FIFA

FIFA's own Appeal Committee delivered two disciplinary rulings nine days apart with no published reasoning for either outcome: it cleared Folarin Balogun to face Belgium in the last 16, a reversal that followed a reported phone call from President Trump lobbying Gianni Infantino which neither FIFA nor the White House has confirmed took place, while Themba Zwane's three-match ban was Left standing, a contrast Belgium's federation called 'astonishing'.

Scrutiny of FIFA's own disciplinary machinery continued after the final: on 24 July 2026 the IOC's Ethics Commission declined to take up a complaint concerning Infantino, ruling it fell outside Olympic jurisdiction, which leaves the matter sitting with FIFA's internal ethics committee, the same body that had gone seven months without answering it.

FIFA's first tournament operational report, published 27 July 2026, detailed nearly 300,000 accredited personnel, 73,700 security staff and more than 9 million Fan Festival visitors, but carried no revenue or cost figure for the tournament. FIFA followed the same pattern after the 2022 Qatar World Cup, when audited finances waited for its next Congress.

Separately, FIFA restructured its Club Benefits Programme for the 2026 cycle, splitting payments as $100m across qualifying release fees and $250m across the finals, even as the overall pool grew versus 2022; FIFA has not published the programme's full 2026 total.