Ex-FIFA president joins those calling for boycott of World Cup in U.S.

Blatter was the latest international soccer figure to call into question the suitability of the United States as a host country. He called for the boycott in a post on X that supported Mark Pieths comments in an interview last week with the Swiss newspaper Der Bund.
Pieth, a Swiss attorney specializing in white-collar crime and an anti-corruption expert, chaired the Independent Governance Committees oversight of FIFA reform a decade ago. Blatter was president of the worlds governing body for soccer from 1998-2015; he resigned amid an investigation into corruption.
In his interview with Der Bund, Pieth said, "If we consider everything weve discussed, theres only one piece of advice for fans: Stay away from the USA! 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."

In his interview with Der Bund, Pieth said, "If we consider everything weve discussed, theres only one piece of advice for fans: Stay away from the USA! 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." In his X post, Blatter quoted Pieth and added, "I think Mark Pieth is right to question this World Cup." The United States is co-hosting the World Cup with Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19. The international soccer communitys concerns about the United States stem from Trumps expansionist posture on Greenland, and travel bans and aggressive tactics in dealing with migrants and immigration enforcement protestors in American cities, particularly Minneapolis. Oke Göttlich, one of the vice presidents of the German soccer federation, told the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper in an interview on Friday that the time had come to seriously consider boycotting the World Cup. Travel plans for fans from two of the top soccer countries in Africa were thrown into disarray in December, when the Trump administration announced an expanded ban that would effectively bar people from Senegal and Ivory Coast following their teams unless they already have visas. Trump cited "screening and vetting deficiencies" as the main reason for the suspensions. Fans from Iran and Haiti, two other countries that have qualified for the World Cup, will be barred from entering the United States as well; they were included in the first iteration of the travel ban announced by the Trump administration.