Amnesty International warned this summer’s World Cup, spread across three North American countries and beginning in June, risks becoming a “stage for repression” in a report published Monday.
The London-based human rights organization’s report, titled Humanity Must Win, called on FIFA and host countries Canada, Mexico and the US to take urgent action to protect fans, players and other communities.
FIFA has promised a tournament where everyone “feels safe, included and free to exercise their rights.” Amnesty said that pledge sits in “stark contrast” to conditions on the ground in all three host nations, especially the US, which hosts three-quarters of the 104 matches.
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Amnesty described the US as facing a “human rights emergency” under US President Donald Trump’s presidency, marked by mass deportations, arbitrary arrests and “paramilitary-style” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations.
The acting director of ICE said last month the agency would be “a key part of the overall security apparatus for the World Cup.” This comes despite anger at the killing of two US citizens who were protesting aggressive ICE raids in January.
Amnesty said none of the published host city plans address how fans or local communities would be protected from ICE operations.
Fans from four nations taking part this summer — Ivory Coast, Haiti, Iran and Senegal — face US travel bans and LGBTQ fan groups from England and across Europe have said they would not attend matches in the US, citing threats to transgender supporters in particular.
“This World Cup is very far from the ‘medium risk’ tournament that FIFA once judged it to be, and urgent efforts are needed to bridge the growing gap between the tournament’s original promise and today’s reality,” the report said.
FIFA said earlier this month the 48-team tournament — the biggest World Cup in history — would proceed “as scheduled” with all teams taking part, despite uncertainty over Iran’s presence due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
The global soccer governing body, which has been heavily criticized over its decision to award a newly created “Peace Prize” to President Trump in December last year, stands to earn US$11 billion from the tournament cycle.
“While FIFA generates record revenues from the 2026 World Cup, fans, communities, players, journalists and workers cannot be made to pay the price,” said Steve Cockburn, Amnesty’s head of economic and social justice.
“It is these people — not governments, sponsors or FIFA — to whom soccer belongs, and their rights must be at the center of the tournament,” he said.
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