The idea and calls to boycott the 2026 World Cup have begun to find increasing resonance within European football circles, against the backdrop of controversial political positions taken by US President Donald Trump, which opened the door to a wide debate about the feasibility of organizing the tournament in the United States, according to what the Canadian News Agency reported via the RDS network.
In this context, Uke Gottlich, Vice President of the German Football Association and President of the German club St. Pauli, called for serious consideration of the boycott option, considering that the time has come to put this possibility on the table and discuss it clearly within European football institutions, according to statements reported by the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper. He stressed that, in his view, the current political risks outweigh those that justified the boycott of the Olympic Games in the 1980s.
In the background of this controversy, Trump’s recent policies emerged, which sparked severe tension with a number of European countries, especially after he announced his desire to buy the island of Greenland, which is administratively affiliated with Denmark, a member of NATO, and the subsequent threats to impose customs duties on European countries that opposed this proposal, according to the same source. These are steps that European capitals saw as an indication of a possible rift within the Western alliance, which directly reflects on the image of the host country of the World Cup.
From another angle, Gottlich rejected the proposition that the boycott would directly harm the players, stressing that human values must take precedence over sporting interests. In this regard, he said that the life of a professional football player cannot be more valuable than the lives of people who are directly or indirectly threatened by the policies of the state organizing the tournament, according to what was reported by the Canadian News Agency.
It is noteworthy that the St. Pauli club, which is based in the city of Hamburg, is historically known for combining its sporting positions with clear political and social options, with a leftist orientation, which made it a unique case within German football, whether through its public positions or its symbols that reflect a deep-rooted protest culture among its fans.
It seems that the controversy surrounding the 2026 World Cup is likely to escalate in the coming months, especially if these individual statements turn into official positions within major European federations, which may put FIFA before an unprecedented political test, according to European media estimates.
@Alaa Omri
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