{"id":36678,"date":"2026-06-10T09:46:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T07:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=36678"},"modified":"2026-06-10T09:46:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T07:46:54","slug":"fifa-president-warns-la-of-world-cup-happy-barbarians","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/fifa-president-warns-la-of-world-cup-happy-barbarians\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA President warns LA of World Cup &#8216;happy barbarians&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) President Gianni Infantino warned Los Angeles (LA) on Tuesday that it was about to be invaded by soccer fans from around the world, as he helped launch \u200bWorld Cup festivities at a star-studded kickoff party at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Speaking \u200cahead of this week&#8217;s opening matches, Infantino said the city would become a global gathering point during the 48-team tournament, which begins in Mexico City on Thursday before Los Angeles hosts the first United States (US) match on Friday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;You will \u200bbe invaded,&#8221; Infantino told the crowd. &#8220;You will be invaded by a horde of barbarians. But \u200bit&#8217;s happy barbarians, don&#8217;t worry.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The event drew entertainment and sports figures, including actors \u2060Will Ferrell and Brendan Hunt, singer Lance Bass, former National Basketball Association player Robert Horry, and US soccer \u200bgreats Mia Hamm and Cobi Jones.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Infantino said the tournament would turn LA and other \u200bhost cities into a sea of national colors as fans of all ages arrive in jerseys, flags and face paint.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Men, women, children, grandparents, doesn&#8217;t matter, they will all have their faces colored with the colors of their countries,&#8221; \u200bhe said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":36679,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-36678","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"World Cup festivities","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36680,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/36678\/revisions\/36680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=36678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}