Diplomacy as a Contact Sport: Can the People Behind the Game Deliver the World Cup Its Politics Won’t?
The World Cup officially kicks off today, and soon 48 soccer (football) teams from around the world will begin their quest for the coveted title as World Champion, playing across three countries – the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Many in the U.S. foreign policy community are waiting with bated breath to see how this complex feat of geopolitics and diplomacy unfolds. Initial reports have already raised concerns – from complaints of ticket price gouging to questions around transit capacity, to visa and immigration policies creating both real and anticipated challenges for travelers and players, and reductions in audience size and economic impact that are likely to result. Anchoring all of this is broader rhetoric of isolation and disengagement in current U.S. foreign policy strategy, illuminated by a recent foray into a war in the Middle East and domestic crackdowns on immigration across the country. Some leaders remain optimistic about the World Cup’s impact and successful execution.
Congressman Darin LaHood, Co-Chair of the House Congressional Soccer Caucus, who spoke at Foreign Policy’s Sports Diplomacy Summit last week, pointed to the concepts of competition and the free market economy as assurances that prices would level, and claimed that the U.S. would be hosting the most welcoming World Cup ever. This optimism about free markets and welcoming rhetoric only matters if people can actually get here – and as early reporting shows us, that’s far from guaranteed. As a scholar of strategic communications, I can say with confidence that this messaging isn’t going to land with the majority of Americans or global attendees due to a concept called epistemological incongruence – when what people are experiencing in their lives diverges sharply from what they’re being told. While this disconnect has been evident in the lead-up to the cup, and has likely been hurting ticket sales, hotel bookings, and travel requests, creating epistemological congruence on the ground might be the only thing we can rely on for a successful World Cup.
Sports diplomacy, and public diplomacy more broadly, is fundamentally built upon relationships. Many practitioners of public diplomacy have likened it to being a “contact sport,” requiring cross-cultural engagement among citizens, athletes, academics, industry leaders, and politicians alike to foster mutual understanding and open innovative pathways for collaboration and cooperation. The personal relationships built through public diplomacy programming, or global events like the World Cup, do the heavy lifting in influencing the “hearts and minds” of those interacting cross-culturally. The key, then, is for those interactions to be meaningful and authentic – but also, crucially, for them to be possible in the first place. Fans have been reporting significant challenges with visa approvals and travel, facing outright denials or enough uncertainty to discourage travel. These broken processes are direct threats to the conditions that need to be met for sports diplomacy to work, underscoring the importance of aligning national policies with the broader goal of fostering authentic, cross-cultural engagement.
Authenticity was a key theme highlighted by speakers at FP’s Sports Diplomacy Summit. Representatives from teams like the Washington Spirit emphasized that being accountable to their fans, acknowledging their lived experiences outside of their fandom, and reflecting that in decisions around ticket prices, strategic partnerships, and fan activations, is critical to success.
Fortunately, this is a practice many actors in the subnational World Cup ecosystem seem to be prioritizing, even if the national-level rhetoric and policies do not. Yet there is an unfortunate reality here: subnational actors can craft welcoming experiences all they want; but they cannot issue visas. The environment being built at the city level cannot fully compensate for barriers created at the national one, but at this stage of the contest, it’s the best shot we have.
In Philadelphia, for example, the city and globally facing nonprofits have made significant efforts to ensure the experience for domestic and international fans alike is a positive one. The World Affairs Council of Philadelphia has been hosting cultural diplomacy trainings for hospitality and event staff to ensure they’re aware of the nuances of international communication and can foster respectful, thoughtful interactions with visitors. The City of Philadelphia prioritized accessible pricing for transit to the host stadium, where a fan zone will be available free to participants. These efforts go a long way in preserving epistemological congruence – ensuring that when the U.S. claims to have hosted the most welcoming World Cup ever – those who attended actually believe it, and at best, might then share those positive experiences back with their communities.
My colleague Sasha Nicholas will be serving as a FIFA World Cup Host City Ambassador in Philadelphia this summer and will have more to share in the coming weeks – on who actually got to show up and play this contact sport of diplomacy, and if they came away from the experience feeling like winners.
Nikki Hinshaw is a Global Policy Programs Coordinator at Penn Washington
Join Our Newsletter
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates from Penn Washington.