{"id":9143,"date":"2026-07-18T02:12:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T21:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=9143"},"modified":"2026-07-18T02:12:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T21:12:49","slug":"robert-smith-slams-fifa-over-first-ever-world-cup-final-halftime-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=9143","title":{"rendered":"Robert Smith Slams FIFA Over First-Ever World Cup Final Halftime Show"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/robert-smith-fifa-world-cup-halftime-show.jpg?quality=80\" \/><\/p>\n<div xmlns:default=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" data-id=\"1612383\" data-title=\"Robert Smith Roasts FIFA President Over First-Ever World Cup Final Halftime Show\" data-url=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2026\/07\/robert-smith-world-cup-final-halftime-show-gianni-infantino\/\" data-page=\"1\" data-pages=\"1\">\n<p>The Cure\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/artist\/robert-smith\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Robert Smith<\/a> is not a fan of FIFA president Gianni Infantino, and like many other soccer purists, he is entirely against the idea of the first-ever <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2026\/07\/justin-bieber-joins-madonna-shakira-and-bts-for-fifa-world-cup-final-halftime-show\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FIFA World Cup Final Halftime Show<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe half-time show, which has been curated by Coldplay\u2019s Chris Martin, will feature Madonna, Justin Bieber, Shakira and the K\u2011pop boyband BTS,\u201d Smith wrote in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Da3GKWPzl69\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Instagram post<\/a> mocking Infantino. \u201cFifa\u2019s president, Gianni Infantosser, has described the half-time show as \u2018groundbreaking spectacle\u2019 that will \u2018celebrate football, music and our shared values, ensuring a legacy that transcends the final whistle.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vivid-seats.pxf.io\/c\/1882189\/952533\/12730?subId1=robert-smith%2Aworld-cup-final-halftime-show-button&amp;subId2=&amp;subId3=&amp;sharedid=&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vividseats.com%2Fworld-cup-soccer-tickets--sports-soccer%2Fperformer%2F944\" class=\"button button-ticket\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Buy Last-Minute World Cup Final Tickets<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He continued, \u201cAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH\u2026 #Breadandcircuses #MUGWANK #pleasejustfuckoff.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shortly afterward, Smith followed up with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Da3x-T1Izbg\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">another post<\/a> clarifying that he was not specifically criticizing Martin or the performers. He also hit out at Infantino for presenting the World Cup trophy to the winners of the tournament with US president Donald Trump, of whom Smith is also not a fan:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\u201csigh\u2026 FOR THOSE OF US NOT QUITE GETTING IT: THE POINT IS NOT R E A L L Y ABOUT W H O IS CURATING OR PERFORMING, IT IS ABOUT THE #MUGWANK I D E A OF A FOOTBALL WORLD CUP FINAL HALF TIME SHOW\u2026 IF YOU NOW UNDERSTAND MY \u2018AAAAAAAGH!\u2019 A BIT BETTER, BUT STILL DON\u2019T AGREE, PLEASE ADJUST YOUR RED CAP, YOUR \u2018I \ud83d\udda4 JANNY + DONNY + $$$\u2019 TSHIRT AND\u2026 KNOCK YOURSELF OUT? ONWARDS\u2026 RSX PS. \u201cInfantosser has said he and US president Trumpton will small hand over trophy on Sunday\u201d. SADLY, THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH A\u2019S LEFT FOR THE \u2018ARGH\u2019 THAT SHOULD FOLLOW\u2026 #breadandcircuses #pleasejustfuckoff #fuckfifa #justlookup lostworld\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Related Video<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s FIFA World Cup has drawn criticism for implementing mandatory \u201chydration breaks\u201d during each game, allowing broadcasters to air more commercials and further Americanizing the sport.<\/p>\n<p>The World Cup final will take place on Sunday, July 19th, between Spain and Argentina. England and France will compete in the third-place game the day before.<\/p>\n<p>In other Robert Smith news, he recently collaborated with Olivia Rodrigo on the duet <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2026\/06\/olivia-rodrigo-robert-smith-whats-wrong-with-me-you-seem-pretty-sad-for-a-girl-so-in-love-stream\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cwhat\u2019s wrong with me\u201d<\/a> from her most recent album,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2026\/06\/olivia-rodrigo-you-seem-pretty-sad-for-a-girl-so-in-love-review\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Da3GKWPzl69\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\" style=\" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:500px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);\">\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Da3x-T1Izbg\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\" style=\" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:500px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);\">\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n\t\t!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n\t\tn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n\t\tn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=1;\n\t\tt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n\t\tdocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n\t\tfbq('init', '1753966171496536');\n\t\tfbq('set','agent','tmgoogletagmanager', '1753966171496536');\n\t\tfbq('track', \"PageView\");\n\t<\/script><script defer crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&#038;version=v7.0&#038;appId=434175690014\" nonce=\"6gwmbCtM\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cure\u2019s Robert Smith is not a fan of FIFA president Gianni Infantino, and like many other soccer purists, he is entirely against the idea of the first-ever FIFA World Cup Final Halftime Show. \u201cThe half-time show, which has been curated by Coldplay\u2019s Chris Martin, will feature Madonna, Justin Bieber, Shakira and the K\u2011pop boyband&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/consequence.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/robert-smith-fifa-world-cup-halftime-show.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}