Less than they should be able to. Even though fan groups such as Football Supporters Europe have pressured FIFA to make the rules transparent, FIFA’s 2026 Stadium Code of Conduct is anything but a clear set of guidelines. It prohibits banners, clothing and flags it deems ‘political, offensive or discriminatory’. The code was drafted in such broad and ambiguous terms that it gives FIFA wide space to decide what is allowed and what is not.

The pre-revolutionary Iranian flag is the clearest case. For much of the Iranian diaspora, the flag is a symbol of opposition to the government in Tehran, not a partisan banner. Yet, FIFA classified it as political and barred it from stadiums. Supporters using it were stopped at the gates and told to cover it or leave it behind.

The same logic reached the pitch. Haiti’s shirt featured the 1803 battle that secured the country’s independence from France. FIFA considered it too political and forced Haiti to redesign it. Haiti is widely regarded as the first nation founded by formerly enslaved people, and its football federation had intended the design as a tribute to that history.

When almost anything can be called political, it is fans and players using sport to express themselves who end up silenced.

The administration’s anti-immigrant agenda has provoked protests before and during the World Cup across the country. Under the slogan ‘No ICE in the Cup’, people have taken to the streets in host cities such as Los Angeles, Miami and New York, demanding that ICE be kept away from stadiums, fan zones and watch parties.

Major human rights organisations have also issued warnings and guidance for fans. Amnesty International, one of our partners, released a report clearly stating the dangers these policies pose to fans, journalists, local communities and players. The American Civil Liberties Union issued a travel advisory for visitors, with practical guidance on their rights and what to do if questioned by ICE.

At the Sport & Rights Alliance, we have taken the case to FIFA. Under the banner ‘Keep the World in the World Cup’, we sent an open letter with five demands FIFA should have secured from US authorities before the World Cup began.

Some of these concerned people’s ability to take part. FIFA should have pressed the US government to lift the visa and entry bans that keep out fans from qualifying nations such as Haiti, Senegal and Venezuela, and to secure a World Cup truce on immigration enforcement to keep ICE away from the tournament.

The rest were basic safeguards, including an independent human rights monitoring mechanism with public reporting in line with FIFA’s commitments and an end to the social media surveillance of visitors.

It has denied the problem and spread misinformation. After one of our press conferences, the White House dismissed our warnings as ‘ridiculous scare tactics driven by liberal activist groups and the left-wing media’.

Prior to kick-off, the US government also turned on host cities. Trump warned Los Angeles, where immigration raids have been among the most aggressive in the country, that federal authorities would force their way in during the tournament if they had to. He also threatened to ask FIFA to strip matches from cities he considers uncooperative or unsafe, such as Seattle.

The Trump administration has instrumentalised the tournament to promote messaging on mass deportations. The Department of Homeland Security shared images of the US men’s national team alongside the slogan ‘Defend the Homeland. One Nation. One Homeland. One Team’. It also shared, then deleted, an edited image that placed the US-Mexico border wall behind the team, under the words ‘Built the wall’. It’s worth noting that many of those players are immigrants or the children of immigrants, the very people the government’s policies target.

One where human rights commitments are matched in practice, not only on paper. Sport governing bodies have a responsibility to respect human rights, and both FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have written that responsibility into their statutory documents. The 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup was the first to carry human rights requirements from the bidding stage, yet it has shown that adopting policies means little if they are not implemented in a systemic way.

FIFA has the authority to ensure its tournaments are not used for exclusion, discrimination or sportswashing, but it has chosen not to. As Los Angeles prepares to host the 2028 Olympic Games, the IOC now faces the same test, with the advantage of having seen what went wrong at the World Cup. Whether it acts on that will shape not only the Olympic Games, but also the message global sport sends about who is welcome and how far these bodies are willing to go to uphold the human rights commitments enshrined in their charters.