Boycott 2026 World Cup over Greenland, European countries told
European countries should consider a boycott of the 2026 World Cup over US president Donald Trump’s attempts to seize Greenland, say senior football figures in Germany and France.
The US is set to stage the lion’s share of this summer’s tournament, which it is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico, including all knockout games from the quarter-finals onwards.
But Trump’s aggressive approach to immigration policy, Venezuela and now Greenland have repeatedly seen the wisdom of that decision called into question.
Oke Goettlich, the president of Hamburg-based club St Pauli, who also sits on the executive board of the Bundesliga and the German Football Federation, argued for a debate about the issue.
In comments posted on professional social network LinkedIn, he said: “The question is indeed justified as to whether Europeans should participate in a competition in a country that is indirectly, and possibly soon directly, attacking Europe.”
Veteran French football coach Claude Le Roy, whose itinerant career has seen him manage Senegal, Ghana, Cameroon, Togo and Cambridge United, voiced similar concerns.
“I wonder if we shouldn’t call for a boycott of the 2026 World Cup, given Donald Trump’s behaviour towards the continent,” he said.
Fifa in World Cup spotlight over Trump again
Le Roy also criticised Fifa and the compliance of its president Gianni Infantino “who boasts of being on his [Trump’s] side, adding: “The leaders at the highest level of football no longer ever talk about football, only about money.”
Trump stepped up his push for Greenland, an autonomous territory within the kingdom of Denmark, by slapping tariffs on the UK and seven European countries at the weekend.
He has threatened to more than double those tariffs if a deal for the US to take Greenland is not agreed by the beginning of June.
The US says the mineral-rich territory is a “strategic imperative” for national security and specifically its missile defence capabilities due to its location in relation to Russia and China.
European chiefs have resisted Trump’s calls, with UC president Ursula von der Leyen calling the tariffs “a mistake” and promising an “unflinching, united and proportional” repsonse.
Human rights groups have previously demanded assurances that overseas football fans will be welcome at the 2026 World Cup following the US tightening entry rules for dozens of countries.