A wind of protest is slowly but surely beginning to rise in Europe. And the cyclone seems to have originated in Germany. Less than six months before the 2026 Football World Cup, more and more nations and supporters are raising the idea of giving up participating in the global competition if Donald Trump refuses to stop his aggressive policy towards the European continent, like his unstoppable desire to recover Greenland.
As in the previous edition in Qatar four years ago, Germany is one of the few countries to take a position on the issue of the boycott. While 47% of Germans would be in favor of a boycott according to a survey by the Insa institute for Bild, several political voices were raised to call for a boycott or even a cancellation of the tournament.
“The potential threat is greater” than in the 1980s
State Secretary for Sports Christiane Schenderlein explained to AFP that “the federal government respects[ait] the autonomy of sport. “Decisions concerning participation in major sporting events or their boycott rest exclusively with the competent sports federations and not with the political world.”
But in recent days, it is one of the representatives of the German Football Federation (DFB), Oke Göttlich, who spoke in the columns of the Hamburger Morgenpost. Göttlich is the vice-president of the DFB but also the president of St Pauli, a club renowned for its fights for racism and fascism. To justify this request for debate, he takes the example of the boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow by the United States, then that of the Soviet Union at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
“I really wonder when the time will come to seriously reflect and discuss this issue,” he asks. For me, that moment has come. What were the justifications for the Olympic boycotts of the 1980s? In my opinion, the potential threat is greater today than it was then. We need to have this discussion. »
“I would like to know where Donald Trump draws the line”
Oke Göttlich also called for the responsibility of the president of the DFB, Bernd Neuendorf, and the boss of Fifa, Gianni Infantino. The latter is one of the great defenders and friend of Donald Trump, to whom he awarded the Fifa peace prize during the World Cup draw ceremony at the beginning of last December, when Trump’s political decisions were already greatly criticized.
“Qatar was too political for everyone, and that’s why we became completely apolitical?! It really bothers me. As organizations and as a society, we forget how to set prohibitions and boundaries, and how to defend our values. Prohibitions are essential to having principles. Is the line crossed when making threats? When you attack someone? When there are deaths? I would like to know where Donald Trump draws the line. And I would like where Bernd Neuendorf and Gianni Infantino place it.”
The vice-president of the DFB also wanted to brush aside the argument according to which the boycott would harm the selectable and potentially selected players to play this 2026 World Cup. “The life of a professional footballer has no more value than that of countless people in various regions who are currently attacked or threatened, directly or indirectly, by the host country of the World Cup,” he firmly recalled.
“No desire to boycott” in France
On the French side, the positions taken are fewer and certainly do not all go in the same direction. A few days ago, Sports Minister Marina Ferrari assured that a boycott was not being considered. “At the stage where we are currently speaking, there is no desire for a boycott on the part of our ministry of this great competition which is expected […] I want us to dissociate sport (and politics). The Football World Cup is an extremely important moment for all sports lovers,” she declared.
LFI deputy Eric Coquerel called for the competition to be refocused on Mexico and Canada, two of the three co-organizers, to exclude the United States, where 78 of the 104 World Cup matches will be played next summer, from the organization.
