2026 World Cup/boycott debate: “Let us instead strengthen the unifying power of sport” (DFB)

"We believe in the unifying power of sport and in the global impact a football World Cup can have. Our objective is to strengthen this positive force, not to prevent it," said the executive committee of the German Football Association following its meeting on 30/01/2026, in response to calls for a boycott of the 2026 World Cup as a sign of disapproval of the domestic and international policies of Donald J. Trump, president of the United States (brutality by immigration police, intervention in Venezuela, threats against Greenland).

"We want to compete against the other qualified teams in a fair tournament during the summer of 2026. And we want fans from all over the world to be able to celebrate football peacefully in stadiums and fan zones, as we experienced during Euro 2024 in our own country," declared the DFB.

FIFA awarded the hosting of the 23^rd World Cup - the first with 48 teams, compared with 32 from 1998 to 2022 - to three Concacaf zone Federations (US Soccer, FMF and Canada Soccer), at the Congress meeting in Moscow (RUS) on 13/06/2018. The United States will host 78 of the…