup can still foster a spirit of trilateral unity. But the prevailing perception is that that 2010s narrative of togetherness was meant only “to win hosting rights, not to say how things actually are,” said Gerardo Velázquez de León, a prominent Mexican soccer commentator.
Amid the current trade and migration clashes between Mexico and the United States, “there isn’t unity,” Velázquez de León said, though he added that it was possible for the tournament to reflect well on its hosts if it unfolds in a festive and peaceful environment.
Even so, some defining features of this year’s World Cup are already clear. Many fans complain of high ticket prices, which are holding back their plans to attend in all three host countries. Only weeks before the World Cup began, hotel bookings were lower than projected in cities across Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Some fans chose not to travel this year because of ticket prices, said João Paulo Fernandes, a co-owner of Turista FC, a Brazilian sports tourism agency.
A man stands in front of a mural featuring World Cup motifs in Mexico City on May 25. The work was hand-painted by artists Josa Cruz Pacheco, Andreee Orozco, Francisco Thomas Arriaga, Vivian Velazquez Ventura, and Christian Zuniga Lazcano. Alfredo Estrella/Getty Images
