World Cup 2026 | Boycott and Political Issues | Will you Boycott it?

Will you boycott this World Cup?

  • Yes

    Votes: 100 31.4%

  • No

    Votes: 100 31.4%

  • I'll watch important games / my team

    Votes: 61 19.2%

  • I'll watch the final

    Votes: 8 2.5%

  • Eboue

    Votes: 32 10.1%

  • Undecided

    Votes: 39 12.3%
  • Total voters
    318

SilentWitness

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I thought about posting this on the FF but think it's better to start a new thread here which these issues can be spoken about.

Some of the concerns include

- Iran qualifying for the World Cup but being on the Trump travel ban / the situation ongoing with Iran.
- CBP and ICE potentially patrolling around or within stadiums as part of 'security', which they have reportedly been doing as part of the CWC.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/jun/16/fifa-trump-club-world-cup
 
No nation, unless all the nations/federation(s) involved, should be allowed to be excluded if qualified. If the US suggests that, its hosting is illegitimate.

The only way Iran would not be allowed to go, legally, is if FIFA or whomever, not the US, said so. You cannot do that in international sporting events like this or Olympics. The sanctioning body has to be the primary sporting body along with whatever international. Unilateral is not good enough so I too would say boycott if that (no Iran by US decree) is being floated.
 
FIFA has dropped their usual anti-racism, anti-discrimination campaign for the Club World Cup, clearly because Trump and his ilk wanted it.

Infantino will keep sucking up to Trump (and anyone else who just feeds him enough money) no matter what. The rules don't matter and the national federations and teams don't have the balls to throw a fit major enough or outright boycott the event. I wish they did, I wish they had already drawn the line in Qatar, but evidently money matters more.
 
G3079 said:
FIFA has dropped their usual anti-racism, anti-discrimination campaign for the Club World Cup, clearly because Trump and his ilk wanted it.

Infantino will keep sucking up to Trump (and anyone else who just feeds him enough money) no matter what. The rules don't matter and the national federations and teams don't have the balls to throw a fit major enough or outright boycott the event. I wish they did, I wish they had already drawn the line in Qatar, but evidently money matters more.
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Sadly so and it will continue to be the case.
 
Who would realistically want to go?

I've called their president orange julius ceasar on social media more than once. I could potentially get denied entry for that.

If I were Brown or Black, and especially if I were Muslim, there is no way in the world I would venture near the place with the current regime in charge.
 
Sweden doesn't always qualify for the WC... If we make it, I am going, and I would have gone to Qatar, had we made it and had the opportunity presented itself..

(Of course not an approval of Infantino & Trump)
 
Not sure I’m comfortable with this being a separate thread. I seem to remember that all human rights issues were kept in the main Qatar thread for 2022 so people couldn’t simply ignore them.
 
NYAS said:
Not sure I’m comfortable with this being a separate thread. I seem to remember that all human rights issues were kept in the main Qatar thread for 2022 so people couldn’t simply ignore them.
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There was a separate thread, but it was in the football forum.
 
I' m up for accepting 2014 as the last "Real World Cup", the next 3 being "Despot's Disney World Cups".

I all but boycotted 2022 and same might well happen here. So many things are going badly with international football I can see it losing relevance in the mid term.
 
SilentWitness said:
I thought about posting this on the FF but think it's better to start a new thread here which these issues can be spoken about.

Some of the concerns include

- Iran qualifying for the World Cup but being on the Trump travel ban / the situation ongoing with Iran.
- CBP and ICE potentially patrolling around or within stadiums as part of 'security', which they have reportedly been doing as part of the CWC.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/jun/16/fifa-trump-club-world-cup
Click to expand...

They seem to have already made exemptions to the travel ban for both the WC and the Olympics.

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-exemption-for-world-cup-and-olympic-athletes
 
Wondering if the folks who were so adamant on boycotting Qatar would share the same energy in boycotting the US.
 
I was planning to go to some games in Mexico but I dunno now, with all the terrorism going on in the world a major sporting event doesn't seem like a good idea

no chance I'd go to anything in the USA, and I think most of the knock-outs are there? Not sure but feck that
 
Kaos said:
Wondering if the folks who were so adamant on boycotting Qatar would share the same energy in boycotting the US.
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There's far more criticism of the Trump regime on here than there has ever been about anything Qatar related so I would guess so.
 
