01/27/26 05:47:00
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01/27 05:45 CST Ex-FIFA president Sepp Blatter joins those calling for boycott
of World Cup in United States
Ex-FIFA president Sepp Blatter joins those calling for boycott of World Cup in
United States
By The Associated Press
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Monday backed a proposed fan boycott of
World Cup matches in the United States because of the conduct of President
Donald Trump and his administration at home and abroad.
Blatter was the latest international soccer figure to call into question the
suitability of the United States as a host country. He called for the boycott
in a post on X that supported Mark Pieth's comments in an interview last week
with the Swiss newspaper Der Bund.
Pieth, a Swiss attorney specializing in white-collar crime and an
anti-corruption expert, chaired the Independent Governance Committee's
oversight of FIFA reform a decade ago. Blatter was president of the world's
governing body for soccer from 1998-2015; he resigned amid an investigation
into corruption.
In his interview with Der Bund, Pieth said, "If we consider everything we've
discussed, there's only one piece of advice for fans: Stay away from the USA!
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."
In his X post, Blatter quoted Pieth and added, "I think Mark Pieth is right to
question this World Cup."
The United States is co-hosting the World Cup with Canada and Mexico from June
11-July 19.
The international soccer community's concerns about the United States stem from
Trump's expansionist posture on Greenland, and travel bans and aggressive
tactics in dealing with migrants and immigration enforcement protestors in
American cities, particularly Minneapolis.
Oke Gttlich, one of the vice presidents of the German soccer federation, told
the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper in an interview on Friday that the time had
come to seriously consider boycotting the World Cup.
Travel plans for fans from two of the top soccer countries in Africa were
thrown into disarray in December, when the Trump administration announced an
expanded ban that would effectively bar people from Senegal and Ivory Coast
following their teams unless they already have visas. Trump cited "screening
and vetting deficiencies" as the main reason for the suspensions.
Fans from Iran and Haiti, two other countries that have qualified for the World
Cup, will be barred from entering the United States as well; they were included
in the first iteration of the travel ban announced by the Trump administration.
___
This story was corrected to clarify that the Trump administration announced its
expanded travel restrictions in December, not two weeks ago.
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
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