U.S. President Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino on the red carpet prior to the FIFA World Cup 2026 Official Draw at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5, 2025.Tasos Katopodis-FIFA/Getty Images

As the Trump Administration prepares for the U.S. to co-host the World Cup this summer, easing travel rules for sporting events amid otherwise tightening immigration policy, some members of the global soccer community are saying: "Stay away from the U.S.A.!"

That particular phrasing came from Mark Pieth, a Swiss attorney who chaired the Independent Governance Committee`s oversight of FIFA reform between 2011 and 2013, in an interview with Swiss newspaper Der Bund last week. But calls for a boycott of the world`s biggest international soccer competition have gained traction among other prominent soccer figures, lawmakers, and fans.

The U.S. is co-hosting the tournament with Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19, with the final match set to take place at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

On Monday, former FIFA President Sepp Blatter posted Pieth`s comment on X, adding "I think Mark Pieth is right to question this World Cup." Blatter was suspended by FIFA in 2015 for a controversial $2 million payment to former French soccer player and president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Michel Platini; both men were later acquitted by Swiss courts of criminal charges related to the payment.

Critics have cited the Trump Administration`s violent immigration crackdown, which has resulted in the killing of two Americans by federal agents in Minneapolis; its expansionist foreign policy towards Greenland and Venezuela; travel bans; and broad-based tariffs on the rest of the world.

"What we are seeing domestically-the marginalization of political opponents, abuses by immigration services-doesn`t exactly encourage fans to go there," Pieth said. "You`ll see it better on TV anyway. And upon arrival, fans should expect that if they don`t please the officials, they`ll be put straight on the next flight home. If they`re lucky."

FIFA`s ties to Trump

Donald Trump`s fondness for what the rest of the world calls football has been bolstered by his love of flattery. FIFA President Gianni Infantino, whom Platini said earlier this month has "become more of an autocrat" who "likes the rich and powerful," has been criticized for cozying up to the U.S. President.

Trump was met with boos when he remained centerstage as English team Chelsea lifted the FIFA Club World Cup trophy in New Jersey last July. Infantino had presented Trump with that very same trophy earlier that year, and in December awarded Trump with a newly created FIFA Peace Prize after the U.S. President lost out on the Nobel.

"This is your prize, this is your peace prize," Infantino said. "There is also a beautiful medal for you that you can wear everywhere you want to go."

Infantino also announced in July that FIFA opened an office in Trump Tower in New York City. And a replica of the World Cup trophy has been spotted in Trump`s Oval Office since 2018, the year that Infantino announced the U.S. would co-host the 2026 World Cup.

Calls for boycott

Trump`s preparations for the U.S. to host the tournament, including the formation of a federal task force last March and the creation of a fast-tracked visa system for ticket holders, has not fully assuaged international concern.

Oke Göttlich, a vice president of the German soccer federation, said in an interview last week with newspaper Hamburger Morgenpost that it was time to "seriously consider and discuss" a boycott. He compared the current situation to Olympic boycotts during the Cold War.

"What were the justifications for the boycotts of the Olympic Games in the 1980s?" Göttlich said. "By my reckoning, the potential threat is greater now than it was then. We need to have this discussion."

European lawmakers have also raised concerns with the U.S. hosting the tournament, particularly amid Trump`s push to gain greater control of Greenland, which is currently an autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark.

Earlier this month, German Member of Parliament Jürgen Hardt told tabloid Bild that Germany`s national football team might consider skipping the tournament "as a last resort" to bring Trump "to his senses." The German team has historically been one of the top teams, having won four World Cups in 1954, 1974, 1990, and 2014. Another MP of the same center-right party, the Christian Democratic Union, Roderich Kiesewetter, echoed Hardt, telling newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine that considering Trump`s Greenland-related tariff threats, "I have a hard time imagining that European countries would take part in the World Cup."

The German government said on Jan. 20 that the decision on whether or not to participate would be left up to the country`s soccer federation.

In the U.K., Conservative MP Simon Hoare said in an address to the House of Commons that the English, Scottish, and Welsh teams should consider boycotting the tournament in order to "embarrass" him. England and Scotland have already qualified for the World Cup, while Wales will compete in the qualification playoffs in March.

"We need to fight fire with fire," Hoare said.

Liberal Democrat MP Luke Taylor added, of Trump: "The only thing he responds to is his own pride."

French MP Eric Coquerel, of the left-wing La France Insoumise, called on France to consider a boycott and suggested the tournament be moved out of the U.S. and instead played only in Canada and Mexico.

"Seriously, can we really imagine going to play the footie World Cup in a country that attacks its ‘neighbors,` threatens to invade Greenland, undermines international law, wants to torpedo the UN," Coquerel posted on X.

Some fans have also considered boycotting the event. A poll in Bild earlier this month found that 47% of around 1,000 German respondents said they would support a boycott if Trump moved to annex Greenland. Meanwhile, more than 150,000 people signed onto a petition in the Netherlands calling on the Dutch national team to boycott the event in protest of "aggressive U.S. military intervention."

Many fans from around the world have little choice in the matter. The Trump Administration has announced a range of travel restrictions on dozens of countries, including Senegal, Ivory Coast, Iran, and Haiti, which all have qualifying teams.

"Qatar was too political for everyone, and now we`re completely apolitical?" Göttlich said, referring to the German national team`s protest of FIFA`s ban on pro-LGBTQ armbands.

"The life of a professional player is not worth more than the lives of countless people in various regions who are being directly or indirectly attacked or threatened by the World Cup host," he added.

It would come as a surprise if any boycott takes hold, considering that uproar over human rights abuses in Qatar including what has been described as "modern slavery" of migrant workers did not translate into any large-scale or institutional action. All 32 federations that qualified for the 2022 World Cup participated. And while Russia was suspended from all FIFA and UEFA competitions after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, calls since 2023 for Israel to be banned over its bombardment of Gaza have not been met.

France`s Sports Minister Marina Ferrari said as of now there is "no desire for a boycott of this great competition.""Now, I will not anticipate what could happen," she told reporters last week. "I am one who believes in keeping sport separate. The World Cup is an extremely important moment for those who love sport."

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by: Miranda Jeyaretnam