Kaos said:
Wondering if the folks who were so adamant on boycotting Qatar would share the same energy in boycotting the US.
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I wonder how many more times this will be wondered about before people realise it's not an original thought.
 
SilentWitness said:
For the athletes but not fans right? Still feels murky to me for allowing a team to compete but not the right for their fans to travel.
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It will be absolutely ridiculous for fans not to be allowed to go support their team and athletes in the two biggest sports events in the world.
 
SilentWitness said:
For the athletes but not fans right? Still feels murky to me for allowing a team to compete but not the right for their fans to travel.
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It seems for the athletes initially. The travel ban just came out two weeks ago, so i'm sure they will have to make more accommodations for the fans from remaining nations, most of which aren't traditional countries whose fans are known to travel to football tournaments: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
 
SilentWitness said:
I thought about posting this on the FF but think it's better to start a new thread here which these issues can be spoken about.

Some of the concerns include

- Iran qualifying for the World Cup but being on the Trump travel ban / the situation ongoing with Iran.
- CBP and ICE potentially patrolling around or within stadiums as part of 'security', which they have reportedly been doing as part of the CWC.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/jun/16/fifa-trump-club-world-cup
Click to expand...
I'm fully on board for showing disgust with US foreign and domestic policy in whatever way can make a difference, though it's a shame that poor old Canada and Mexico would also catch strays as a result.
 
Kaos said:
Wondering if the folks who were so adamant on boycotting Qatar would share the same energy in boycotting the US.
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I'm going to guess that's a no. ;)

In fairness to the Qataris, they did pull off a very good WC, although the derailment of league seasons to host a winter WC is something I hope we never have to deal with again. Hoping the Saudis can find a way around this.
 
Raoul said:
I'm going to guess that's a no. ;)

In fairness to the Qataris, they did pull off a very good WC, although the derailment of league seasons to host a winter WC is something I hope we never have to deal with again. Hoping the Saudis can find a way around this.
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For the record I don't think Qatar was an appropriate host, mostly for the reasons you alluded to. By the same token I also don't think the US is a suitable host either considering the nature of their regime, their hostile behaviour towards tourists (especially those who have speaken ill of dear-leader on social channels) as well as their insistence on banning fans from certain 'black-listed' nations.
 
Idxomer said:
It will be absolutely ridiculous for fans not to be allowed to go support their team and athletes in the two biggest sports events in the world.
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Quite.
Raoul said:
It seems for the athletes initially. The travel ban just came out two weeks ago, so i'm sure they will have to make more accommodations for the fans from remaining nations, most of which aren't traditional countries whose fans are known to travel to football tournaments: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
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Even if it's just blocking one fan of a nation that would travel to watch their team, it's unacceptable. I'd be very surprised if they made exceptions for Iran from that list.
 
SilentWitness said:
Quite.

Even if it's just blocking one fan of a nation that would travel to watch their team, it's unacceptable. I'd be very surprised if they made exceptions for Iran from that list.
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Agreed. They are going to have to make exemptions for fans. And frankly given Trump's penchant for changing his mind about things on the fly, I would be surprised if the travel ban isn't amended or even dropped by then. He views the WC as a vehicle not of US national pride, but as a way to get the world to focus on him.
 
Kaos said:
For the record I don't think Qatar was an appropriate host, mostly for the reasons you alluded to. By the same token I also don't think the US is a suitable host either considering the nature of their regime, their hostile behaviour towards tourists (especially those who have speaken ill of dear-leader on social channels) as well as their insistence on banning fans from certain 'black-listed' nations.
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I was at USA 94 and it was done fairly well. Here's hoping the next one will go as smoothly, especially with the LA Olympics just around the corner.
 
Raoul said:
I was at USA 94 and it was done fairly well. Here's hoping the next one will go as smoothly, especially with the LA Olympics just around the corner.
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The US during the optimistic backdrop of the 90s, with Clinton as its President was very much a different place to whatever fascist clusterfeck plagues the nation now.
 
I was very active in the boycott qatar thread and it's very likely I won't watch this wc either, but I don't think they are similar.

I think a lot of the criticism towards the qatar wc came from the organization itself using slave labour and being directly responsible for the deaths of a lot of workers. This isn't the case in the US.
 
