By Emmanuel Nduka Obisue
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has voiced support for calls urging football fans to boycott World Cup matches scheduled to be held in the United States, citing concerns over the conduct and policies of President Donald Trump and his administration.
Blatter is the latest high-profile figure in international football to question the suitability of the United States as a World Cup host. In a post on X on Monday, he endorsed remarks made last week by Swiss lawyer and anti-corruption expert Mark Pieth, who raised alarm over the political climate in the country.
Pieth, who previously chaired FIFA’s Independent Governance Committee during the organisation’s reform process, made the comments in an interview with Swiss newspaper Der Bund, where he warned fans against travelling to the United States, saying that “if we consider everything we’ve discussed, there’s only one piece of advice for fans: stay away from the USA,” adding that supporters could expect to be sent “straight on the next flight home” if they fell foul of officials.
Quoting Pieth, Blatter echoed the concerns in his post, stating, “I think Mark Pieth is right to question this World Cup”.
The United States is set to co-host the World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19, but concerns have grown within the global football community over Trump’s foreign and domestic policies, including expansionist rhetoric on Greenland, travel bans, and aggressive immigration enforcement tactics that have triggered protests in several American cities.
Those concerns have been echoed in Europe, with Oke Göttlich, a vice-president of the German Football Association, telling the Hamburger Morgenpost that the time had come to “seriously consider” a boycott of the tournament.
Tensions heightened earlier this month after the Trump administration announced new travel restrictions that could effectively bar fans from Senegal and Ivory Coast from entering the United States unless they already possess valid visas, with the White House citing “screening and vetting deficiencies” as justification.
Supporters from Iran and Haiti, both of whom have qualified for the World Cup, are also expected to be affected, having been included in an earlier round of travel bans.
Blatter, who led FIFA from 1998 until his resignation in 2015 amid corruption investigations, has in recent years remained an outspoken critic of political interference and governance failures in global football.
