“What can I say, I’m so happy!” shouted the Senegalese football fan Omar Sy after the turbulent final of the Africa Cup of Nations in Rabat, which Senegal won against hosts Morocco 1-0 after extra time. “Who are the lions? Now you have your answer!” The Senegalese team is nicknamed the “Lions of Teranga”, the Moroccan “Lions of the Atlas”.
The French film star Star Sy, who became famous in the film “Pretty Best Friends” and the streaming series “Lupin”, has a Senegalese father and traveled not only to the final but also to the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations. After the triumph in Rabat, he celebrated in the Senegal dressing room with the winners led by former Bayern star Sadio Mané.
Football fan Sy’s next item on the agenda should be set: In its first group game of the 2026 World Cup, Senegal will face the former colonial power France in East Rutherford in the USA. Sy will have no problem obtaining a visitor visa for the USA because he is a French citizen – like many other of the approximately 300,000 people with Senegalese roots living in France.
However, all Senegalese fans who only have a passport from the African country will be under scrutiny. Senegal is on a list of 39 countries for which US President Donald Trump has imposed entry bans.
The most loyal fans are particularly affected
“I think it’s too harsh. It’s going too far. The team can’t play without its fans – and there are some really enthusiastic supporters who accompany the team anytime and anywhere,” Singom Dadji Ngam told DW during the AFCON.
The Senegalese fan is a YouTuber with more than 200,000 followers. “It [das Einreiseverbot – Anm. d. Red] only applies exclusively to Senegalese people who only have a Senegalese passport. But they are the ones who accompany the team in all the qualifying games.”
In addition to Senegal, Trump’s entry ban also affects fans of German group opponents Cote d’Ivoire as well as World Cup participants Haiti and Iran. There could also be the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is also on the US President’s blacklist and whose team still has the chance to secure a ticket to the World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico at a playoff tournament at the end of March. Only players, coaches and other team members are exempt from the visa restrictions.
Call for a boycott of the World Cup
The fans can hardly hope for support from the world association FIFA, whose president Gianni Infantino feels close to Trump. A World Cup ticket “does not guarantee entry into a host country,” FIFA recently said. According to her, she received around 500 million ticket requests from “all 211 FIFA member associations”, including those affected by the visa ban.
Against this background, a Senegalese fan at the Africa Cup even called for a boycott of the World Cup. “If we as fans are not accepted, our teams shouldn’t go there and neither should we as fans. We should boycott the World Cup, others should follow us,” said the Lions of Teranga supporter.
“We make these competitions strong first. Without spectators there is no sport, no entertainment.” There are also numerous calls to boycott the World Cup on social networks.
Ticket prices five times higher than in Qatar
In addition to the political hurdle, there is a significant financial hurdle for African fans – and not just for them. Apart from a small amount of cheaper tickets, which make up less than two percent of the total contingent, prices are five times higher than at the last World Cup in Qatar four years ago.
The fan organization Football Supporters Europe calculated an average sum of just under 7,000 euros for the 2026 World Cup to get tickets for all of their team’s games from the opening game to the final.
“Football is a popular sport and should be accessible to everyone. Not everyone can afford to buy super-expensive tickets to watch a game,” an Ivorian AFCON visitor told DW, who probably has no hopes of attending the World Cup anyway because of the entry ban. “Such inequalities are not right. What Trump has done is a disgrace. It is ruining football.”
The US President and the African fans will probably no longer be best friends.
The article was adapted from the English original “African fans fume at ‘disgraceful’ World Cup travel ban” adapted.
