An a Sunday in January, Zohran Mamdani invited the interested public to Surrogate’s Courthouse, a building that is perhaps one of the most beautiful in downtown Manhattan. It was the New York mayor’s only public appointment that day, and he had dressed up a bit for the occasion: Mamdani wore an Arsenal FC jersey under his jacket.
His favorite team wasn’t playing at all; instead, the African Cup final between Morocco and Senegal was shown on the big screen in the Surrogate’s Courthouse, whose fans were roughly equally represented in the audience. “Today is an opportunity to enjoy this game, the city we call home, but also the countries we come from,” Uganda-born Mamdani shouted to the party-crazy crowd just before kick-off. Because this scene took place in the United States of America, it should perhaps be noted that it was about football.
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When the undoubtedly busy new city hall chief of America’s largest city clears his Sunday for an Africa Cup of Nations “watch party,” he obviously means it first. A good 400 years after its founding, New York City is not only being ruled by a Muslim for the first time, but also by a soccer fan for the first time. And Zohran Mamdani, 34, seems determined to make this a political issue in the year of the Donald Trump FIFA World Cup in 2026. When he proclaimed to the guests of his free watch party: “Today we are celebrating what it could look like when this world sport comes to New York City in five months,” of course he was referring to a currently utopian soccer world in which no one has to fear Trump’s ICE raids or Gianni Infantino’s ticket prices.
The New York mayor’s affection for Arsenal FC can be explained by his childhood in Uganda
The fact that the hyper-commercialized football business has betrayed its regular customers is no longer a completely new finding. But it fits particularly well with the agenda of the democratic socialist Mamdani, whose lightning political career ultimately revolves around a single concept: affordability.
The New York mayor’s affection for Arsenal FC can be explained by his childhood in Uganda. Back at the turn of the millennium, in the golden years of the Arsène Wenger era at Arsenal, there were a particularly large number of particularly talented African players under contract with the London club: the Nigerian Nwankwo Kanu, the Ivorian Kolo Touré, Alex Song and Lauren from Cameroon, to name just a few. The young Zohran Mamdani in Kampala was also able to identify with these heroes from his continent. At the public viewing in Manhattan, he talked about the best football moment of his childhood – also because he was allowed to skip school for this moment: when the Senegalese Papa Bouba Diop scored the winning goal in the opening game of the 2002 World Cup against world champions France, mind you, while sitting down.
It’s hard to count all the politicians who have embarrassed themselves by trying to feign real passion for football. In Mamdani’s case, the danger is almost zero, simply because he is an American politician. Interest in this sport may have grown a little in the USA recently, but it is certainly not yet at the point where authentic soccer expertise can win elections in this country.
As mayor of New York, Mamdani is befittingly interested in local sports. When it comes to baseball, he has come out as a “civilian” Mets fan and is occasionally spotted at New York Knicks basketball games. But all of this bears no relation to his Arsenal fanaticism. The comedian Adam Friedland recently almost made Mamdani cry on his show when he played him a personal greeting from Ian Wright on his cell phone (“Hello Zohran, congratulations…”). Wright scored 128 goals for Arsenal, most of them before Mamdani started school in Kampala.
His opinion on FIFA boss Infantino? “If I say something now, I’ll get in big trouble…”
Apparently it also has to do with his connection to Arsenal that he campaigned to save Real Oviedo. The Spanish first division team from Asturias got into serious financial difficulties in 2012 and Mamdani – then a student at Bowdoin College in New England – was one of those who took part in a rescue operation with 10.75 euros. “I just bought a share and may be Oviedo’s first resident shareholder in Maine?,” he wrote on Twitter at the time. Shortly before, Spanish international Santi Cazorla, one of the initiators of the fundraising campaign, had moved to Arsenal. Oviedo was actually saved and, after a long absence, is now playing in the Primera División again, including with Cazorla – and a little bit too because of Mamdani.
The mayor himself is considered a mediocre defender, although during his career he became captain of the school team at the Bronx High School of Science. Until just over a year ago, when the mayoral election campaign completely took over him, Mamdani was still playing in the New York leisure league – for a team with the brilliant name “Talking Headers” from Brooklyn. A former teammate said the New York TimesMamdani wasn’t the best, but he was never the worst either. He himself once compared his footballing talent with that of former Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner: great self-confidence, manageable returns.
In the field of sports policy, this self-confidence has led, among other things, to the fact that in early autumn the makers of the popular GuardianPodcast “Football Weekly” received a call from New York. Mamdani was in the hot phase of the election campaign at the time and one of the two presenters from London asked: “Why on earth do you want to talk to us?”
“To make it very clear that the affordability crisis is also a crisis that affects football fans around the world,” Mamdani said.
This summer, this crisis is likely to particularly affect fans at the World Cup venue in New York/New Jersey, where eight games will take place, including the final. Because of the so-called “dynamic pricing” of the world association Fifa, ticket prices rise with demand, sometimes reaching absurd five-figure levels. That’s why there is little chance for most real football fans to get tickets, said Mamdani. He therefore called on FIFA to “put the game above greed”.
One of his specific demands is to reserve at least 15 percent of tickets for the local population at reasonably affordable prices. Whether it’s related to Mamdani’s involvement or not, FIFA has actually announced that it will offer some tickets at a fixed price of $60. However, this only concerns 1.6 percent of the tickets, and therefore more of a symbolic course correction.
As the new mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani no longer has to worry about his own tickets; he should now have no problem getting into the official gallery at Met Life Stadium. And if he happens to meet the FIFA boss there, then perhaps he can explain to him in more detail what it means to fight for a football that is there for those “who love the game”.
But this conversation would probably end quickly. When the hosts of Football Weekly asked for his opinion on Gianni Infantino, Zohran Mamdani said: “If I say anything now, I’ll be in big trouble.”
