Infantino tries to usher Trump away as Spain lift World Cup
Skip linksSkip to Content Live Navigation menu News Africa Asia US & Canada Latin America Europe Asia Pacific World Cup Middle East Explained Opinion Video Features Economy Sport Human Rights Climate Crisis Investigations Interactives In Pictures Science & Technology Podcasts Travel Sponsored Content Live Navigation menu Trending US-Israel war on Iran World Cup 2026 Tracking Israel’s ceasefire violations Donald Trump Infantino tries to usher Trump away as Spain lift World Cup NewsFeed FIFA President Gianni Infantino attempted to usher Donald Trump to move away from the stage as Spain’s team lifted the World Cup trophy on Sunday. Published On 20 Jul 2026 Adblock test (Why?)
Last night, I was Spanish, and so were millions around the world
Last night, Spain defeated Argentina to win the World Cup. Ordinarily, for those of us with no national connection to either country, the choice of whom to support would have been gloriously trivial. We might have chosen the team that played more beautiful football, the player we most admired or simply the side whose colours we preferred. But these are no ordinary times. Gaza and Palestine have changed the way many of us see the world. It has become a moral prism, refracting our judgments not only about governments and political leaders, but about institutions, universities, media, corporations and public figures. We have watched people and institutions we once respected avert their eyes from the destruction of a people. We have watched others discover elaborate vocabularies of qualification and equivocation when confronted with horrors that, in another place and against another people, they would have condemned without hesitation. And we have remembered those who refused to look away. That is why, last night, I was Spanish. Of course, a football team is not a government. Spanish footballers are not responsible for the policies of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, any more than Lionel Messi and his teammates are responsible for the politics of Argentinian President Javier Milei. But sport has never existed in the hermetically sealed apolitical world we sometimes pretend it inhabits. We bring ourselves to sport. We bring our histories, our identities, our sympathies and, inevitably, our moral judgements. We decide whom we want to win for reasons that often have very little to do with formations and statistics. And so, for many people of conscience, Spain has come to represent something larger. At a moment when much of the Western political establishment has twisted itself into moral and linguistic contortions over Gaza, Spain has stood apart. Sánchez and his government have been willing to speak with a clarity conspicuously absent from many of Spain’s Western allies. Spain recognised the State of Palestine. Sánchez has openly used the word genocide to describe what is being done in Gaza. His government has moved to entrench an arms embargo against Israel. One need not agree with every policy of the Spanish government to recognise the significance of that position. Moral courage is measured precisely when taking a position carries a cost. There was also something deeply moving about seeing Lamine Yamal, one of the brightest young stars in world football, waving the Palestinian flag during Barcelona’s celebrations after winning La Liga. It was a small gesture in the vast landscape of Palestinian suffering. But symbols matter, particularly when so many powerful institutions have worked so hard to make Palestine invisible. There was Yamal, at the summit of sporting success, surrounded by celebration, holding up the flag of a people whose suffering the world has been asked repeatedly to forget. And last night he wore the colours of Spain in a World Cup final and emerged a world champion. On the other side stood Argentina, a magnificent footballing nation led by perhaps the greatest footballer of his generation. And here, too, Gaza intruded upon the emotions with which some of us watched. An image of Lionel Messi at the Western Wall in occupied East Jerusalem has circulated widely. It dates back to Barcelona’s 2013 visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, years before the present catastrophe. But images have lives beyond the circumstances in which they were created, and Gaza has transformed the way many of us see them. FC Barcelona football player Lionel Messi puts a paper with wishes in a crack in the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, in occupied East Jerusalem on August 4, 2013 [Oliver Weiken/AFP] The contrast with Lamine Yamal is striking. There is the image of Messi at the Western Wall. And there is the image of Yamal, at one of the happiest moments of his young career, waving the Palestinian flag. Different moments, different circumstances, different intentions. But symbols matter. For those whose view of the world has been transformed by Gaza, it is impossible not to feel the emotional force of the contrast. And beyond Messi stands