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The 2026 FIFA World Cup has welcomed 48 nations from across the globe to North America, as the United States, Canada, and Mexico play host to cultural backgrounds from all over the world across five weeks of soccer celebration.
In putting on such a global event, FIFA is tasked with providing accommodations for a vast quantity of identities, languages, and values from nearly every continent, region, and corner of the world. This undertaking is extensive, especially with media from multiple regions converging into situations of aligned interest.
In these situations, sometimes things can be overlooked.
One such oversight sparked social media backlash throughout the beginning of the tournament for a perceived lack of consideration for one of the host nations and the wider community.
It has now led to a change in the way FIFA will conduct its press conferences moving forward.
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Why FIFA stopped players from answering questions in Spanish
On multiple occasions, journalists attending pre- or post-match press conferences were shut down from asking questions in Spanish by FIFA moderators, even if the player or coach being addressed spoke and understood the language. This seemed to feed into a wider narrative around the World Cup, especially in the United States, which has often felt anti-inclusive regarding the cold reception of various cultures arriving to the host nation for the tournament.
In reality, the reason for this was purely logistical. FIFA offered translation for three languages per press conference: English, and two requested by the national team at the podium. All media questions and subject answers were required to be conducted in only these languages to be accurately translated by translators speaking over a headphone feed and understood by those listening on both ends.
FIFA to make change to press conferences after backlash
After noticing and receiving the social media backlash, a FIFA spokesperson confirmed to The Sporting News on Sunday that it will begin adding Spanish translation as a fourth available language for every press conference moving forward throughout the tournament.
The change comes after video went viral of Morocco's Achraf Hakimi at his team's pre-match press conference prior to playing their opener against Brazil in East Rutherford, NJ. The video showed a journalist begin to ask a question in Spanish before being stopped by the FIFA moderator at the podium and prompted to ask his question in English. Hakimi responded that it was okay, because he spoke Spanish, but the moderator stuck to his request for translation purposes.
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It happened again one day later with Netherlands midfielder Frenkie de Jong at the podium to preview his team's opener against Japan. De Jong, who plays for Barcelona, also indicated that he speaks Spanish.
Fans on social media were outraged by the incidents, confused why Spanish was being spurned when Mexico was a host nation and given the language is among the official ones used by FIFA.
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