In Europe, an increase in calls for a boycott of the World Cup was reported due to US policy

In Europe, calls have begun to be heard more often to boycott the 2026 World Cup, which is scheduled to take place this summer in three North American countries – the United States, Canada and Mexico. This was reported by Time magazine on January 27.

Among the reasons for such measures are the actions of US President Donald Trump in relation to Venezuela and Greenland, as well as concerns about the events in Minneapolis, where Immigration police officers shot two people during two incidents.

"Calls for a boycott of the World Cup are increasingly being heard in Europe, and the suitability of the United States for hosting the tournament is being questioned," the article says.

The popular Dutch TV presenter Theun van de Keuken is distributing a petition calling on the Dutch authorities to withdraw from the tournament. At the same time, she has already collected more than 140 thousand signatures, the newspaper Diario AS reports.

"We do not want our football players to indirectly support Trump's policy of violent terrorism against innocent immigrants, regardless of whether they have an American passport or not," the petition says.

French leftist MP Eric Coquerel is also calling for a boycott of the event. Claude Le Roy, a well-known French football coach who led a number of African national teams, pointed out that the American leader's reduction in humanitarian aid to African countries is an excuse that the head of the White House "does not deserve" the prestige of the World Cup.

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On January 27, former President of the International Football Federation (FIFA) Joseph Blatter supported the proposed boycott of the World Cup matches, most of which will be held in the United States. He supported the initiative of Swiss lawyer and anti-corruption expert Mark Pit, who previously headed the Independent FIFA Reform Management Committee, to announce a boycott of the matches.

On January 20, the president of the German football club St. Pauli, a member of the executive board of the Bundesliga and the football Union, Oke Gottlich, called for a boycott of the 2026 FIFA World Cup due to US threats against Greenland. French football veteran Claude Le Roy also expressed concern about the issue, stressing that the possibility of a boycott of the tournament should be discussed.

On the same day, CNN learned about the discussion in Europe about the boycott of the World Cup in the United States because of Greenland, and the representative of the parliamentary faction of the Christian Democratic and Christian Social Unions (CDU/CSU) Jurgen Hardt had previously proposed a boycott of the World Cup on January 16.

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