Sport, Justice, and the 2026 World Cup
The FIFA Men’s World Cup 2026 will kick-off in June 2026 across the United States, Mexico and Canada.
For six long weeks the World Cup will bring millions of people from around the world to eleven cities in America. Billions more will be watching around the world.
An event of this kind has the potential to bring us together, to showcase our common humanity, but we are concerned that it could negatively affect communities of color within the Unites States. We want to ensure that the human rights impacts are minimal and to shape a positive World Cup legacy for our communities.
This website has been developed by the Human Rights Soccer Alliance to look at the issues involved, to focus on the impact on communities of color and the legacy for those communities.
Kickoff for Change
The 2026 FIFA World Cup, hosted by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, is a rare chance to celebrate the world’s game and bring people together across borders and cultures. With matches in cities across the U.S., the excitement will be massive.
But alongside the celebration, there are real concerns. In the U.S., communities of color often face racial profiling, displacement, policing, and economic exclusion – especially around big events like this.
The World Cup can open doors, but without fair, intentional planning, it risks deepening the very inequalities it could help address.
Host cities have a choice: make this more than a tournament. Make it a turning point for justice, equity, and lasting change in the communities that need it most.
Human Rights Concerns
We believe the 2026 FIFA World Cup must be treated not only as a sporting event, but as a human rights issue. Communities affected by the tournament deserve transparency, accountability and protection.
Under FIFA’s Human Rights Framework, all 16 host cities were required to publish Human Rights Action Plans addressing issues including discrimination, workers’ rights, child safeguarding and human trafficking.
Yet with the tournament only weeks away, only four of the 16 host cities officially published their plans. This means most cities have still not publicly outlined how they will identify local risks, protect vulnerable communities or provide transparent complaint mechanisms.
Black, Latino, Indigenous, Asian and migrant communities often face increased policing, displacement, economic exclusion and surveillance around major sporting events, while receiving the fewest long-term benefits from the investment attached to them.
Human rights protections cannot become an afterthought once the tournament begins.
Legacy for Communities of Color
A genuine World Cup legacy cannot end with stadium construction, tourism campaigns or short-term economic gain. It must include long-term investment into the communities that sustain the game long after the tournament leaves town.
That means funding grassroots football, creating pathways into coaching and leadership, investing in safe and accessible community facilities, supporting minority-owned businesses, and ensuring local residents benefit economically from the tournament taking place in their cities.
Legacy must also be about power, representation and access. Young people from Black, Latino, Indigenous, Asian, migrant and other historically marginalised communities should be able to see themselves not only on the pitch, but in positions shaping the future of the sport — as coaches, executives, organisers, journalists and decision-makers.
The World Cup should leave behind stronger communities, not deeper inequality.
This is HRSA
The group consists of former players, lawyers, nonprofit and NGO directors, academics, and community activists. All of us are passionate about soccer, all of us are focused on positive impact for communities of color, women, and other marginalised groups in the US.
In short, we want to center the human, in human rights. Specifically, we want to explore how grassroots soccer organizations can engage with the host cities, understand and mitigate potential human rights impacts for people of color and identify the potential for legacy for football development and economic empowerment in these communities.
The HRSA is an open forum and alliance to advocate on issues of human rights from the perspectives of communities of color.
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