Calls are growing in Europe for teams to boycott the 2026 World Cup in response to US President Donald Trump’s expansionist policies and tariff threats.
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter also added a call for a boycott of the World Cup (Image: Sathiri Kelpa/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Sepp Blatter supports a growing movement to boycott the World Cup due to Donald Trump’s recent actions. There is growing dissatisfaction in Europe over President Trump’s expansionist tactics and proposed trade tariffs in Greenland, which could also affect the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
President Trump has recently gone on a warpath, insisting that the United States occupy Greenland after detaining Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. His desire to seize Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, has put him at odds with European countries and increased scrutiny of the US president.
The United States is scheduled to host the 2026 World Cup from June 11 to July 19, along with neighbors Canada and Mexico. And there are growing calls for teams to refuse games to put pressure on President Trump.
The idea has also been floated in Germany’s parliament, and is supported by Swiss lawyer Mark Peace, an expert on white-collar crime and anti-corruption.
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“Considering what we have discussed so far, I have only one piece of advice for my fans: leave America,” Peace told Swiss newspaper Der Band. “You’ll know better when you see it on TV anyway. And fans should expect that if they arrive and the officials don’t like it, they’ll be on the next plane home right away, if they’re lucky.”
Blatter, who was FIFA president from 1998 to 2015, wrote of X: “I think Mark Peace is right to question this World Cup.”
Mr Blatter resigned from FIFA 11 years ago amid corruption scandals and the soccer governing body is now run by Gianni Infantino, who is busy courting Mr Trump.
Donald Trump fusses over recent decisions (Image: AP)
The most vocal opposition was from Germany, where Oke Gottrich, vice-president of the German Football Association and president of Bundesliga side St. Pauli, compared it to Russia’s decision to boycott the 1980 Olympics in Moscow after its invasion of Afghanistan.
“I really wonder when the time will be to think and talk about this concretely. For me, that time has definitely come,” Gottrich told a German newspaper.
He added: “What was the justification for boycotting the Olympics in the 1980s? By my calculations, the potential threat is greater now than it was then. We need to have this discussion.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino is a close ally of Donald Tormo (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
“Qatar was too political for everyone, and now we’re completely apolitical? That’s really, really, really concerning. As an organization and as a society, we’re forgetting how to set taboos and boundaries and how to uphold our values.”
“Taboo is an important part of our stance. Do you cross a taboo when someone threatens you? Do you cross a taboo when someone attacks you? When someone dies? I want to know when Donald Trump reaches a taboo, and I want Bernd Neuendorf and Gianni Infantino to know as well.”
“If President Trump carries out his announcements and threats regarding Greenland and starts a trade war with the EU, it is difficult to imagine European countries participating in the World Cup,” said Roderich Kiesewetter, head of the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee.
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