Could Trump really move World Cup games? The facts behind his threats

What exactly did Trump say?

Which time? Tuesday was the second time Trump has threatened to take away World Cup games from US host cities on the basis of their political leadership or opposition to his policies. However, it’s important to note that this suggestion of moving games is not something Trump has suggested organically, of his own volition. In both cases, the US president was responding to leading questions centered around the idea of moving games.

On 25 September in an Oval Office event, a member of the White House press corps asked Trump about cities that have demonstrated against Trump’s use of federal agencies for immigration and crime crackdowns. The reporter mentioned Seattle and San Francisco as two cities that have seen demonstrations, and pointed out that both cities are World Cup hosts (though San Francisco is not a host city, but part of the San Francisco Bay Area that will host games at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara). The reporter then asked Trump if the demonstrations could result in the loss of World Cup games from those host venues.

“I guess, but we’re going to make sure they’re safe,” Trump said. “They’re run by radical left lunatics and that don’t know what they’re doing.”

Later Trump said that Chicago would be safe for the World Cup after he sends in federal agencies in a similar manner as Washington DC. Chicago is not a 2026 World Cup host city.

“If any city we think is going to be even a little bit dangerous for the World Cup … we won’t allow it to go to it. We’ll move it around a little bit,” Trump said.

Three weeks later, on 14 October, Trump was asked about another host city, Boston, even though the games themselves will be held in suburban Foxborough, Massachusetts. Towards the end of that day’s press event, a reporter asked Trump about a recent “street takeover” in Boston that saw police officers attacked and a police car set aflame, and if the concerns raised by the incident could result in the revocation of hosting duties for next year’s expanded 48-team soccer tournament. The reporter also asked if Trump would work with Michelle Wu, the Democratic mayor of Boston, to address the issue.

“We could take them away,” Trump said of the World Cup games. “Their mayor is not good … She’s radical left, and they’re taking over parts of Boston. That’s a pretty big statement, right?”

Street takeovers, a social media-driven phenomenon that sees large crowds of people gather on city streets late at night to perform stunts in cars, have been a repeated nuisance in American cities since the Covid-19 pandemic shutdowns. Recent such gatherings have turned violent in Massachusetts, including in Boston. However, the gatherings are generally not seen as being tied to any particular political ideology, nor have they been touted as a large-scale safety concern for World Cup attendees.

“If someone is doing a bad job, and I feel there’s unsafe conditions, I would call Gianni [Infantino], the head of Fifa, who is phenomenal, and say let’s move it to another location,” Trump said on Tuesday. “And he would do that. He wouldn’t love to do it, but he’d do it. Very easily, he’d do it.”

Later in that same event, Trump for the first time broached the possibility of moving the 2028 Olympics from Los Angeles as well.

“If I thought LA was not going to be prepared properly, I would move it to another location if I had to,” he said. “On that one I’d probably have to get a different kind of a permission, but we would do that.”

How has Fifa responded?

So far, Fifa president Gianni Infantino has said nothing publicly about Trump’s threat. He did, however, find time to travel to Egypt to be alongside Trump at the Gaza summit – a curious move for someone whose role in the world is nominally about sports.

Fifa vice-president Victor Montagliani, a Canadian, was far more direct speaking at a London conference in early October, responding to Trump’s comments about Seattle and San Francisco.

“It’s Fifa’s tournament, Fifa’s jurisdiction, Fifa makes those decisions,” Montagliani said. “With all due respect to current world leaders, football is bigger than them and football will survive their regime and their government and their slogans. That’s the beauty of our game, that it is bigger than any individual and bigger than any country.”

A Fifa spokesperson told Politico “Safety and security are of the utmost importance at all FIFA events worldwide and it is ultimately the government’s responsibility to decide what’s in the best interest of public safety. We hope every one of our 16 host cities will be ready to fulfill all necessary requirements for a successful 2026 World Cup.”

Outside of Fifa, Wu responded to Trump’s threat by pointing out that much of Fifa’s host city agreements are “locked down by contract so that no single person, even if they live in the White House currently, can undo it.

“We’re in a world where for drama, for control, for pushing the boundaries … ongoing threats … are issued to individuals and communities who refuse to back down and comply or be obedient to a hateful agenda.”

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