The Fédération Internationale de Football Association has granted a Trump-aligned organisation access to the personal data of fans attending its official World Cup viewing zone on the National Mall in Washington, according to documents and corporate filings examined by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Visitors to the “FIFA World Cup 2026 Fan Zone”, co-hosted with the “Freedom 250” group set up to celebrate the US semiquincentennial, must register digitally through a platform operated by Campaign Nucleus, a firm owned by Donald Trump’s former digital strategist Brad Parscale. The company’s privacy terms place no restriction on the use of that data for political campaigning, and its marketing promises clients the ability to “advocate, mobilise, win”. FIFA has not responded to questions about whether it was aware of the data-processing arrangements or whether money changed hands.

Viewed from European football capitals, the data-sharing arrangement compounds a governance crisis that has already seen the US president intervene directly in a disciplinary matter. After Trump called for the suspension of a red-card ban on American forward Folarin Balogun, FIFA’s disciplinary commission chairman took the decision without consulting the panel’s 17 other members, according to a former member of the body’s governance committee. The episode prompted a sharply worded statement from UEFA, whose president Aleksander Ceferin has long been a political rival of FIFA president Gianni Infantino. European legal experts, including the Swiss anti-corruption specialist Mark Pieth, have since urged UEFA to use its structural weight — Europe supplies the bulk of World Cup revenue — to challenge Infantino’s leadership, including through antitrust complaints or even a threat to withdraw from FIFA.

Infantino is expected to stand for a third term at the FIFA Congress in April 2027, but European federations are actively discussing alternative candidates. According to Italian and British media reports, the strongest potential challenger is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the president of Paris Saint-Germain and of the European Club Association, who enjoys backing from Poland and Belgium but has so far shown no intention of running. A second European name, Legia Warsaw owner Dariusz Mioduski, is said to have support from Bosnia, Norway, Sweden, Germany and Spain. Outside Europe, Concacaf president Victor Montagliani is focused on his own re‑election, while the head of the African confederation, Patrice Motsepe, remains a close Infantino ally. The incumbent draws significant political strength from African and South American votes, and has floated the idea of expanding the World Cup to 64 teams — a move that would grant more slots to smaller federations and is being pushed hardest by South American officials.

The deadline for submitting candidacies falls on 16 November 2026. European critics fear that without a unified challenger the election will proceed without a substantive debate, potentially paving the way for a later statutory revision that could allow Infantino to seek a fourth term. Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee is being called upon to examine the data‑sharing deal, and the World Cup itself continues with semi‑finals this week, the tournament’s sporting narrative increasingly overshadowed by questions over the integrity of its governing institution.