There is perhaps no greater socialist sport than what we Americans call soccer. It’s a game that requires minimal equipment: a ball and a large space to play with markings for where to score suffices, removing barriers of pay-to-play. The teamwork inherent in play equalizes all players in the match. Soccer is the sport most people think of when they hear the phrase “participation trophy,” originating from youth leagues that don’t keep score, only [what do they reap from it instead?] – a rather modern take on Karl Marx’s “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!”Such an arrangement takes collective action seriously. Think of the French national team on strike in the middle of the 2010 World Cup, or the mandated collective bargaining agreement break for the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in 2026,Soccer awards points for draws, with each team splitting the points that the winner normally hoards in any lesser sport. In English leagues, the word “United” features in several team names–Manchester United, West Ham United, Newcastle United.The only aspect of this game that keeps it from being purely socialist is that we do, in fact, keep score.
And yet, it is a sport deep in bed with capitalism.
The coverage of preparation for the 2026 World Cup lays the paradox bare. Actors set ticket prices far out of reach for the average fan–never did I think I would ever say to a friend, in the context of buying World Cup tickets, that a $500 ticket was the “reasonable” option. In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security designates the World Cup as a National Special Security Event, granting security protocols that, when combined with our current administration’s approach to immigration enforcement, makes movement across the country for matches and training unsafe. And then there’s that halftime show during the final that strays the sport further from tradition and closer to an Americanized version of the game, where bright lights, big stars, and big dollars take center stage over the game itself.
What we see in 2026, though, is nothing new. Previous tournaments have seen the exploitation of labor (Qatar 2022, Brazil 2014), disregard for human rights and freedom of expression (Qatar 2022, Russia 2018), racism (Germany 2006), and destruction of informal housing for building of stadiums (South Africa 2010). The upcoming tournaments in Mediterranean Europe/Africa in 2030 and Saudi Arabia in 2034 already raise many of these same issues and concerns.
Perhaps coincidentally, or perhaps not, these controversies occur under two of FIFA’s most corrupt presidents, Sepp Blatter and Gianni Infantino. Blatter’s 17 year tenure as FIFA president included allegations of financial mismanagement, controversy over awarding the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, an ethics committee investigation in 2013 – all culminating in a corruption case in 2015 that led to his resignation and a suspension from participation in FIFA activities for 12 years. Infantino faced his own ethics committee investigation shortly after becoming president in 2016, as well as questions about the bid process for the 2034 World Cup and his close relationship with authoritarian leaders.
The capitalist rot spreads into club play with teams owned by majority corporate interests, a far cry from the early days of the supporters trusts–fan groups, in essence–acting as the sole owners of clubs. State run corporations in the Middle East and Asia (and previously, Russia) use ownership of a club as soft political and economic power. Astronomical amounts of spending in the top European leagues correlates deep pockets with on-the-pitch success, with federations looking the other way on some of the more flagrant offenses – one of the most well known being Manchester City’s 115 alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial fair play rules between 2009 and 2018. In the English Premier League, the majority of front of shirt sponsors are gambling companies, though this will be changing with the 2026-2027 season. My fellow Arsenal fans and I joke that we traded one genocide on our sleeve sponsorship (Visit Rwanda) for another (Deel, a HR company with strong roots in Israel).
Examples like these proliferate throughout American and international competitions in all manner of sports. When one considers the socialist foundations of soccer and the capitalist contradictions that have led to explosive popularity and accessibility around the world, there is a sad ache for the cost – a far straying from foundations for newfound popularity in the U.S. that it had sought for decades.
But there is still hope. Germany and Brazil, two of the most successful soccer nations, do not rely on large infusions of cash into their clubs to stay competitive, stubbornly keeping faith with their local values in recruitment and training. Leftist identities run through the blood of many clubs’ supporters. US Livorno 1915 and Brigate Autonome Livornesi (BAL, the supporters groups for Italian club AS LIvorno, trace their leftist roots to Livorno’s role as the birthplace of the Italian Communist Party in 1921. The Green Brigade, supporters of Scottish club Celtic F.C., openly speak out in support of Palestine and Black Lives Matter. And there’s the swift and cautionary trajectory of the European Super League, an alternative league of the most elite European clubs that collapsed under the weight of fans and federations condemning it, and the investment from US bank JP Morgan Chase, as an existential threat to national leagues’ survival.
Most ironically it is a capitalist instrument – advertising – that reminds us of the sport’s socialist roots. Adidas’s “Backyard Legends” ad tells a story of a team of street soccer legends taking on – and defeating – some of the greatest names in the sport throughout history, from Beckham to Messi. While actor Timothee Chalamet assembles a team of today’s stars to take on this neighborhood powerhouse, we’re reminded that the collective with little means compared to their opponents can make a better world possible.
As the World Cup absorbs daily life for the next month, it’s wise for comrades to consider how we can lean on the socialist aspects of the sport to bring it back to those roots, making what Pelé called the beautiful game truly beautiful.
Further Reading:
- “The Socialist Past, Present, and Future of Soccer” by Elias Grigoriadis – https://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/the-socialist-past-present-and-future-of-soccer
- “Football’s Debt to Socialism” by Simon Hattenstone – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/jul/06/footballs-debt-socialism-world-cup
- “Football is a socialist sport, says John Barnes” (paywalled) – https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2010/06/socialist-england-win-football
- “The Billionaires Club: The Unstoppable Rise of Football’s Super-Rich Owners” by James Montague – https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/billionaires-club-9781472923127/
