What the Trump travel ban means for the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympic Games
Associated Press
GENEVA (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump often says the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Los Angeles Olympics are among the events he is most excited about in his second term.
Yet there is significant uncertainty regarding visa policies for foreign visitors planning trips to the U.S. for the two biggest events in sports.
Trump's latest travel ban on citizens from 12 countries added new questions about the impact on the World Cup and the Summer Olympics, which depend on hosts opening their doors to the world.
Here's a look at the potential effects of the travel ban on those events. What is the travel ban policy?
When Sunday ticks over to Monday, citizens of 12 countries should be banned from entering the U.S.
They are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
Tighter restrictions will apply to visitors from seven more: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Trump said some countries had 'deficient' screening and vetting processes or have historically refused to take back their own citizens. How does it affect the World Cup and Olympics?
Iran, a soccer power in Asia, is the only targeted country to qualify so far for the World Cup being co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico in one year's time.
Cuba, Haiti and Sudan are in contention. Sierra Leone might stay involved through multiple playoff games. Burundi, Equatorial Guinea and Libya have very outside shots.
But all should be able to send teams to the World Cup if they qualify because the new policy makes exceptions for 'any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives, traveling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting event as determined by the secretary of state.'
About 200 countries could send athletes to the Summer Games, including those targeted by the latest travel restrictions. The exceptions should apply to them as well if the ban is still in place in its current form. What about fans?
The travel ban doesn't mention any exceptions for fans from the targeted countries wishing to travel to the U.S. for the World Cup or Olympics.
Even before the travel ban, fans of the Iran soccer team living in that country already had issues about getting a visa for a World Cup visit.
Still, national team supporters often profile differently to fans of club teams who go abroad for games in international competitions like the UEFA Champions League.
For many countries, fans traveling to the World Cup — an expensive travel plan with hiked flight and hotel prices — are often from the diaspora, wealthier, and could have different passport options.
A World Cup visitor is broadly higher-spending and lower-risk for host nation security planning.
Visitors to an Olympics are often even higher-end clients, though tourism for a Summer Games is significantly less than at a World Cup, with fewer still from most of the 19 countries now targeted. How is the U.S. working with FIFA, Olympic officials?
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has publicly built close ties since 2018 to Trump — too close according to some. He has cited the need to ensure FIFA's smooth operations at a tournament that will earn a big majority of the soccer body's expected $13 billion revenue from 2023-26.
Infantino sat next to Trump at the White House task force meeting on May 6 which prominently included Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. FIFA's top delegate on the task force is Infantino ally Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs partner whose two-year run as U.S. Soccer Federation president ended in controversy in 2020.
Any visa and security issues FIFA faces — including at the 32-team Club World Cup that kicks off next week in Miami — can help LA Olympics organizers finesse their plans.
'I don't anticipate any, any problems from any countries to come and participate,' LA Games chairman Casey Wasserman told International Olympic Committee officials in March.
He revealed then, at an IOC meeting in Greece, two discreet meetings with Trump and noted the State Department has a 'fully staffed desk' to help prepare for short-notice visa processing in the summer of 2028 — albeit with a focus on teams rather than fans.
'Irrespective of politics today,' Wasserman said in March, 'America will be open and accepting to all 209 countries for the Olympics.'
FIFA and the IOC didn't immediately respond to requests for comment about the new Trump travel ban. What have other host nations done?
The 2018 World Cup host Russia let fans enter the country with a game ticket doubling as their visa. So did Qatar four years later.
Both governments, however, also performed background checks on all visitors coming to the month-long soccer tournaments.
Governments have refused entry to unwelcome visitors. For the 2012 London Olympics, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko — who is still its authoritarian leader today — was denied a visa despite also leading its national Olympic body. The IOC also suspended him from the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021.
