World Cup boycott: Donald Trump's America looks like Nazi Germany – but African football shouldn’t pay the price
The FIFA World Cup trophy on display. The 2026 tournament will get underway on June 11 when co-host Mexico face 2010 hosts South Africa at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. The match will take place exactly 16 years after their historic encounter at Soccer City in Johannesburg.
Image: SAFA
Terrible things are happening in Donald Trump’s United States of America.
In scenes resembling those from Nazi Germany, masked ICE thugs representing the government are driving around cities, picking up people deemed “undesirable”, slapping handcuffs on them, and throwing them in the back of vans. That's straight out of the Gestapo playbook.
If you have dark skin or an accent, you’re a target. And anyone who stands up against it gets shot in the face. Terrible, terrible things are happening in the United States, which will later this year be one of the co-hosts for the FIFA World Cup.
A week ago, Trump’s administration placed an indefinite pause on immigrant visa processing from 75 countries, 26 of them from Africa. White Afrikaners are okay, though. Trump has repeatedly peddled the racist lie that white South Africans are being persecuted, so he’s letting them in.
The policy of the Trump administration is clear – If you’re white, you’re welcome. If not, stay where you are.
It’s with all of this, plus the abduction of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro, that there have been growing calls to boycott the 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Former Cameroon head coach Claude Le Roy, who guided the country to the Africa Cup of Nations title in 1988, has suggested that African nations should lead the boycott on the tournament.
"Does Donald Trump deserve to host a football World Cup? I don't think so, and it's time people spoke up," the 77-year-old Frenchman who also coached Ghana and Senegal among others, was quoted as saying by French publication Le Monde.
Even with the justified moral outrage around Trump and the discriminatory policies of his administration, an African boycott of the FIFA World Cup would mostly punish the wrong people. It would hurt African players, fans, and federations, while FIFA, broadcasters, and host governments absorb the disruption with little lasting damage.
Worse, a boycott would weaken African football politically and economically. The expanded 2026 tournament offers historic opportunity, and walking away would reduce the influence of the Confederation of African Football inside FIFA.
An African boycott would not change Trump. His policies would stand, and a toothless FIFA would smile, wave, and likely hand him another hollow prize for “unity”.
The truth is that boycotting the World Cup may feel righteous, but it would be another act of sacrifice demanded from Africa while those in power carry on untouched. Trump would not be shamed, FIFA would not be forced to act, and the tournament would roll on with carefully worded statements and empty gestures.
The real cost would be paid by African players denied their biggest stage, and African fans robbed of visibility. Yes, moral outrage matters, but if it only deepens existing inequalities, it risks becoming yet another victory for the very system it seeks to oppose.
IOL Sport
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