NEWNow you can listen to Fox News articles!
FORMER FIFA PRESIDENT Sepp Blatter says football fans should avoid going to the United States for the 2026 World Cup this summer.
Blatter’s thinking? His belief is that President Donald Trump’s international aggression and immigration attacks across the country make it dangerous for fans to travel overseas.
Blatter cited Mark Pieth, an anti-corruption expert and law professor who chaired the Independent Governance Committee during FIFA’s reforms from 2013-16. Pieth spoke to the Swiss company Der Bund, where he told football fans to, “Get out of the USA!”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE GAMES FOXNEWS.COM
FIFA President Sepp Blatter gestures during a press conference at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland on March 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
“For the fans, there is only one advice: stay away from the USA!” “I think Mark Pieth is right to be skeptical about this World Cup,” Blatter, 89, said on Twitter on Monday.
Pieth added in his interview: “You’ll see it better on TV anyway. And when they arrive, 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 will co-host this year’s World Cup, as Mexico and Canada will host the tournament from June 11 to July 19. However, after the Round of 16, all remaining matches will be played in the US.
Trump’s stance on Greenland has led to calls for a boycott of the World Cup this summer by German football federation chief Oke Göttlich.
“I wonder when the time will come to think and talk about this,” Göttlich told the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper about the possible boycott. “For me, that time has definitely come.”
Trump said that a “future draft agreement” with NATO that includes Greenland and the Arctic region has recently been discussed, which could ease tensions in that regard.
From the left; FIFA President Gianni Infantino takes a selfie with President Donald Trump, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney during the drawing for the 2026 FIFA World Cup at the Kennedy Center in Washington, Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (Photo by Chris Carlson/AP)
“Based on the very productive meeting I had with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, we have drafted a future agreement regarding Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
There is also criticism of ICE agents in American cities, especially Minneapolis, Minnesota, following the death of two US citizens as immigration attacks continue.
Pieth discussed that thing in his interview as well.
“The country itself is in big trouble,” he said. “What we see at home – the marginalization of political opponents, harassment by immigration authorities, and so on – does not entice a fan to go there.
Pieth compared America’s “security situation” to Mexico, where drug cartels threaten violence before the games in Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey. Pieth believes that the US has become a “rising power.”
US President Donald Trump receives the FIFA Peace Prize from Gianni Infantino, FIFA President, during the Official Artist of the 2026 FIFA World Cup at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts on Dec. 5, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Emilee Chinn/FIFA via Getty Images)
It is noteworthy that Blatter was forced to resign as FIFA president in 2015 following one of the sport’s biggest corruption scandals involving fraud, embezzlement and money laundering.
Gianni Infantino replaced Blatter, and has a strong friendship with Trump.
The State Department also told Fox News Digital exclusively that it will introduce the FIFA Priority Appointment Schedule System, or FIFA PASS, which will give World Cup ticket holders the opportunity to receive priority visas before the tournament begins on June 11.
Applicants must be able to demonstrate that they are eligible for a visa and plan to follow the laws of the United States and leave the country after the competition ends on July 19.
Trump spoke about Fifa Pass in November, saying the Department of Defense and Homeland Security was working “tirelessly” to “make sure soccer fans from around the world are properly vetted and able to come to the United States next summer with ease.”
In this Sept. 1, 2020 file photo, former FIFA President Sepp Blatter, center, appears in front of the Swiss Attorney General’s Office building, in Bern, Switzerland. Former FIFA president Blatter spent a week in a coma after heart surgery in December, his family said on Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021. (Peter Schneider/Keystone)
“I have instructed my administration to do everything possible to make the 2026 World Cup an unprecedented success. I think it will be huge, and we are setting records for ticket sales,” Trump said at the time.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS PROGRAM
Infantino said the organization expects “between 5 and 10 million people to come to America from… all over the world to enjoy the World Cup.”
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle.
