After what happened to Hakimi and Vinicius, FIFA admits its mistake and withdraws its decision

FIFA reversed its decision to allow questions and answers at all official World Cup 2026 press conferences in Spanish, regardless of the participating teams, after widespread controversy stemming from repeated incidents that prevented journalists and players from using Spanish despite the tournament being held in Mexico and the United States. Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages.

According to the International Federation’s statement, “as of this weekend, Spanish has become available for accredited journalists at official press conferences following translation options,” following several incidents that have surprised journalists and fans, notably when Vinicius encouraged a Spanish journalist to speak Spanish before the Brazil-Morocco game.

Madrid-born Moroccan defender Achraf Hakimi faced a similar situation when he was ready to respond in Spanish but was told by the organizers to use one of the approved languages, and the same happened to Frankie de Jong when a Mexican journalist tried to address him in Spanish as FIFA stopped the dialogue even though the Barcelona player was ready to respond in Spanish.

The scenes went viral and drew sharp criticism as many journalists struggled to understand why Spanish was excluded from some World Cup press conferences in Mexico and the United States, knowing that Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages ​​in both countries, while FIFA confirmed that there was no ban on Spanish, but the problem was that Spanish was not an official language.