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Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter says soccer fans should avoid traveling to the United States for the 2026 World Cup this summer.
Blatter’s reasoning? His belief that President Donald Trump’s international aggression and immigration crackdowns across the country make fans traveling abroad dangerous.
Blatter cited Mark Pieth, an anti-corruption expert and law professor who oversaw the Independent Governance Commission during FIFA reform from 2013 to 2016. Pieth spoke to Swiss newspaper Der Bund, where he told soccer fans: “Stay away from the United States!”
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FIFA President Sepp Blatter gestures during a news conference at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland March 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Anja Niederringhaus)
“For fans, only one piece of advice: stay away from the USA!” I think Mark Pieth is right to question this World Cup,” Blatter, 89, tweeted on Monday.
Pieth added in his interview: “You’ll see it better on TV anyway. And when they arrive, the 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.”
The United States is expected to co-host this year’s World Cup, as Mexico and Canada will host matches in the tournament which runs from June 11 to July 19. However, after the round of 16, all remaining matches will take place in the United States.
Trump’s stance on Greenland led to a call for a boycott of the World Cup this summer from the head of the German football federation, Oke Göttlich.
“I really wonder when the time will be to think about it and talk about it concretely,” Göttlich told the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper about a possible boycott. “For me, that time has definitely come.”
Trump said recently that a “framework for a future agreement” with NATO involving Greenland and the Arctic region had been discussed, which could ease tensions in this regard.
From left to right; FIFA President Gianni Infantino takes a selfie with President Donald Trump, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney during the draw for the 2026 FIFA World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, December 5, 2025. (Chris Carlson/AP Photo)
“Based on a very productive meeting I had with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, we formed the framework for a future agreement regarding Greenland and, indeed, the entire Arctic region,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
There is also the criticism leveled at ICE agents in American cities, particularly in Minneapolis, Minnesota, following the deaths of two American citizens as the immigration crackdown continues.
Pieth also mentioned this factor in his interview.
“The country itself is in a state of considerable upheaval,” he said. “What we’re seeing on a national level – the marginalization of political opponents, the abuse of immigration authorities, etc. – doesn’t really entice a fan to go there.
Pieth compared the United States’ “security situation” to that of Mexico, where drug cartels threaten violence before matches in Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey. Pieth believes that the United States has become “increasingly authoritarian.”
U.S. President Donald Trump receives the FIFA Peace Prize from FIFA President Gianni Infantino during the official draw for the 2026 FIFA World Cup at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts December 5, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Émilee Chinn/FIFA via Getty Images)
It is worth noting that Blatter was forced to step down as FIFA president in 2015 following one of the biggest corruption scandals in sport involving wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering.
Gianni Infantino took over the role from Blatter and maintains a strong friendship with Trump.
The State Department also exclusively told PK Press Club Digital that it will launch the FIFA Priority Appointment Scheduling System, or FIFA PASS, which will give World Cup ticket holders the opportunity to access priority visa appointments before the tournament begins on June 11.
Prospective visa holders must be able to demonstrate that they qualify for a visa and plan to comply with United States laws and leave the country once the tournament concludes on July 19.
Trump spoke about FIFA Pass in November, saying the Departments of State and Homeland Security were working “tirelessly” to “ensure that soccer fans around the world are properly screened and can easily come to the United States next summer.”
In this September 1, 2020 file photo, former FIFA President Sepp Blatter, center, appears in front of the Swiss Public Prosecutor’s Office building, in Bern, Switzerland. Former FIFA president Blatter spent a week in an induced coma after undergoing heart surgery in December, his family announced Thursday (January 21, 2021). (Peter Schneider/Keystone)
“I have asked my administration to do everything in its power to make the 2026 World Cup an unprecedented success. I think it will be the biggest, and we are setting records for ticket sales,” Trump said at the time.
Infantino said the organization expected “between 5 and 10 million people to come to America from all over the world to enjoy the World Cup.”
