{"id":11488270,"date":"2025-06-05T11:45:54","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T15:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/?p=11488270&preview=true&preview_id=11488270"},"modified":"2025-06-05T17:47:49","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T21:47:49","slug":"trump-travel-ban-world-cup-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2025\/06\/05\/trump-travel-ban-world-cup-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"What the Trump travel ban means for the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics in the US"},"content":{"rendered":"

GENEVA \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump often says the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Los Angeles Olympics are among the events he is most excited about in his second term.<\/p>\n

Yet there is significant uncertainty regarding visa policies for foreign visitors planning trips to the U.S. for the two biggest events in sports.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s latest travel ban on citizens from 12 countries<\/a> added new questions about the impact on the World Cup and Olympics, which depend on hosts opening their doors to the world.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look at the potential effects of the travel ban on those events.<\/p>\n

What is the travel ban policy?<\/h4>\n

When Sunday ticks over to Monday, citizens of 12 countries should be banned from entering the U.S.<\/p>\n

They are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.<\/p>\n

Tighter restrictions will apply to visitors from seven more: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Trump said some countries had \u201cdeficient\u201d screening and vetting processes or have historically refused to take back their own citizens.<\/p>\n

How does it affect the World Cup and Olympics?<\/h4>\n

Iran, a soccer power in Asia, is the only targeted country to qualify so far for the World Cup being co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico in one year\u2019s time.<\/p>\n

Cuba, Haiti and Sudan are in contention. Sierra Leone might stay involved through multiple playoff games. Burundi, Equatorial Guinea and Libya have very outside shots.<\/p>\n

But all should be able to send teams to the World Cup if they qualify because the new policy makes exceptions for \u201cany athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role and immediate relatives, traveling for the World Cup, Olympics or other major sporting event as determined by the secretary of state.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 200 countries could send athletes to the Summer Games, including those targeted by the latest travel restrictions. The exceptions should apply to them as well if the ban is still in place in its current form.<\/p>\n

What about fans?<\/h4>\n

The travel ban doesn\u2019t mention any exceptions for fans from the targeted countries wishing to travel to the U.S. for the World Cup or Olympics.<\/p>\n

Even before the travel ban, fans of the Iranian soccer team living in that country already had issues about getting a visa for a World Cup visit.<\/p>\n

Still, national team supporters often profile differently to fans of club teams who go abroad for games in international competitions such as the UEFA Champions League.<\/p>\n

For many countries, fans traveling to the World Cup \u2014 an expensive travel plan with hiked flight and hotel prices \u2014 are often from the diaspora, wealthier and could have different passport options.<\/p>\n

A World Cup visitor is broadly higher-spending and lower-risk for host-nation security planning.<\/p>\n

Visitors to an Olympics are often even higher-end clients, though tourism for a Summer Games is significantly less than at a World Cup, with fewer still from most of the 19 countries now targeted.<\/p>\n

How is the U.S. working with FIFA and Olympic officials?<\/h4>\n

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has publicly built close ties since 2018 to Trump \u2014 too close according to some. He has cited the need to ensure FIFA\u2019s smooth operations at a tournament that will earn a big majority of the soccer body\u2019s expected $13 billion revenue from 2023-26.<\/p>\n

Infantino sat next to Trump at the White House task force meeting on May 6 that prominently included Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. FIFA\u2019s top delegate on the task force is Infantino ally Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs partner whose two-year run as U.S. Soccer Federation president ended in controversy in 2020.<\/p>\n

Any visa and security issues FIFA faces \u2014 including at the 32-team Club World Cup that kicks off next week in Miami \u2014 can help LA Olympics organizers finesse their plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very clear in the directive that the Olympics require special consideration, and I actually want to thank the federal government for recognizing that,” LA28 Chairman and President Casey Wasserman said Thursday in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very clear that the federal government understands that that\u2019s an environment that they will be accommodating and provide for. We have great confidence that that will only continue. It has been the case to date and it will certainly be the case going forward through the games.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March, at an IOC meeting in Greece, Wasserman said he had two discreet meetings with Trump and noted the State Department has a “fully staffed desk\u201d to help prepare for short-notice visa processing in the summer of 2028 \u2014 albeit with a focus on teams rather than fans.<\/p>\n

IOC member Nicole Hoevertsz, who is chair of the Coordination Commission for LA28, expressed \u201cevery confidence\u201d that the U.S. government will cooperate, as it did in hosting previous Olympics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is something that we will be definitely looking at and making sure that it is guaranteed as well,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are very confident that this is going to be accomplished. I\u2019m sure this is going to be executed well.”<\/p>\n

FIFA didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment about the new Trump travel ban.<\/p>\n

What have other host nations done?<\/h4>\n

The 2018 World Cup host, Russia, let fans enter the country with a game ticket doubling as their visa. So did Qatar four years later.<\/p>\n

Both governments, however, also performed background checks on all visitors coming to the monthlong soccer tournaments.<\/p>\n

Governments have refused entry to unwelcome visitors. For the 2012 London Olympics, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko \u2014 who is still its authoritarian leader \u2014 was denied a visa despite also leading its national Olympic body. The IOC also suspended him from the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021.<\/p>\n

AP’s Beth Harris in Los Angeles contributed.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump\u2019s latest travel ban on citizens from 12 countries added new questions about the impact on the World Cup and Olympics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":11488271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-06-05T17:06:34Z","apple_news_api_id":"482c2085-276f-4b98-81a0-c747bfe5535f","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-06-05T21:47:49Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ASCwghSdvS5iBoMdHv-VTXw","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"middle","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"subheadline":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[111,112,101],"tags":[],"feature":[],"location":[],"type-of-work":[],"coauthors":[25455],"class_list":["post-11488270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-olympics","category-soccer","category-sports"],"post_status":"","edit_last":0,"edit_lock":0,"highlights":"","original_byline":"","original_canonical":"","original_category":"","original_email":"","original_id":0,"original_pubdate":"","original_source":"","primary_section":"101","primary_tag":0,"print_workflow_body":"","print_workflow_exported_ts":"","print_workflow_exported_username":"","print_workflow_shapes":"","print_workflow_side":"","really_short_title":"","short_title":"","syndication_source":{"canonical":"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2025\/06\/05\/trump-travel-ban-world-cup-olympics","id":"cG9zdDoyMjkxMzg1Mg==","siteName":"Chicago Tribune","syndicationSourceStack":[{"canonical":"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/2025\/06\/05\/trump-travel-ban-world-cup-olympics","id":"cG9zdDoyMjkxMzg1Mg==","siteName":"Chicago Tribune","sourceUrl":"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com"}],"source_url":"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com"},"market_neutral_title":"","social_title":"","dfm_hub_post_id":0,"paywall_level":"metered","featured_media_content":{"content_type":"image","content":{"id":11488271,"title":"Trump_FIFA_88612-1","filename":"Trump_FIFA_88612-1.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Trump_FIFA_88612-1.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2025\/06\/05\/trump-travel-ban-world-cup-olympics\/trump_fifa_88612-1\/","alt":"","author":"13","description":"","caption":"President Donald Trump gestures past Vice President JD Vance during a FIFA task force meeting on the 2026 World Cup in the East Room of the White House on May 6, 2025. 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