Trump ‘will move’ World Cup games from ‘unsafe’ cities

Donald Trump, the president of the United States, has stated that he will move games from any cities he believes are unsafe to the 2026 World Cup.

The 48-team tournament that Canada and Mexico will co-host will be held in 11 US cities this summer.

78 of the 104 matches, including the final, will be held in the US.

Any changes to the schedule now or at a later time would cause logistical difficulties because the world’s governing body, Fifa, is in charge of organizing the tournament and choosing host cities.

Despite having a close working relationship with its president Gianni Infantino and serving as the head of the World Cup taskforce, it is unclear whether Trump has the authority to make these changes.

Trump in the Oval Office declared, “The World Cup will be safe.” We’ll relocate it to a different city if we think it’s unsafe.

Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle are the 11 host cities in the United States.

Trump was specifically questioned about matches in San Francisco and Seattle, which are both run by Democrats. Both have six games scheduled.

He also mentioned Los Angeles, a second Democratic hotspot that will host the 2028 Olympics and eight other events in the coming year.

We won’t allow it to go if any city we believe will be even a little risky for the World Cup, or the Olympics, but for the World Cup in particular because so many cities are hosting it. He said, “We’ll move it a little bit.”

Trump has made combating crime a top priority on his agenda. Despite reports that crime has decreased since it last spiked in 2023, he sent National Guard troops and federal officers to Washington, DC, last month.

He claimed that he had plans to send troops into Chicago and Memphis as well.

He sent 2, 000 National Guardsmen to Los Angeles in June to deal with unrest caused by illegal immigration raids.

On December 5th, in Washington, DC, the group stage of the World Cup will be drawn.

The tournament will run from June 11 through July 19th.

Trump has mentioned the World Cup before for the first time.

He claimed in May that Russia’s participation in the tournament might serve as an “incentive” to the end of Ukraine’s conflict.

Despite the fact that the Russian national football team has already qualified for the World Cup after being exempt from international competition by Fifa and Uefa following their country’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

He claimed that the tournament would benefit from the US’s co-hosts Canada and Mexico’s political and economic tensions in March.