John Malkovich, NBA champion Toni Kukoč and the Croatian men’s soccer legend Luka Modrić walk into a bar. It’s not the start of a joke, that was the scene at the AKA Hotel in Alexandria, Va., Saturday evening. The Croatian National Tourist Board hosted a boozy reception for its country’s soccer team as it competes…
DALLAS — The Trump administration has elevated dozens of more complex World Cup visa decisions to senior leadership as officials try to balance FIFA commitments with national security concerns. In an interview Sunday, White House World Cup task force Executive Director Andrew Giuliani said many high-profile or complicated visa cases have ultimately reached his desk…
EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey — During the World Cup, FIFA officials, law enforcement agencies and transit planners across New York and New Jersey will be keeping an eye on things from a constellation of command centers and control rooms. The sites — spread from Miami to Trenton, New Jersey to Brooklyn — will house a…
DALLAS — Andrew Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s point person on the 2026 World Cup, said allowing Iran’s national team to enter the U.S. a day before its matches is an example of the administration being nice. “We want them to be able to compete,” Giuliani said in an interview Sunday in Dallas. “Even just coming…
Arriving in the U.S. from Belgium to cover the World Cup, one overarching controversy stood out from the Iran war, visas and commercial exploitation: Should POLITICO call the sport football or soccer? Our style guide entry — “The worldwide sport should be referred to as football in Europe and soccer in the U.S. In European…
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in the state’s rancorous GOP gubernatorial runoff, aligning the popular governor with President Donald Trump on their preferred candidate. Kemp’s last-minute public blessing of Jones on Sunday night comes just days before the Tuesday election and marks his clearest effort yet to shape the race to…
Around a hundred Samurai Blue superfans crowded the Old Ambassador’s Residence at the Japanese embassy in Washington, on Sunday for a watch party marking its World Cup opener against the Netherlands. The supporters — a motley group including erstwhile English teachers in Japan, state department workers and embassy staffers — lounged around a projector set…
No European country has infuriated Donald Trump more than Spain. Now it’s desperate to win his World Cup. Teenage superstar Lamine Yamal, Rodri and co. enter the tournament as joint favorites alongside France. With the U.S. president apparently intent on making this a World Cup that projects his personal influence and America’s soft power, victory…
LOS ANGELES — In many World Cup host cities, competing teams also find themselves jostling for soft-power supremacy around their matches. But before its first match tomorrow in Los Angeles, New Zealand has had the diplomatic landscape all to itself. New Zealand is scheduled to face Iran, which has not had formal diplomatic relations with…
Sunday’s four-goal thriller at Dallas Stadium was one that started slowly but undoubtedly came to life in the second half. The Netherlands drew 2-2 against Japan thanks to goals from Virgil Van Dijk and Crysencio Summerville that were then respectively canceled out by Keito Nakamura and Daichi Kamada. This was also a battle between two…
