Written by:euronews
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Former FIFA president Joseph Sepp Blatter called on soccer fans to boycott the United States, which is scheduled to co-host the 2026 World Cup next June alongside Canada and Mexico.
Blatter wrote in a tweet on the “X” platform: “For the fans, there is only one piece of advice: stay away from the United States!”, repeating statements made last week by the former head of the FIFA Governance Committee, Mark Piethe, to a Swiss newspaper.
Blatter added in the tweet, which came in three different languages: English, French and German: “I think Mark Piethe is right to question this World Cup.”
Earlier, former FIFA official Mark Piethe warned that “the United States is a dangerous country to visit.”
“The country itself is in a state of great turmoil,” he told Der Bund newspaper, adding that “the marginalization of political opponents, attacks by immigration authorities, etc., does not encourage fans to travel there.”
He added: “In Mexico, drug cartels threaten attacks, while in the United States the danger lies in the state turning into an authoritarian regime.”
He said in another statement to the Swiss newspaper Tagesanseiger: “In any case, you will watch the matches better on television.”
He continued, saying: “When they arrive, fans should expect that if they do not behave well with the authorities they will be sent directly back to their country. If they are lucky..”, he said.
Blatter case
Beth is a Swiss lawyer specializing in corruption cases and was assigned by Blatter between 2011 and 2014 to develop reform proposals for FIFA.
After accusations of fraud, Blatter and Frenchman Michel Platini, former president of the European Union, were finally acquitted before the Swiss judiciary in 2025.
Platini was accused of obtaining: “Illegally, at the expense of FIFA, an amount of two million Swiss francs (about 2.58 million dollars) for the benefit of Michel Platini,” according to the Swiss prosecution.
With the escalation of tension against the backdrop of the United States’ desire to annex Greenland and its threats to impose additional customs duties on European countries that oppose this, voices began to rise in Europe talking about the possibility of boycotting, or even canceling, the 2026 World Cup scheduled for the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
On the other hand, the President of the French Football Federation, Philippe Diallo, confirmed in an interview with the Ouest-France newspaper that “the French Football Federation has no intention of boycotting the World Cup.”
American policies
Europe has the strongest football leagues in the world. With the United States tightening its measures against passport holders from countries in Africa and Asia, including Arab countries, and with the high prices imposed by FIFA, it is expected that European fans will be the ones filling the stands.
At the same time, the Trump administration has not yet provided guarantees that immigration raids will not be carried out inside World Cup stadiums, leaving non-Americans vulnerable to arrest regardless of their legal status.
The US State Department boasted of canceling 100,000 visas in less than a year.
On the other hand, the Department of Homeland Security says its goal is to deport one million immigrants annually during the Trump presidency, noting that about half a million people were forcibly deported or left the country voluntarily out of fear of the procedures.
Trump’s election campaign in his second term pledged to launch a tough crackdown on “violent criminals” who entered the United States illegally, most of them through the southern border.
