Bitter Sepp Blatter has one message to soccer followers ‘boycott the World Cup’
Former FIFA president Sepp has backed a Swiss lawyer who said we should stay away from the tournament – although he may have another reason
Blatter says we should boycott the World Cup(Image: PA)
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter said fans should boycott the World Cup. Blatter spoke out after Swiss lawyer Mark Pieth, who has worked with tournament organiser FIFA, urged supporters to stay away from the US due to safety fears.
Pieth cited the killing of protester Renee Good by an American immigration agent in Minneapolis earlier this month as one reason fans should not travel. A second US citizen Alex Pretti died last weekend.
Blatter said he backed Pieth’s stance. The ex-football chief quoted Pieth on X saying: “For the fans, there’s only one piece of advice: stay away from the USA! I think Mark Pieth is right to question this World Cup.”
The tournament is due to be hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19. Pieth said in an interview with a Swiss newspaper: “What we are seeing domestically – the marginalisation of political opponents, abuses by immigration services, etc – hardly encourages fans to go there.
“For fans, just one piece of advice: avoid the United States! “You’ll get a better view on television anyway. Upon arrival fans should expect that if they don’t behave properly with the authorities they will be immediately sent home. If they’re lucky.”
Blatter, 89, became FIFA’s eighth president in 1998. He stepped down in 2015 amid a series of scandals and was replaced by current chief Gianni Infantino who has forged close ties with US President Donald Trump.
Blatter and former UEFA chief Michel Platini were last year acquitted of corruption charges. They stemmed from a delayed payment of £1.9m FIFA made to Platini in 2011 for consultancy services.
Blatter has been banned from taking part in FIFA activities until 2027. We told yesterday how Germany is considering a World Cup boycott after Trump threatened to hit tournament co-hosts Canada with a 100% trade tariff.
The US President has vowed to bring in the sanction if Canada teams up with China in a trade war against America.
Oke Gottlich, vice-president of the German Football Association, said the time had come to consider refusing to play. Mr Gottlich, who is president of Bundesliga club FC St Pauli, told a German newspaper: “I really wonder when the time will be to think and talk about this concretely. For me that time has definitely come.”
Trump – who was awarded FIFA’s peace prize when the tournament’s draw took place – has since threatened to take over Greenland and impose tariffs on European nations opposing his plans.
He has brought in an immigration policy that excludes fans travelling to the US from Haiti, Iran, Senegal and the Ivory Coast – all of which are due to play.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement – aka ICE – agents shot two people dead in Minneapolis this month. Trump has also threatened to move matches from cities if their governors or mayors do not ‘behave’.
Gottlich drew parallels with the Cold War era highlighting the US-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
He said: “What were the justifications for the boycotts of the Olympic Games in the 1980s? By my reckoning the potential threat is greater now than it was then. We need to have this discussion.”
Roderich Kiesewetter, who sits on the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee, has said: “If Trump follows through on his announcements and threats regarding Greenland and starts a trade war with the EU it’s hard for me to imagine European countries participating in the World Cup.”
German Football Association president Bernd Neuendorf said a boycott would be ‘misguided at this point in time’ adding his No2 had ‘jumped the gun’.
But Gottlich doubled down on his feelings, telling Sportschau: “Personally, I would advise against traveling given the current situation in the country. I may disagree with many of my colleagues.”
He said as a democrat he would go with the majority of the association on whether or not to send a team.
