Labor & Employment World Cup 2026: Team Portugal Heads to Texas

Kickoff: Getting to Know Team Portugal

Portugal’s football (or soccer, for our American hosts) identity combines technique, creativity, and a deeply emotional connection between the team and its supporters. Portugal is a country that lives football intensely: we are an emotional, warm, and passionate people, who hold out hope of victory until the very end – even when the match becomes difficult or when time appears to be running out.

That spirit helps define the Portuguese national team. Historically, Portugal has been known for intelligent, technical, and creative football, but also for a distinctive ability to endure pressure, suffer when necessary, and find strength in decisive moments. The team plays with talent, but also with soul, ambition, and a strong collective spirit.

That identity was powerfully reflected in 2016, when Portugal became European champions. The final became a symbol of Portuguese resilience: a team able to resist, reorganize, and keep believing until the decisive moment, ultimately winning the title with a goal in overtime. Portugal later reaffirmed its place on the international stage by winning the UEFA Nations League, strengthening its reputation as a competitive, mature team accustomed to major occasions.

For Portuguese supporters, the national team is more than a football team: it is an expression of national pride, experienced in homes, cafés, streets, and stadiums across the country. In 2026, Portugal will arrive at the World Cup with that same identity - talent with purpose, passion with discipline, and a very Portuguese belief that, together, it is always possible to compete until the end.

Home Field Advantage: Introducing Houston, Texas 

When teams and fans arrive in Texas, they can expect an experience that feels as big and bold as the state itself. From the airport to the stadium, visitors are met with a mix of southern hospitality and international energy: people are quick with directions, recommendations, and a warm welcome. Off the pitch, cities like Dallas and Houston turn match days into all day events, with fan zones, sports bars, and public screenings that keep the tournament atmosphere alive long after the final whistle.

Texas is not new to the global stage: in 1994, Dallas’ historic Cotton Bowl hosted six World Cup matches, including a memorable quarter final between Brazil and the Netherlands, helping cement the region’s reputation as a serious football venue. 

The World Cup’s return to the “Lone Star State” in 2026 promises a different experience compared to decades past, at least in part due to the rise of soccer’s popularity in the United States. Texas is helping drive this popular turn, home to three Major League Soccer teams: Austin FC, FC Dallas, and Houston Dynamo FC. As a result, modern stadiums and improved infrastructure build on the legacy from 1994, making it easy for supporters to move between matches and vibrant neighborhoods known for music, food, and nightlife. This time around, the United States Men’s National Team will undoubtedly be aiming to recapture the vigor and enthusiasm that swept the nation in 1994 when the team had a stunning defeat of heavily favored Colombia and reached the Round of 16 before being exited by Brazil. Perhaps this time, buoyed by a more populous fanbase, the team can transcend all expectations with an even better result! 

One thing is certain though, whether they are following Austria, Portugal, or simply chasing the best atmosphere, visitors from around the globe will find that Texas combines deep sports history with a welcoming environment and plenty of stories to take home. 

The Rulebook: Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace

As the 2026 World Cup brings together teams, cultures and perspectives from around the world, it also offers an opportunity to look beyond the pitch. 

Portugal and Texas meet on the same page. One brings a footballing identity built on talent, soul and belief; the other opens its doors as a host with a warm welcome but aspirations of a break-through performance on the biggest stage, on its home soil. This encounter reflects more than sport. It highlights how different contexts respond to shared challenges. 

One of those challenges is the growing use of artificial intelligence in the workplace, which provides a compelling lens through which to compare how different jurisdictions approach similar issues.

How is artificial intelligence reshaping the rules of the game for employers, and what can Portugal and Texas teach each other about getting it right?

Texas 

The Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act (“TRAIGA 2.0”) took effect on January 1 of this year. TRAIGA 2.0 establishes a patchwork framework for AI development and deployment focused on government transparency, consumer rights, the responsible use of AI systems, and procedural safeguards to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation in the AI space.

This AI law does not establish a regime specifically addressing the use of AI in employment decisions, however, reflecting a more limited and sector-neutral regulatory approach and does not, in general, impose broad transparency, audit, or employee notification obligations on private employers in relation to AI-driven employment decisions. In fact, the law was specifically designed to minimize the impact on employers by excluding from applicable definitions persons acting in the employment context. Nevertheless, the law makes it unlawful to develop or deploy AI with the intent to discriminate against persons based on legally protected characteristics, such as race, national origin, sex, or religion (among others).  