Kaos said:
Wondering if the folks who were so adamant on boycotting Qatar would share the same energy in boycotting the US.
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There was a specific set of human rights abuses, some directly tied to the construction of the event, that strongly justified supporting a boycott of the Qatar World Cup. I think the case for boycotting USA 2026 is a strong one. A travel boycott of the US and protesting at Canada and Mexico games feels appropriate/consistent.
 
Kaos said:
Wondering if the folks who were so adamant on boycotting Qatar would share the same energy in boycotting the US.
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Honestly (At least on Redcafe) I think there will be less of a backlash against criticism of this World Cup , with less accusations of things like "MAGA-phobia" for those who choose to boycott.

This forum is (rightly) intolerant of intolerance IMO and I'll expect tonnes of criticism for the US before, during and after the tournament.

I also think that the vast majority who criticized or boycotted the previous World Cup will have different but equally valid reasons for doing so again.

I didn't boycott the previous World Cup and I probably won't boycott this one either.
 
Kaos said:
Wondering if the folks who were so adamant on boycotting Qatar would share the same energy in boycotting the US.
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In aggregate, of course they will. People are already talking about avoiding the US here on Redcafe and in many other places. It's different to say "boycott the WC" because in 2022 you only had Qatar and in 2026, there are other options that plenty of people have already mentioned - just attend games in Canada and Mexico.

Personally, I watched almost all games of the last 2022 WC as I do every time, and I will likely watch almost or all games of the 2026 WC because I love international football. However, I won't be purchasing any merchandise for the 2026 WC just like I didn't purchase any 2022 merchandise or 2018 merchandise because I don't wish to support a string of problematic hosts - Russia, Qatar, and Trump's US. Also, I fully support anyone not wanting to give tourist money to the US during the Trump admin.
 
I had planned a long time ago to visit the US for the world cup. But since Trump got into power, and seeing what the ICE is doing, there’s no way I am going.
 
I think it's currently 50/50 between the following types of comments that are most dominating the World Cup 26 rhetoric across the Internet

"I'll be boycotting the World Cup"
"Everyone's a hypocrite for suggesting Qatar was a bad country to host the World Cup but not the US."
 
Nogbadthebad said:
Who would realistically want to go?

I've called their president orange julius ceasar on social media more than once. I could potentially get denied entry for that.

If I were Brown or Black, and especially if I were Muslim, there is no way in the world I would venture near the place with the current regime in charge.
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Brown and from a Muslim family, although personally I don't believe in the existence of any deities. Somehow I think that point of nuance would be lost on US authorities these days. I've plenty of social media postings critical of Israel and US foreign policy in my digital footprint.

I've accepted that there's simply no possibility of my traveling to the United States under the current administration's policies. Which isn't much of a loss, but it's jarring at times when I think "oh I wouldn't mind going to see an NFL game" and then I remember that is no longer an option. It's more of a taken aback feeling than actually being upset, but it is very surreal.

I went to the 2014 WC in Brazil - one of the best times of my life. After Russia, Qatar and now Trump's USA, it's starting to feel like I went to the last real world cup.
 
Gonna be a shitshow, not sure how they will deal with Iran qualifying, but from a football perspective my biggest issue with it is that it's 48 teams and complete oversaturation. Watched nearly every game of the 2022 World Cup, despite it being in Qatar, and really enjoyed it, but there's just too many games there to do that this time. 32 was the sweet spot.

More World Cups have been problematic than not in recent years, Qatar, Russia etc. Argentina hosting it in a military junta, Italy under fascism, Mexico government was awful around the 1970 WC. Saudi Arabia coming up. So it's hard to be too precious about the host, depressing as it is.
 
Kaos said:
Wondering if the folks who were so adamant on boycotting Qatar would share the same energy in boycotting the US.
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I wont be watching. First time ever that I will miss a world cup, but I can not condone this American government.
 
Kaos said:
Wondering if the folks who were so adamant on boycotting Qatar would share the same energy in boycotting the US.
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Didn't watch a minute of the last WC. Would not have a problem doing the same for the next one. I think the reasons for boycotting Qatar are comparable to the next. If anything Qatar looks tame compared to the current US if anything.

Difference is that next year it's 3 countries hosting. I don't have a problem with Canada or Mexico.
 
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