In December 2024, FIFA awarded the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia in a process where Saudi Arabia was the only country allowed to bid. The field was cleared in advance: by spreading the 2030 tournament across three continents, FIFA ruled out everyone but Asia and Oceania for 2034 — a maneuver the New York Times reported in a story headlined “FIFA Bends Own Rules to Give Saudi Arabia Coveted 2034 World Cup”, tying it directly to Infantino. Twenty-one organizations — human rights groups, trade unions, migrant workers’ organizations, and fan representatives — called it “a moment of great danger.” The man set to benefit, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said the quiet part out loud: asked about sportswashing, he replied that if it raised his GDP, he’d keep doing it — “I don’t care.”

The pattern goes back years. In a 2014 meeting at FIFA’s Zurich headquarters, FIFA handed Fox the U.S. broadcast rights to this World Cup with no competitive bidding — a concession to keep Fox from suing over the Qatar scheduling scandal. FIFA’s own secretary general, Jerome Valcke, admitted what it cost them: “…we are losing money… because we are not running an open process in the U.S. market.” Fox pays $485 million. Industry experts value those rights between $1 billion and $1.5 billion. FIFA later explored clawing back the deal, and then gave up. The world’s game, handed to favored partners for the right price.

And it comes home. According to The Athletic, senior FIFA management urged Infantino to ask Trump for a nationwide moratorium on ICE raids during the tournament — and Infantino said he was receptive. Their pitch to the president: announce it jointly, frame it as a feel-good story, and brand it “FIFA Unites the World.”

FIFA knows exactly what this administration’s enforcement means for the fans, players, and workers who make the World Cup possible. It would rather ask quietly, and take the credit, than stand publicly.

They wanted to sell “FIFA Unites the World” as a press release. 

We printed it on 40,000 red cards instead. Unitas Mundi. Let’s see if they meant it.

Donald Trump is the most corrupt president in American history. He has turned the presidency into a personal income stream: his net worth has nearly tripled to $6.2 billion in the year and half since retaking office, powered by crypto ventures his own family controls even as his administration writes friendlier rules for that same industry. His sons hold stakes in companies now landing billions in federal deals his administration negotiates. And it isn't just family money, it's access. Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and crypto-and-AI advisor David Sacks have repeatedly picked up the phone and gotten Trump to kill regulations that would have reined in their own industries, most recently scrapping an AI safety executive order hours before he was set to sign it. 

That same instinct to protect the powerful shows up everywhere his legal exposure does. His administration has slow-walked, redacted, and fought court orders over the Epstein files… files where his own name reportedly appears tens of thousands of times! His pardon pen works the same way with 96% of his clemency grants having skipped standard DOJ review, and it's no surprise their recipients keep turning out to be donors, allies, and his buddies. And when courts try to hold his administration accountable, like the judge who found probable cause for criminal contempt after officials defied an order to turn around deportation flights, his people don't comply, they mock the ruling, while ICE agents told they had "federal immunity" have racked up nearly 100 violated court orders in a single month in Minnesota alone. 

No one deserves a ‘Red Card’ more than President Trump.