Fifa has been accused of losing control of its own World Cup just days into the tournament, with the head of a fans' group warning that a lack of segregation between rival supporters poses an unprecedented risk – while the governing body was forced into a dramatic U-turn after banning Spanish at press conferences triggered a wave of fury.
Ronan Evain, executive director of Football Supporters Europe, told BBC Sport: "The absence of segregation is not normal for a tournament like this." Most group games so far have been played in front of fans of both countries mingling at venues, in stark contrast to what normally happens in football. Speaking in Dallas, where BBC Sport saw pockets of Dutch and Japanese fans mixed together when the two teams played on Sunday, Evain said the situation showed Fifa has "lost control of their ticketing".
“Fifa accused of losing control of World Cup over fan segregation risks and a forced U-turn on Spanish ban.”
"What is worrying is that Fifa doesn't really know who has tickets here and there... by pushing so much for people to buy tickets and re-sell them," he added. "So the possibility – or the risk – to have fans from 'Team A' in the middle of the crowd of 'Team B' is stronger than ever before." Evain also expressed concern that some fans were prevented from bringing flags into the Dallas Stadium, calling the policy inconsistent with previous tournaments and closer to what is in place for NFL games. The venue will host England's opening game against Croatia on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, attention has been dragged away from the pitch by a row over language. Fifa president Gianni Infantino was forced into a U-turn after players and coaches were actively discouraged from speaking Spanish during certain official media appearances — despite the tournament being co-hosted by Mexico and the United States, nations home to tens of millions of native Spanish speakers. The row blew up over the weekend when stars including Brazil's Vinicius Junior and Morocco's Achraf Hakimi were compelled to field questions in English. In Hakimi's case, the PSG right-back was poised to respond to a Mexican journalist when the reporter was cut off by a Fifa official and instructed to switch to English. Hakimi quipped: "How do I answer, in English or in Spanish?"
Fifa initially maintained there was no blanket ban, citing a shortage of translation services. But under updated regulations announced on Monday, journalists will now be permitted to pose questions in Spanish at any official World Cup press conference, and players and coaches will be free to answer in Spanish irrespective of which nations are contesting the match. Translation services will also be made available throughout. The decision was praised by the Instituto Cervantes; its director, Luis Garcia Montero, had described the initial policy as "baffling" and said Fifa had "put itself offside", adding the approach "made no sense at all" given the more than 60 million people of Hispanic origin in the US.
Evain, reflecting on the wider picture, said: "There's so many tickets on the resale platforms – Fifa has zero control with what's happening with these tickets. It's hard to tell what will be the behaviour of the people that control these tickets." Fifa sources pointed to the fact that ring-fenced allocations include tickets reserved for supporters of the Participating Member Associations, who are allocated 8% of tickets for each match, in line with previous tournaments. But with nine days of group games still to play and no consistent policy on flags or language, the question remains: how much control does Fifa really have over its own showpiece?