- U.S. President Donald Trump claims that he’ll move 2026 World Cup games out of Boston due to “unrest”.
- He said FIFA President Gianni Infantino would move the games, although he wouldn’t want to.
- Trump has also said he’d move games out of the Bay Area, Seattle, and potentially the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
American President Donald Trump is threatening to move 2026 World Cup games out of Boston, which is the latest city to receive these warnings from the President.
Trump would have to ask FIFA president Gianni Infantino to move these games, and it’ll be interesting to see if Infantino bends to Trump’s will.
Trump Says Infantino Would Do What He Wanted “Very Easily”
Trump made the remarks on Tuesday.
Trump is claiming that Boston is unsafe and has been “taken over” in some parts, although he didn’t specify anything. There was a pro-Palestinian protest recently in which there was some violence, but Trump didn’t offer any details. He also claimed that Boston Mayor Michelle Wu “is not good”.
Wu responded with a statement:
"Boston is honored and excited to host World Cup matches, and we look forward to welcoming fans from around the world to our beautiful city, the cradle of liberty and city of champions."
It is actually up to FIFA to move the games, which would be a headache with the World Cup only eight months away. FIFA vice president Victor Montagliani said recently, “It’s FIFA’s tournament, FIFA’s jurisdiction; FIFA makes those decisions,”. However, Trump has said that he’d go straight to FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who “wouldn’t love to do it, but he’d do it, very easily”.
Boston isn’t the first city that has received these threats from Trump.
What Other Cities Has Trump Threatened to Move Their Games?
About three weeks ago, Trump stated that he would look into moving World Cup games from cities he didn’t think were safe enough. Seattle and San Francisco, both Democrat-led cities, are also in the crosshairs of Trump.
He also said that moving the 2028 Olympics from Los Angeles is an option, as he has had a long-running feud with California governor Gavin Newsome.
Trump doesn’t have the authority to make these changes, and again, it would be incredibly difficult to make this happen. This isn’t moving a high school football game from one field to another; this is the World Cup.
However, he is close with Infantino, who has been the FIFA president since February 2016. It would be a tremendous headache for Infantino to move games from cities that don’t cooperate with Trump, even eight months away. You might see markets at soccer betting sites on the odds of this actually happening, and it’ll be interesting to see which side is favored.
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