Sepp Blatter, the disgraced former head of FIFA, is urging international football fans to shun the United States during the 2026 World Cup, invoking President Donald Trumps immigration enforcement and foreign policy as reasons to stay away.
According to Breitbart, Blatter, now 89, aligned himself with anti-corruption lawyer and former Independent Governance Committee Chairman Mark Pieth, who told the Swiss outlet Der Bund that international supporters should stay away from the USA! Pieth declared, If we consider everything weve discussed, theres only one piece of advice for fans: Stay away from the USA!
Pieth went further, warning that spectators would be better off watching from their living rooms than risking a trip to a country that actually enforces its borders. Youll see it better on TV anyway. And upon arrival, fans should expect that if they dont please the officials, theyll be put straight on the next flight home. If theyre lucky.
Blatter publicly endorsed Pieths alarmist rhetoric, effectively weaponizing the World Cup against a nation whose chief offense, in the eyes of many European elites, is insisting on the rule of law. The United States will serve as the co-host for the World Cup alongside Mexico and Canada, with the tournament running from June 11 to July 19, USA Today reports.
Meanwhile, activists and sympathetic politicians in Europe are attempting to turn President Trumps interest in acquiring Greenland and two fatal shootings of anti-ICE protesters in Minnesota into a broader campaign to strip America of its World Cup hosting role. Pieth pressed this narrative, claiming, The country itself is in a state of tremendous turmoil. What were witnessing domestically the marginalization of political opponents, the abuses by immigration authorities, and so on doesnt exactly entice a fan to travel there.
He then drew a controversial parallel between the United States and one of the worlds most cartel-ravaged nations. The U.S. is in a similar security situation to Mexico. In Mexico, its the drug cartels threatening violence; in the U.S., its a state thats becoming increasingly authoritarian.
Blatters decision to echo an anti-corruption attorney is rich with irony, given that he was forced out of FIFA in 2015 amid one of the most sweeping corruption scandals in football history. Since then, he has been a relentless critic of his successor, Gianni Infantino, who maintains a notably strong relationship with President Trump.
Whether these attacks on the U.S. are genuine safety concerns or politically motivated efforts to undermine both Infantino and a conservative American administration remains an open question. Yet the pattern is hard to ignore: a scandal-tainted ex-sports boss and European activists leveraging hyperbolic claims about authoritarianism and border enforcement in an apparent bid to tarnish both Americas global standing and the leadership that insists on national sovereignty.
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