There’s a glossy promotional reel version of the FIFA World Cup that shows full stadiums, emotional winners, and flags from every country waving next to each other. This summer, federal courts all over the United States are hearing this version of the story. It looks a lot messier on that one.
As of the start of the 2026 tournament in the United States, FIFA has been sued by fans, artists, patent holders, and even a pardoned Iranian political scientist who wants a billion dollars because a goal was not allowed. It’s a lot, even for a group that has had legal problems in the past.
Lotfolah Kaveh Afrasiabi, a 68-year-old academic from Massachusetts, has the most interesting case. He was once a consultant for Iran’s nuclear negotiating team and was later released from prison by Joe Biden as part of a prisoner swap. Afrasiabi, who was his own lawyer, filed a complaint against FIFA, its president Gianni Infantino, and unnamed officials in Boston federal court at the end of June. He was upset about what he saw as intentional bias against the Iranian national team. His main complaint is about a VAR decision that threw out Iran’s late winning goal against Egypt on June 26. He says this was “deliberately designed” to get rid of his country from the tournament.
Right away, commentators on the ground argued against the call. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a sports analyst for Fox Sports who doesn’t hold back, called the change a “theft” and said FIFA should say sorry to Iran. If that is legal evidence is a whole different question, but Afrasiabi is asking for $1 billion in damages on behalf of what he thinks could be up to 91 million Iranians and Iranian-Americans who were emotionally hurt. He told reporters that fair jurors might even think about giving more.
Even if you don’t agree with the lawsuit, it’s hard not to feel sorry for the Iranian squad. At this World Cup, the team had problems with visas for at least 11 members of the delegation, having to move their training camp from Arizona to Tijuana because of restrictions from the State Department, and not being able to stay overnight, which was only partially lifted. The manager of Iran’s team said that they were the “most oppressed team in the whole World Cup.” It’s unlikely that that can be turned into a legal claim, but the anger behind it seems real.
A separate crisis has been building up around tickets, not in that courtroom. The big ticket resale site StubHub is now being sued by a group of fans who paid for seats but found none waiting for them at World Cup venues. The lawsuit says that StubHub’s “FanProtect Guarantee” was not what it seemed to be, and it also points out a bigger problem: FIFA’s rules say that tickets can only be resold on the official FIFA marketplace. This means that buying tickets from someone else poses a real risk of being void. That was hard for customers who flew a long way to find out. People who filed the suit want $5 million in damages, but StubHub may end up losing more than that in terms of its reputation.
A Dallas artist says that his large whale mural was destroyed while the World Cup was being prepared, and he is suing for patent infringement. Another lawsuit has been filed against FIFA’s official hospitality ticket provider. It feels less like a tournament and more like a lawsuit party with football thrown in for good measure at this point.
All of this doesn’t have to be bad for FIFA. The group has been through much worse scandals. For example, in 2015, corruption charges included claims of $150 million in bribes and led to criminal convictions. A few civil suits over VAR calls and ticket disputes probably won’t be enough to shake the institution. But there is something interesting about the pattern: the complaint is pretty much the same among ticket buyers, immigrant fan communities, local artists, and smaller tech companies. FIFA said things it wouldn’t do and then shrugged when people complained.
That stance might work fine for the game. It usually leads to a different kind of response in federal courts in the United States.
