"FIFA is making $11 billion. I'm not going to stick New Jersey commuters with that tab for years to come." That's New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill, and it's the quote that frames everything happening around the 2026 World Cup right now.
The latest episode: FIFA reportedly requested a "level four" motorcade escort for president Gianni Infantino during this week's 76th FIFA Congress in Vancouver. To put that in context — level four is the same tier afforded to U.S. President Donald Trump. It sits one rung below what the Pope receives. It is, notably, a higher security classification than Canada's own Prime Minister Mark Carney gets in his own country.
Vancouver police denied the request. FIFA, once it became public, insisted Infantino had no knowledge of or involvement in the transportation ask. Make of that what you will.
A governing body out of touch with its own tournament
The request — whether Infantino personally signed off or not — tells you something real about how FIFA sees itself. This is an organization operating one of the three 2026 World Cup host nations and apparently doesn't know, or doesn't care, that football is not the dominant sport there. Soccer is growing in Canada, yes, but Infantino is not a household name in Vancouver. He's not walking into arenas to recognition the way he might in Zurich or Doha.
Asking taxpayers in a hockey country to fund a convoy beyond what their own head of government receives isn't just tone-deaf. It's a window into how the governing body thinks about its relationship with host communities — which is to say, it doesn't think about it much at all.
Meanwhile, the affordability picture for the tournament itself keeps getting worse. World Cup final tickets at New York New Jersey Stadium are trading above $10,000 per seat. Train fares from Penn Station to MetLife Stadium are reportedly set to jump from the standard $12.90 to around $150 — because, as Sherrill put it plainly, FIFA has contributed exactly $0 toward transportation infrastructure despite being handed an $11 billion revenue tournament.
What this means beyond the headlines
None of this is new behavior from FIFA. But the motorcade story lands differently because it arrived the same week Infantino is sitting in Vancouver discussing World Cup logistics — including, reportedly, the potential return of Russia to sanctioned competition — while the organization's fingerprints are all over a tournament pricing structure that has effectively locked out ordinary fans.
Anyone who had penciled in North America 2026 as a bucket-list tournament three years ago is now looking at five-figure ticket costs, inflated transport fees, and a governing body that apparently budgets for presidential convoys before subsidizing train rides.
"FIFA should pay for the rides," Sherrill said. "But if they don't — I'm not going to let New Jersey get taken for one."
That's the real story in Vancouver this week. Not the motorcade. The motorcade is just the symptom.
