Infantino Tells World Cup Critics to "Meditate, Pray or Watch Football" After Tournament Controversies

Gianni Infantino wants everyone to stop complaining. In a 15-slide post on his personal Instagram account, reposted to FIFA's eight million followers, the FIFA president told critics to "meditate, pray or watch a football match" instead of "spreading hate and false rumours" about his leadership, FIFA, or the World Cup, according to the BBC.

The letter, also published Monday and reported by the New York Post, called the 2026 tournament — co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico and won by Spain — a triumph. Infantino wrote that FIFA delivered "the best show in the world" while critics sat "behind their pens and papers, behind their screens spreading hate." He claimed "100% safety and security, only joy and happiness," and said there were "zero incidents, zero violence."

It doesn't fully hold up against FIFA's own actions.

What Infantino left out

FIFA is currently investigating Argentina over altercations between its players and staff and Spain's team after the final, according to the BBC. FIFA is also investigating allegations of racist abuse directed at American social media influencer IShowSpeed. Supporters were arrested at multiple matches. None of that squares with "zero incidents."

Infantino's letter leaned hard into Iran's participation as proof football "unites the world," saying Iran entered the U.S. "without incident or conflict" and that the team "received visas to enter because football is about peace," per the New York Post. That framing ignores what actually happened to Iran's delegation.

According to the BBC, Iran faced visa delays, had "integral" backroom staff denied entry to the U.S., and had ticket allocations for its fans revoked. The team was forced to relocate its training base from Tucson, Arizona to Tijuana, Mexico after logistical breakdowns, then faced movement restrictions traveling between that base and group matches in Los Angeles and Seattle.

Iran's own head coach, Amir Ghalenoei, called his squad the "most oppressed" team at the World Cup. That directly contradicts Infantino's telling, and it's something the FIFA president's letter never addresses.

It wasn't just Iran

Fans from Haiti, Senegal, and Ivory Coast were affected by travel restrictions tied to Trump administration visa policy, according to the BBC. Somali referee Omar Artan was denied entry to the U.S. despite holding a diplomatic passport and a valid single-entry visa, reportedly over his "association with suspected members of terror organizations." The New York Post separately noted Haiti's domestic crisis and an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo also factored into visa and travel scrutiny around the tournament.

Infantino's response to this, per the BBC, was to argue that critics "mentioned the few people denied visas and overlooked the millions who were approved, from all parts of the world." Most fans and officials plainly did get in, and a global tournament of this scale was never going to have zero friction with any host nation's immigration system. But it doesn't erase that named individuals, including a credentialed referee, were blocked for reasons that had nothing to do with football.

The officiating fights he wouldn't name

The New York Post reported Infantino's letter also landed amid scrutiny of FIFA's handling of the Folarin Balogun disciplinary case, where a one-match ban from a red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina was suspended after intervention from President Donald Trump, and widespread debate over officiating in Argentina's match against Egypt.

Infantino didn't name either case directly. Instead he argued that contested red or yellow cards, and decisions not to enforce bans, are "routine and widely accepted in some of the biggest leagues worldwide," adding pointedly: "It's curious that the same countries employing these practices are the ones criticizing."

The bigger picture

Infantino has faced direct criticism from within the sport's establishment. La Liga's president said Infantino's "time is up" at FIFA, according to the BBC, a sign the friction isn't limited to media commentary he can wave off as "pens and papers."

None of this means the World Cup was a disaster. Millions of fans did watch a tournament decided by Spain, and Infantino's claim that most visa applicants were approved is not disputed by any source here. But the specific, sourced facts — active FIFA investigations into player altercations and racist abuse, arrests at matches, a coach calling his own team "the most oppressed," and a referee turned away despite a valid visa — contradict "zero incidents" and "only joy and happiness." FIFA has not announced a timeline for resolving the Argentina or IShowSpeed investigations.