Liability under this law is intent-based: biased outcomes alone are not enough. In other words, the law does not prohibit conduct that merely results in a disparate impact; it instead targets intentional activities that result in disparate treatment. Enforcement is centralized in the state attorney general, with a notice-and-cure mechanism and no private right of action. The system is deliberately permissive, combining targeted prohibitions with sandboxes and safe harbors tied to internal risk controls. However, AI use is not governed by TRAIGA alone; its prohibitions are complemented by broader horizontal constraints on data use.

With the passage of TRAIGA 2.0, Texas became one of the first states to attempt to regulate the AI space. However, with moves being made at the national level through presidential executive orders and rumblings of congressional legislation, it remains to be seen whether federal laws will eventually preempt state efforts to regulate this area. 

Portugal

Employers are increasingly mapping the AI systems used in human resources, implementing internal policies and AI governance models, auditing algorithms to identify biases and ensure legal compliance, reviewing contracts with suppliers to demand rigor and transparency through reliability tests of the systems or algorithms used, and integrating data protection impact assessments with AI risk analyses.

The rules defining the space in Portugal are (i) transparency, whereby the employer must be able to explain the underlying parameters and criteria in clear language whenever an algorithm or AI system influences decisions on recruitment, performance evaluation, promotion, dismissal, or working conditions, including profiling and control of company activity; (ii) non-discrimination, as the employer cannot fully rely on automated systems to dissociate itself from decision-making processes, remaining responsible, under general labor and anti-discrimination rules, for ensuring that outcomes do not result in unlawful personal data management and/or discrimination; (iii) collective information and consultation, requiring the employer to inform and consult employee representatives; and, finally, (iv) data protection rules, which, in parallel, ensure that decisions based solely on automated processing that significantly affect workers are subject to safeguards, including the possibility of human intervention and review.

This framework is further being shaped by the EU Artificial Intelligence Act, already in force, with key obligations applying progressively, particularly in relation to high-risk AI systems used in employment contexts.

Football serves as a clear illustration of this usage, as clubs and sports societies utilize AI for scouting, player monitoring, and performance analysis, including the definition of bonuses or decisions regarding the promotion of youth players. These systems rely extensively on the collection and processing of biometric and performance data, raising specific concerns in relation to employee monitoring and the use of sensitive personal data. In this context, particular care must be taken where biometric or performance data are involved, as these may qualify as particularly sensitive data and trigger stricter requirements regarding lawfulness, proportionality, and purpose limitation, especially within an employment relationship.

When these tools influence decisions concerning a player's renewal, dismissal, or remuneration, they begin to affect employment maintenance, thereby triggering the same duties of information and consultation, including the right of intervention by the players' union.

Moreover, the use of such data to inform contractual decisions raises additional questions regarding control, purpose limitation, and the potential use of performance data against the player, further reinforcing the need for legal safeguards.

On the Global Field: Closing Thoughts

The comparison between Portugal and Texas highlights two distinct ways of approaching AI in the workplace, reflecting different legal cultures and regulatory priorities. The Portuguese and broader EU frameworks place greater emphasis on upfront transparency, risk management, and worker safeguards, whereas the Texas model relies more on targeted prohibitions and ex post enforcement mechanisms focused on intentional misconduct. The central issue across both jurisdictions is not whether AI may be used, but under what conditions its use remains compatible with fundamental labor protections and accountability within the employment relationship.

Beyond these two jurisdictions, and across all sectors, labor relations remain human, and AI should be understood as a tool supporting human decision-making rather than replacing it. Those responsible for managing employment relationships must retain effective control, acting as referees to ensure fair play, accountability, and the consistent upholding of legal safeguards.

Professional football offers a clear illustration of how these dynamics play out in practice. The growing reliance on data to inform decisions that directly affect workers shows how technology is already embedded in everyday management choices. 

By bringing together regulatory frameworks, employer practices, and real-world applications, it becomes clear that transparency, accountability, and human oversight are not isolated requirements, but interconnected elements that help make sense of increasingly complex workplace decisions.

In that sense, these comparisons do more than highlight legal differences – they provide a clearer understanding of how AI is shaping everyday working realities, often in ways that go unnoticed.

* João Pedro Schwartz is a Junior Knowledge Manager and Vinícius de Lima is a Paralegal with Littler Portugal