Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has endorsed calls to scrutinize the upcoming 2026 World Cup in North America after quoting Swiss anti-corruption expert Mark Pieth, who urged fans to avoid the tournament. Pieth told Swiss paper Der Bund: “For the fans, there’s only one piece of advice: Stay away from the USA!” In an online post, Blatter quoted Pieth and wrote that Pieth “is right to question this World Cup.”
Pieth added that spectators would “get a better view on television anyway” and warned that some travelers could be turned away and sent home if U.S. officials objected to them. His comments were prompted in part by recent deaths involving U.S. immigration enforcement, including the shooting of Renee Good by an immigration agent in Minnesota and the later death of Alex Pretti.
A small number of European politicians have suggested a possible boycott of the tournament, though most say it should remain a last resort, reserved for extreme scenarios such as the use of military force over territory. Full national-team boycotts are rare in modern football: the last team to miss the World Cup after qualifying was Turkey in 1950 for financial reasons, while the Soviet Union was disqualified in 1974 after refusing to play a World Cup qualifier second leg in Chile in protest at the 1973 coup.
Concerns for fans go beyond political objections. The 2026 tournament is expected to be the most expensive World Cup to date, and supporters face an intensified U.S. immigration regime and travel restrictions. Citizens of some qualifying nations, including Iran and Haiti, confront U.S. entry bans; fans from countries such as Ivory Coast and Senegal are also likely to encounter visa challenges.
Blatter’s intervention drew attention given his own contested legacy at FIFA. Suspended from all FIFA events until 2028, he led the organization when it awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar. He resigned in 2015 amid public outrage over allegations of corruption and bribery tied to those bids and disputes over his election to a fifth term.
Blatter and former UEFA president Michel Platini have both criticized current FIFA president Gianni Infantino and his ties to political leaders. Platini recently said Infantino had “become more of an autocrat” who “likes the rich and powerful.”
Correction: A previous version of this article suggested Sepp Blatter made the call to stay away from the U.S.-hosted World Cup; the call was made by anti-corruption expert Mark Pieth. The last sentence has also been corrected to state that Platini criticized Infantino, not Blatter. We apologize for any confusion.