This year, the majority trend of companies to dye the networks with the LGTB flag for pride day has been reduced. The trend, sometimes associated with the rainbowashinghas been reduced in a context of global recoil in the claim of certain rights. In the Club World Cup there is a similar trend. FIFA has always launched clear messages against discrimination, but since Qatar 2022 has decided to model global campaigns. In the World Cup that crowned Argentina, only some selections such as Germany decided to take the step to denounce the conditions given in the host country.
Messages for International Day against Hate Speeches
The limitation of the exhibition according to which symbols is not an exclusive issue of the Middle East. In the appointment held in the US, there was an exception on June 18, when international day was held to counteract hate speech. It was the day that Real Madrid debuted against Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia, which will host the 2034 World Cup in a situation of a neutrality that is not such. Because the mere fact of positioning guides the meaning of the actions taken by FIFA, which exhibited messages against discrimination after the complaint of a sector of the US press.
“Maybe one day the actions of FIFA will support their grandiloquent speeches about the fight against hatred and discrimination. But today is not that day. A month after Gianni Infantino said that racism and intolerance were such a large scourge for football that those who committed them deserved jail sentences, the agency seems to have lost the messages that used to be a pillar of their campaigns against discrimination against discrimination. The ads on the giant screens and banners in the field, the messages for megafonia, the publications in social networks … There is no trace of them in the Club World Cup, “Nancy Armor columnist denounced in the USA Today.
It should be remembered that the Club World Cup began to be played in the middle of the protests against the raids carried out by the US immigration services. This caused disturbances and the activation of a curfew in Los Angeles, where teams such as Atlético were concentrated, which could barely get out of their hotel in the first days. Activists from different groups criticized FIFA for their equidistance about what was happening in the country, especially because in Europe and other territories they do maintain active programs to denounce discrimination.
FIFA defends its “zero tolerance with discrimination”
A FIFA spokesman, in statements collected by the premises The Athletic, said that the agency “maintains a firm position of zero tolerance against all forms of discrimination and racism. This commitment was recently reinforced with the unanimous approval of the new FIFA disciplinary code, which introduces more severe sanctions and higher economic fines, as reported by 75.º FIFA Congress in Asunción in Asunción. May 2025 “. During the Club World Cup only an incident associated with this typology has been recorded in the field.
In the final section of the game between Pachuca and Real Madrid, Rüdiger denounced that the Argentine Cabral gave him racist insults. The captain of the Mexican team defended himself saying that he had called him “shit shit.” An investigation was opened from which there is no more information so far. According to sources from professional players unions, none was informed of specific actions in a country where the political climate is dominated for the persecution of what has been called as 'wokismo'derogatory word to encompass certain progressive postulates including the defense of LGTB rights or feminism.
These issues did appear in a commented act that took place in the Club World Cup, with Juventus as the protagonist. The 'Bianconero' team, owned by the Agnelli family, owner of one of the automotive with the most influence in the US (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles), visited Donald Trump in the White House. “Could a woman be part of your team, boys?”the US president asked the Juventus expedition, accompanied by Gianni Infantino, intimate friend of his.
MLS fans against Trump's policies
The players looked at each other without knowing what to answer, until Damien Comolli, general director of the club, replied: “We have a very good female team.” A tangential exit to avoid problems, because the question had to do with the participation of trans sportsmen in female competitions. Something with which Trump, and also other athletes, disagree. The situation in the US is tense, to the point that false news was spread that the MLS had forbidden to exhibit rainbow flags in its stadiums during the Club World Cup.
Nothing is further from reality, because the competition of 'Soccer' and its teams are, for the most part, hobbies that, unlike what happens in American football or baseball, are an anti -racist and antihomophobic speaker. The fans embody these postulates by definition. Thus, for example, in the stands of Seattle Sounders, which was in the Atlético group, a flag was seen that said: “Protect trans Kids” (“Protect trans children”). He has been hanging since 2019 at Lumen Field, when the Trump administration launched a wave of laws that limited the rights of this group.
The Emerald City Supporters group, an active nucleus of the Seattle fans, was the promoter of this claim. The club thought about removing it, but the flag appeared more trimmed, as seen. Finally, the Sounders aligned in 2023 with their fans and They launched an official scarf with the message of one of the few symbols that break the neutrality of a World Cup conceived from the politician message not to mix politics and sport. Two intimately related areas in a power sport.