the politics of Javier Milei. Argentina’s president has made his allegiances clear. He has embraced US President Donald Trump and declared himself “the most Zionist president in the world” at precisely the historical moment when Palestinians in Gaza have endured unimaginable destruction. Argentina’s footballers are not responsible for Milei, and its people cannot be reduced to their president. But neither can those politics be entirely erased from the emotions with which the rest of us watch. Then there was another recent vote, far removed from Gaza but revealing in its own way. In March, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution confronting the historical wrongs of the transatlantic trafficking and enslavement of Africans and calling for reparatory justice. One hundred and twenty-three countries voted in favour. Fifty-two abstained. Only three countries in the entire world voted against it: the United States, Israel and Argentina. There is something extraordinary about that alignment. On an issue concerning one of humanity’s greatest historical crimes and the continuing demand for reparatory justice, Trump’s America, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israel and Milei’s Argentina found themselves standing together, virtually alone. It is difficult for those of us who increasingly view the world through the prism of Gaza not to notice the pattern. The issues are different, the histories are different and the legal questions are different. But the moral instinct seems eerily familiar: when the victims of historical injustice demand recognition, accountability and redress, the same governments so often seem to find reasons to stand on the other side. So, yes, last night I watched a football match. I admired Messi because greatness remains greatness. I marvelled at the extraordinary history of Argentine football. But I wanted Spain to win. And Spain won. Perhaps that says something about what Gaza has done to us. It has rearranged our moral geography. Countries that once felt distant can suddenly feel close because
Singapore minister resigns over ‘interactions with a woman’, PM says
The People’s Action Party, which prides itself on a clean reputation, has been rocked by a series of scandals recently. Singapore’s acting Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs Faishal Ibrahim has resigned over his interactions with a woman, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has said. “Most of their interactions took place through online messages,” Wong said in a statement on Monday. “They also met on the sidelines of public events.” Recommended Stories list of 4 items list 1 of 4Singapore celebrates success on 60th anniversary but challenges loom ahead list 2 of 4Singapore telecom apologises over outage linked to deaths in Australia list 3 of 4Singapore’s economy beats expectations as gov’t warns of Iran war fallout list 4 of 4Indonesia’s jailing of Gojek founder raises fears for investor confidence end of list Both parties made allegations of harassment against each other, and the matter is being investigated by the police, he added. The People’s Action Party, which prides itself on a “whiter than white” reputation, has been rocked by a series of political scandals in recent years. In 2023, then Transport Minister Subramaniam Iswaran was put under investigation for corruption alongside Malaysian billionaire hotel tycoon Ong Beng Seng. A year later, Iswaran pleaded guilty to receiving more than 380,000 Singapore dollars ($294,000) worth of gifts from Ong, including tickets for West End shows and football matches, some of them in exchange for advancing Ong’s business interests. Two senior members of Singapore’s largest opposition party also resigned in 2023 after they admitted to having an affair, while two ministers were investigated and cleared of wrongdoing over their rental of state-owned properties. This prompted former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to say that his party’s image was damaged by a series of scandals. Wong said no criminal offence had been committed by either party in Faishal’s case, and no criminal action would be taken, but “there was a separate question of whether Associate Professor Faishal’s conduct met the standards expected of a political office holder and member of parliament”. Faishal has been a member of parliament since 2006 and became the acting minister-in-charge of Muslim affairs in 2025. He has now resigned from the ruling People’s Action Party as well as his cabinet position. In his resignation letter posted on the website of the prime minister’s office, Faishal said: “While there was no physical relationship between us, and I did not intend for the interactions to develop into one, there was a lapse of judgment on my part in the way I handled the interactions, and in failing to establish clearer boundaries at an earlier stage.” Wong said he was saddened Faishal was leaving politics under such circumstances. Adblock test (Why?)
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