As the World Cup has moved through host cities in the US, homeless people have been forcibly cleared from areas near stadiums and fan zones, with unhoused residents in Atlanta describing feeling targeted and dehumanised rather than included in the tournament's supposed spirit of unity. Officials in Atlanta, backed by rhetoric from the Trump administration, have openly stated their aim of keeping unsheltered people away from downtown areas both during and beyond the World Cup, framing the clean-up as necessary for the city's image rather than acknowledging it as a rights issue.

Atlanta's Downtown Rising scheme, launched ahead of the tournament, says it has housed 500 people, but reporting from Freedom Park found city workers removing tents, medication and identification documents without warning, in a sweep officials described merely as "routine park maintenance". The piece also recalls the death of Cornelius Taylor, killed in January last year when a bulldozer crushed his tent during a street clearance in Atlanta, an incident that prompted promises of new protocols. The article contrasts these clearances with the lavish movements of Fifa president Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump on the same day the Freedom Park story broke.