The move comes after the US President threatened to hit Canada with a 100% trade tariffs. Comparisons have been made to the US-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics
Germany is considering boycotting the World Cup after Donald 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. The clash is the latest in a series of political dust-ups threatening to derail a football tournament organisers FIFA hope will unite the world when it kicks off in June.
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.”
He accused FIFA of inconsistency pointing to the controversy surrounding the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Gottlich said: “Qatar was too political for everyone and now we’re completely apolitical? That’s something that really, really, really bothers me.”
He challenged football’s governing bodies to define their moral limits – including FIFA president Gianni Infantino and German football chief Bernd Neuendorf.
“As organisations and society we’re forgetting how to set taboos and boundaries and how to defend values,” he said.
“Taboos are an essential part of our stance. Is a taboo crossed when someone threatens? Is a taboo crossed when someone attacks? When people die?”
“I would like to know from Donald Trump when he has reached his taboo, and I would like to know from Bernd Neuendorf and Gianni Infantino.”
Gottlich rejected suggestions a boycott would penalise players. “The life of a professional player is not worth more than the lives of countless people in various regions who are being directly or indirectly attacked or threatened by the World Cup host,” he said.
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 sports minister Christiane Schenderlein said any decision on a boycott would rest with the nation’s football federation and ‘not with politicians’.
Anja Lilli Beikes, who sits on the board of the Danish Football Fan Association, said there had been concern among members in relation to security and dynamic ticket prices even before the escalated Greenland threats. Denmark is trying to qualify for the tournament via the play-offs.
“The US is very unpopular in Denmark at the moment,” Anja said.
“During the last year Danish travel companies experienced a huge fall in the sale of trips to the US. Lots of football fans are discussing whether Denmark should actually boycott the World Cup because FIFA is also enormously unpopular in Denmark.
“Honestly – and this is my personal opinion – I do not think that many Danish fans will come to the World Cup if we qualify. Some fans would maybe travel to the two matches in Mexico but I do not think we will see many Danish fans in the US.
“I, and some of my fellow fans, actually think it would probably be better not to qualify.”
Trump’s strict immigration rules have already hit other sports. The Senegalese women’s basketball team cancelled a training camp in the US last year after five players and six staff members had their visa applications rejected.
Some members of the Ethiopian team for the world cross-country championships were denied visas earlier this month. While the South Korean baseball player Lee Jung-hoo found himself briefly detained last week.
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