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and AP Olympics at https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
recommended
in this topic
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hamilton Spectator
10 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Tarik Skubal stars as the Tigers top the Cubs 3-1 in a matchup of division leaders
DETROIT (AP) — Tarik Skubal pitched one-run ball into the eighth inning, and Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago Cubs 3-1 on Friday night in the opener of a weekend series between two of the majors' best teams. Skubal (6-2) allowed eight hits, struck out six and walked none in 7 2/3 innings. In his past 11 starts, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner is 6-0 with a 1.61 ERA, 95 strikeouts and three walks. Skubal left with runners on the corners, then had to wait out a dramatic moment. Seiya Suzuki lifted a deep flyball to right off Will Vest, but Kerry Carpenter reached above the wall to keep Detroit in front. Vest got four outs for his 10th save. Cubs right-hander Ben Brown (3-4) permitted two runs and seven hits in seven innings. Spencer Torkelson and Jahmai Jones homered for the AL Central-leading Tigers. The Tigers jumped in front in the fifth on an RBI single by Gleyber Torres, but the NL Central-leading Cubs responded with Kyle Tucker's run-scoring double in the sixth. That ended Skubal's scoreless streak at 20 innings, matching his career high. Torkelson made it 2-1 when he connected for his 15th homer in the bottom half. Jones went deep in the eighth in his Tigers debut, belting a pinch-hit drive off Génesis Cabrera. The game, attended by a large contingent of Cubs fans, drew a crowd of 40,132 for the third sellout at Comerica Park this season.
CNN
11 minutes ago
- CNN
Officers throw flash bangs to disperse crowd protesting immigration enforcement in Los Angeles
Federal immigration authorities carried out enforcement activities at businesses across Los Angeles on Friday, prompting clashes outside at least one location as authorities threw flash bangs to try to disperse a crowd that had gathered in protest. Immigration advocates confirmed at least 45 people were arrested without warrants across seven locations, including two Home Depots, a store in the fashion district and a doughnut shop, said Angelica Salas, executive director for the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, at an afternoon press conference denouncing the activity. Federal immigration authorities have been ramping up arrests across the country to fulfill President Donald Trump's promise of mass deportations. Todd Lyons, the head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended his tactics earlier this week against criticism that authorities are being too heavy-handed. He has said ICE is averaging about 1,600 arrests per day and that the agency has arrested 'dangerous criminals.' Protests recently broke out after an immigration action at a restaurant in San Diego and in Minneapolis when federal officials in tactical gear showed up in a Latino neighborhood for an operation they said was about a criminal case, not immigration. In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass said the activity was meant to 'sow terror.' 'As Mayor of a proud city of immigrants, who contribute to our city in so many ways, I am deeply angered by what has taken place. These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city,' Bass said. Salas, of CHIRLA, echoed that language. 'Our community is under attack and is being terrorized. These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers, and this has to stop. Immigration enforcement that is terrorizing our families throughout this country and picking up our people that we love must stop now,' Salas said, surrounded by a crowd holding signs protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE declined to discuss the details of its operations. The agency said it routinely makes arrests of noncitizens 'who commit crimes and other individuals who have violated our nation's immigration laws,' said an emailed statement from an unnamed spokesperson. Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe, a spokesperson for Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of ICE, told the Los Angeles Times that federal agents were executing search warrants related to the harboring of people illegally in the country. In Los Angeles, videos from bystanders and television news crews captured people being walked across a Home Depot parking lot by federal agents as well as clashes that broke out at other detention sites. KTLA showed aerial footage of agents outside a clothing store in the fashion district leading detainees out of a building and toward two large white vans waiting just outside in a parking lot. The hands of the detained individuals were tied behind their backs. The agents patted them down before loading them into the vans. The agents wore vests with the agency acronyms FBI, ICE and HSI for Homeland Security Investigations. Armed agents used yellow police tape to keep crowds on the street and sidewalk away from the operations. Aerial footage of the same location broadcast by KABC-TV showed officers throwing smoke bombs or flash bangs on the street to disperse the people so they could drive away in SUVs, vans and military-style vehicles. The station showed one person running backward with their hands on the hood of a moving white SUV in an apparent attempt to block the vehicle. The person fell backward, landing flat on the ground. The SUV backed up, drove around the individual and sped off as others on the street threw objects at it. Immigrant-rights advocates used megaphones to speak to the workers, reminding them of their constitutional rights and instructing them not to sign anything or say anything to federal agents, the Los Angeles Times reported. Katia Garcia, 18, left school when she learned her father, 37-year-old Marco Garcia, may have been targeted. Katia Garcia, a US citizen, said her father is undocumented and has been in the US for 20 years. 'We never thought this would happen to us,' she told the Los Angeles Times. Eleven of the LA City Council's 15 members issued a statement accusing federal immigration agencies of 'an egregious escalation.' 'This indiscriminate targeting of children and families not only harms the individuals who are directly impacted, but destroys our communities' sense of trust and safety in their own homes,' the statement said.
