California Democratic Party under fire for ‘you’re not allowed to watch’ World Cup post

Host regions spending millions with scant chance of economic payoff.

Eight years earlier, soccer’s governing body had voted to award its 2022 showcase to Qatar — a tiny desert nation with not a single stadium ready for World Cup play and summer temperatures exceeding 100 degrees — over the favored United States.

Somali referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan was denied entry into the United States, preventing him from officiating at the 2026 FIFA World Cup—a move that drew outrage across the world.

Thirty-two years ago, USA 94 was hosted with a sort of gleeful naivete by a country with all of the infrastructure and marketing knowhow and none of the tradition or knowledge of the game revered by Europeans and South Americans.