There is one person dead and another seriously injured in San Jose, California. It happened this Sunday, 28 June, in a square with bars, giant screens, a World Cup atmosphere and FIFA’s festival aesthetic. No match was being broadcast at that moment, fortunately, but the killer chose that setting to spread panic in a country that has scrutinised every passport entering its territory and yet could not prevent a fatal act of violence committed with a firearm legally available within the United States.
The news has appeared in agencies and international media, but it does not seem to have caused the kind of media earthquake that would have erupted had the same episode taken place in another host country. If someone had been shot dead in a fan zone in Mexico, the debate would have been different: security, drug trafficking, FIFA, risk for tourists, irresponsible organisers, a country not ready to host… In the United States, however, the shooting risks becoming just another part of the landscape. It is absorbed by a national routine that stopped being shocking a long time ago.
Iran and Omar Abdulkadir Artan
The 2026 FIFA World Cup has spent weeks moving between controls and suspicion. Iran has faced movement restrictions and logistical problems because of conditions imposed by the United States. Its base ended up outside the country, in Mexico, and each entry into US territory became a kind of surgical operation. There is also the case of Omar Abdulkadir Artan, the Somali referee selected for the tournament, who was blocked at the US border on security grounds. FIFA chose not to publicly challenge the policy.
All of this has helped build a narrative for the main host country in which danger comes from outside. San Jose has blown up that staging, because the shot came from a country where guns do not need FIFA accreditation to be part of public life.
The security ‘problems’ of other World Cups
San Pedro Square was not some improvised wasteland. It was part of the Bay Area’s World Cup operation, with public events, watch parties and venues prepared to bring together thousands of people during the tournament. The area had been presented as one of the major popular celebrations of the World Cup. This was not a corner detached from the championship, but one of those urban extensions that allow FIFA to sell the World Cup as a collective, free and open experience. If football wants to fill squares, it must also accept that the safety of those squares is part of the tournament. Even more so after so much preaching on security beforehand.
For years, every major tournament has been used to judge the host with a different yardstick. Among the most recent host countries, South Africa, Brazil and now Mexico were looked at through the prism of security; Russia through politics; Qatar through human rights. The US, comparatively, has faced significantly less scrutiny regarding its internal security environment. It is often analysed separately from the broader issue of domestic gun violence, as though the two discussions were entirely independent. As if the two were not connected… Let us hope this is the last incident of its kind.
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