FIFA's stance on immigration curbs on officials and humiliation of World Cup players is deplorable, Ranjit Bajaj tells RT India

The US treatment of teams and officials arriving for the 2026 World Cup amounts to racism and seriously undermines the integrity of the tournament, while football governing body FIFA is guilty of double standards, Indian coach Ranjit Bajaj has told RT.

The 2026 World Cup - co-hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico - is set to get underway this week but has already been marred by controversy after a key Somali official was denied entry to the US and players from some countries were humiliated on arrival.

Iraq's star striker, Ayman Hussain, was reportedly detained for hours at Chicago's O'Hare airport, while the Senegal and Uzbekistan teams were subjected to intrusive screen checks upon arrival. Somalian referee Omar Abdul Qadir Artan will be unable to officiate at the championship after being denied entry to the US.

"What happened with Senegal, the way they were put on the tarmac... They have not come to be disrespected, they've come there to represent their country," Bajaj, the founder of the Minerva Football Academy, who promotes grassroots development of football, told RT India.

Bajaj also slammed the detention of Ayman Hussain, saying, "It's not a striker who's just been born yesterday, who's come to do espionage in your country." "This is what racism is," Bajaj said.

The Minerva Football Academy has emerged as a beacon of hope for football in India, with its under-14 and -15 squads scoring a series of victories across the world - the latest being a 6-0 win against English giants Liverpool in the under-15 category at the Mediterranean International Cup last month. In stark contrast to its cricketing prowess, the nation of 1.4 billion people has qualified for the World Cup only once, in 1950. This time round, the Indian team was eliminated in the second round of Asian Football Confederation qualifiers.

FIFA's response to the visa denial row is that immigration is the host country's jurisdiction. "Yes, it's the host country's right to issue visas... But if you are doing that and making countries weaker by taking their star strikers out... you are actually helping your own country," Bajaj said. He also called out FIFA's double standards, saying, "If this was an event happening in India, they would have threatened us that we'll ban you."

During the 2018 World Cup in Russia, FIFA was "censoring Russia and telling Russia that, listen, you better get your act (together)," Bajaj said. He added that Russia, South Africa, and Qatar had hosted "the most successful World Cups in history."

Bajaj also blasted the US visa curbs on players, likening them to how teams lose strength when their star players are missing. "If you have a Haaland missing in (the) Norway team or a Harry Kane missing in England, you've made it 50% weaker." He said the US tactics amount to undermining the merit of the tournament. "That means they can actually fix the World Cup. That's what's happening."

Bajaj rued that the controversy is impacting the World Cup's attractiveness, which has always been "its ability to bring together countries that agree on almost nothing except football."