When Football Tells Us Not to Believe Our Eyes
The 2026 FIFA World Cup produced extraordinary football. It also produced a question FIFA can no longer dismiss as mere supporter frustration: who was actually in control of the competition—the Laws of the Game, political power, opaque technology or FIFA itself? This is not an argument that every disputed decision was corrupt. It is not a claim that every VAR intervention was wrong. Some decisions angered supporters while still following FIFA’s published rules. The argument is more precise. A credible tournament requires rules that are known in advance, applied equally and protected from political influence. Technology should help officials apply those rules—not become an unexplained authority that overrides them. Referees should not merely be impartial; FIFA should remove avoidable conflicts that create reasonable doubts about their impartiality. At this World Cup, those principles were not always protected.
