{"id":1175,"date":"2026-06-07T10:11:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T10:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=1175"},"modified":"2026-06-07T10:11:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T10:11:23","slug":"americans-shouldnt-feel-guilty-about-rooting-against-the-us-in-the-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=1175","title":{"rendered":"Americans shouldn’t feel guilty about rooting against the US in the World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 World Cup promises to be the planet\u2019s most-watched sporting event. It\u2019s also poised to generate its fair share of controversy.<\/p>

Read more Americans are on the brink of losing it all \u2014 and good people know it<\/a><\/p>

Taking into account the history of corruption in FIFA, the sport\u2019s governing body, it would be hard to blame anyone who decided to ignore this year\u2019s competition.<\/p>

However, some viewers of this summer\u2019s tournament may face an additional dilemma. <\/p>

Political tensions are high in the U.S., where most of the tournament\u2019s matches will be played. The Trump administration is historically unpopular, and its critics are already concerned about sportswashing: when governments use the spectacle of athletic competition to burnish their image and distract the public.<\/p>

As I point out in my 2022 book, \u201cThe Ethics of Sports Fandom,\u201d fans who are critical of their country\u2019s behavior sometimes feel ambivalent about rooting for their national sports teams \u2013 and may even feel compelled to root against them. <\/p>

After all, it\u2019s one thing to pull for your national team when patriotism feels uncomplicated. It\u2019s quite another when you aren\u2019t feeling very proud to be an American. <\/p>

The Cold War made it easy for many Americans to rally behind the 1980 U.S men\u2019s hockey team in its victory over the Soviet Union in the \u201cMiracle on Ice.\u201d But what do you do when you don\u2019t see your country as the \u201cgood guys\u201d?<\/p>

Patriotism doesn\u2019t mean blind loyalty<\/strong><\/p>

Some fans might double down on their patriotic commitments during the tournament. They\u2019ll use the occasion to champion America in all things, whether it\u2019s the country\u2019s battles in the Middle East or its national team taking on Paraguay at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. <\/p>

Sports have a way of fueling nationalistic passions, and I fully expect plenty of people who don\u2019t care much about soccer to channel their patriotic sentiments into the tournament.<\/p>

However, rooting for your country\u2019s national soccer team doesn\u2019t mean that you endorse everything your country does, any more than wanting a friend to get a promotion at work requires you to support all of their behavior. As the philosopher Eamonn Callan has argued, a proper love of country requires citizens to be clear-eyed about its faults. The true patriot highlights problems and works to correct them, independent of how much they want the national team to win their next match.<\/p>

By the same token, I think a deep love of country can coexist with ambivalent feelings about how the national team performs on the field. If patriots can disapprove of their country\u2019s military adventurism \u2013 either because they see it as flatly unjust or because it casts their country in an unfavorable light on the international stage \u2013 there is nothing fundamentally unpatriotic about not wanting the U.S. to do well in the World Cup. <\/p>

Other fans might invoke the mantra that it\u2019s important to simply keep politics out of sports \u2013 that the games should be a refuge from the controversies that plague so many other aspects of civic life.<\/p>

But as I argue in my book, fully separating politics and sports is almost impossible. It requires fans to view athletes as nothing more than bodies who exist to perform on the field. It means team executives and owners do little more than sign paychecks. And it ignores the reality that sports are woven into the social, economic and political life of communities.<\/p>

Read more \u2018Appalling\u2019 video captures driver wrecking ancient National Park forest<\/a><\/p>

Outcomes don\u2019t change a thing<\/strong><\/p>

For fans who choose to watch, then, my suggestion is to view the action on the field as you would any other sporting event. <\/p>

Root for whomever you want to win, for more or less any reason that moves you. <\/p>

Because for all the political significance attached to the World Cup, the winner or loser of any given contest has essentially no broader political significance. The problems that existed before the tournament will still demand attention when it is over, no matter who happens to win. <\/p>

Success or failure on the pitch isn\u2019t likely to bring about meaningful political change. After all, whether a government has the right legislative agenda or approach to foreign policy is totally divorced from its national soccer team\u2019s ability to score goals.<\/p>

Viewed in this way, rooting for your country\u2019s national soccer team doesn\u2019t imply blind loyalty to your country or ignorance of its flaws. It simply means that you want the athletes who represent your country to win the game they are playing on that particular day.<\/p>

Athletes have long been able to navigate this ambivalence. You\u2019ll regularly hear them trying to separate a love of their country and its people from support of problematic regimes. <\/p>

When Iranian soccer player Mehdi Taremi refused to celebrate a goal in a January 2026 Greek Super League match, he embraced precisely such a position. Thousands of people had been killed during protests of the Iranian regime, and the moment called for a different reaction.<\/p>

\u201cThere are problems between the people and the government,\u201d he said. \u201cThe people are always with us, and that\u2019s why we are with them.\u201d For Teremi, publicly celebrating as an Iranian citizen abroad felt too much like endorsing the current regime, something he had no desire to do. If the athletes who wear their national colors can maintain such nuanced views, surely fans can, too.<\/p>

Of course, nuance can be difficult in today\u2019s political climate, and the rhetoric around the World Cup likely won\u2019t change that. When the U.S. men\u2019s hockey team won gold at the Olympics back in February, Donald Trump attempted to turn it into a personal political victory by inviting the team to his State of the Union address. <\/p>

\u201cOur country is winning again,\u201d Trump said, devoting nearly six minutes of his speech to the team\u2019s victory. <\/p>

The outlook for the U.S. men in this year\u2019s World Cup is not quite as bright, but chances are good that someone will try to co-opt their success or failure for political purposes. Fans don\u2019t have to fall into the trap.\n

\"The<\/figure>\n<\/p>

Adam Kadlac, Teaching Professor of Philosophy, Wake Forest University<\/em><\/p>

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.<\/p>

Read more Trump so \u2018detached from reality\u2019 he may not even know how wrecked he is: report<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2026 World Cup promises to be the planet\u2019s most-watched sporting event. 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