USA Today
12 minutes ago
- USA Today
Simone Biles shows her greatness again in standing up for transgender community
Simone Biles shows her greatness again in standing up for transgender community | Opinion Show Caption Hide Caption Simone Biles' impact looms large over gymnastics, Olympics After a dominant performance at the Paris Olympics, USA TODAY's Nancy Armour says Simone Biles has cemented her legacy as the greatest gymnast. Simone Biles is the GOAT in every sense of the word. The seven-time Olympic champion stood up for transgender athletes Friday night, taking to X to chastise Riley Gaines for the relentless verbal abuse she directs at transgender girls and women. 'You're truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race. Straight up sore loser,' Biles wrote. 'You should be uplifting the trans community and perhaps finding a way to make sports more inclusive OR creating a new avenue where trans feel safe in sports. Maybe a transgender category in ALL SPORTS!! 'But instead… You bully them…' Biles continued. 'One thing for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!' Biles then added in a second post, 'Bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.' Gaines replied that Biles' post was 'so disappointing.' Which is just further proof that Gaines needs to get out of her right-wing bubble a bit more. Anyone who is even slightly familiar with Biles knows she is an ally. Of her teammates. Of her competitors. Of sexual abuse survivors. And unabashedly of the LGBTQ community. She also has little use for anyone who punches down on others, which is Gaines' specialty. Gaines has used her tie for fifth place with Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, in the 200-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA championships to become a MAGA media darling. But her grifting has done real harm to the transgender community, which is already at an elevated risk for suicide and self-harm. There is no scientific evidence that transgender women athletes have a physical advantage over cisgender women athletes, but that hasn't stopped Gaines from claiming they do. She insists they are 'robbing' cisgender women of places on the podium, and she doesn't care if it's a 12- or 22-year-old that she's putting in harm's way in this overheated climate where ignorance and violence are celebrated equally. Gaines has publicly lobbied for Biles and Caitlin Clark to support her in her hate which, again, is a laughable idea to anyone who has followed Biles' illustrious career. Biles is the most decorated gymnast of all time, man or woman, with 11 medals at the Olympics — seven of them gold — and 30 at the world championships. She has five skills named after her, two each on vault and floor exercise and one on balance beam. She has taken the idea that women's gymnastics was a sport reserved for the young and turned it on its head, still dominating in her late 20s. That has not spared Biles from the venom of keyboard warriors like Gaines, however. She was criticized for withdrawing during the team finals at the Tokyo Olympics because of a case of 'the twisties,' never minding that not knowing where she was in the air meant she very well could have landed on her neck instead of her feet. She's taken heat for her hair, her marriage, even her self-confidence. But you don't accomplish what Biles has without being fearless, and her admonishment of Gaines on Friday night was yet another example. Gaines had inserted herself into the conversation about the Class 4A softball championship in Minnesota, claiming Champlin Park had 'hijacked' the title because its star pitcher is a transgender young woman. Never mind that there are nine players on a softball team and Champlin Park won the title game 6-0. Or that her teammates 'love having her out there. She's a great kid and a great teammate.' Gaines has never let facts get in her way, so she posted three times about it in a two-hour span. Made sure to mention the name of the transgender athlete, as well, while purposely misgendering her. That was enough for Biles. That high school junior in Minnesota and all the other transgender women Gaines demonizes might not have platforms large enough to counter her vitriol, but Biles does. And she was happy to put it to good use. Most of us could never do what Biles does as a gymnast. But we can do what she does as a human: Be kind. Defend the most marginalized. And when you get the opportunity to stick up to a bully, do it at full throat. In a world of Riley Gaineses, be a Simone Biles. Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
