By Nima Tavallaey Roodsari

With the Donald Trump administration considering stricter travel bans, calls are growing for the world football’s governing body FIFIA to consider relocating the 2026 World Cup from the US.

In 2017, during his first presidential term, Donald Trump imposed blanket travel bans on several predominantly Muslim-majority nations, defining new criteria for Muslim visa applicants.

After facing numerous legal challenges and undergoing several revisions, the ban eventually became law.

Now, in its second inning, the Trump administration has proposed a new travel ban that could impact up to 46 countries, most of them Muslim-majority nations.

This new proposal divides these 46 countries into three categories: Full Visa Suspension, Partial Visa Suspension, and Probationary Period.

The countries under the Full Visa Suspension include Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen.

If enacted in its current form, citizens from these countries could face a complete halt in the issuance of US visas. This suspension would prevent their citizens from traveling to the US for any purpose, including tourism, business, or education.

The 10 countries listed under the Partial Visa Suspension are Belarus, Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Turkmenistan.

The final category, the Probationary Period, includes 26 countries: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, São Tomé and Príncipe, Vanuatu, and Zimbabwe.

If this ban is imposed—considering that the FIFA World Cup 2026 is scheduled to be hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico next summer—it would mean that fans of several participating countries would be denied entry based solely on their nationality.

As of now, Iran is the only country on the Full Visa Suspension list to have secured a spot at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

However, the number of potential fans from countries on the Full Visa Suspension, Partial Visa Suspension, and Probationary Period lists who could be affected is significantly higher.

Fans of 5 countries could be banned from the 2026 FIFA World Cup

With four matches remaining in the CONMEBOL qualifiers, Venezuela sits in 7th place. Should Venezuela reach 6th place, they would automatically qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

If they finish 7th, they would participate in the Inter-confederation playoffs, from which a further two countries qualify. 

This play-off tournament involves six teams—one each from AFC, CAF, CONMEBOL, and OFC, and two from CONCACAF.

Adding the African countries listed under the proposed travel ban increases the number of potentially affected nations.

Africa is guaranteed 9 spots in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. With four matches left to play, DR Congo and Cape Verde currently lead their respective groups.

Should they maintain those positions, they would secure direct qualification for the World Cup.

Cameroon and Burkina Faso currently hold second place in their respective groups, while Sierra Leone trails Burkina Faso by three points in third place within the same group.

If either of these countries finishes second, one of them would be eligible to participate in the Inter-confederation playoffs.

At present, that country from CAF is Gabon, with Cameroon three points behind and four matches remaining.

From CONCACAF, St. Kitts and Nevis is the only nation on the proposed ban list with a realistic chance of reaching the Inter-confederation playoffs.

From AFC, only Iran has qualified, and no other nation on the proposed travel ban has a plausible path to the World Cup.

Suppose Cape Verde and DR Congo join Iran in securing direct qualification. Further assume that Cameroon reaches the Inter-confederation playoffs, joined by Venezuela.

Given the format and the relative strength of both Venezuela and Cameroon, they stand a strong chance of winning the final two World Cup spots through the playoffs.

It is therefore highly likely that fans from five countries—Iran, Cape Verde, DR Congo, Cameroon, and Venezuela—will be barred from entering the USA during the World Cup.

That amounts to five countries out of 48 participating nations. In other words, fans from more than 10 percent of the participating countries could be prohibited from attending the World Cup in the host nation.

This is simply unacceptable.

FIFA expanded the World Cup to grow the game

On January 10th, 2017, the FIFA Council voted unanimously to expand the number of participating nations in the 2026 World Cup to 48, starting next year.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino stated that one of the main reasons behind this unanimous decision was to enable “16 more countries that never dreamt of participating in the World Cup” to do so.

FIFA’s motto reads: “For The Game. For The World.” FIFA’s Statutes explicitly declare its objective “to improve the game of football constantly and promote it globally in the light of its unifying, educational, cultural and humanitarian values, particularly through youth and development programmes.”

It further states: “to use its efforts to ensure that the game of football is available to and resourced for all who wish to participate, regardless of gender or age.”

FIFA’s statutes also mandate that: “Discrimination of any kind against a country, private person or group of people on account of race, skin colour, ethnic national or social origin, gender, disability, language, religion, political opinion or any other opinion, wealth, birth or any other status, sexual orientation or any other reason is strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion.”

Furthermore, FIFA maintains: “FIFA remains neutral in matters of politics and religion. Exceptions may be made with regard to matters affected by FIFA’s statutory objectives.”

A blanket ban affecting potentially 10 percent of the fan base from participating countries in FIFA’s most prestigious tournament is a blatant violation of these statutes.

As of today, the US State Department has announced that the travel ban has been postponed, with no timeline for implementation.

However, US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce stated on March 31 that the White House is working on setting a new deadline for the imposition of the restrictions.

The original deadline was March 21. Moreover, if and when these restrictions are enacted, they will follow an Executive Order signed on January 20th, 2025.

This means the legal framework is already in place—it is merely a matter of when the US State Department chooses to implement it.

“The State Department, like every department in President Trump’s administration, are acting on executive orders, including this one,” Bruce said at the time.

This Executive Order clearly violates FIFA’s own statutes, as quoted above.

To sum it up, while it must be acknowledged that every sovereign nation has the right to determine and implement its own migration and immigration policies—this includes the US, Iran, Cape Verde, DR Congo, Cameroon, and Venezuela—no state has an inherent legal right to host FIFA tournaments.

When laws enacted by a country violate FIFA’s statutes, that country should be disqualified from hosting FIFA events. That is, if FIFA truly upholds its own principles.

Unfortunately, FIFA’s inaction regarding the ongoing genocide in Gaza, alongside the illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing in Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon by Israel, suggests that these principles may be little more than empty rhetoric.

Nima Tavallaey Roodsari is a football journalist and podcast host based in Sweden. He tweets at @NimaTavRood

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.