When Didier Deschamps talks about “never before seen” checks in American airports, even though he is part of an official delegation and not on the Trump administration’s radar, there is cause for concern for many supporters who have planned to go to the United States next summer. This is also what the NGO Amnesty International is doing, which is warning this Monday of “serious risks” faced by certain populations in the United States, “the scene of a human rights crisis” three months before the World Cup.
This “crisis” is “marked by discriminatory immigration policies, mass detentions and arbitrary arrests by masked and armed agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection and other agencies”, accuses Amnesty in a report entitled “Humanity must triumph”.
“Despite the staggering number of arrests and expulsions, neither FIFA nor the (American) authorities have provided guarantees that fans and local populations will be protected from ethnic and racial profiling, indiscriminate raids and illegal detentions and expulsions,” notes Steve Cockburn, director of the Economic and Social Justice program at Amnesty International, quoted in the press release.
Concerns also for LGBTQI+ groups
The 2026 World Cup, which will take place in the United States, Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19, will bring together 48 teams, with 78 of the 104 matches scheduled in the United States. Countries like Iran, Senegal and Ivory Coast may not be able to count on their supporters due to travel bans imposed by the administration of Donald Trump, who has made anti-immigration policy the heart of his second term.
Other football fans are exposed to “intrusive surveillance” of their social networks, for the purposes of “searching for anti-American content”, estimates the NGO. In addition, “members of LGBTQI+ groups in the United Kingdom and Europe said it was dangerous for their presence to be visible during the tournament,” reports the human rights organization, which is also concerned about restrictions on the right to demonstrate and freedom of expression in Mexico and Canada.
All the news from the 2026 World Cup
“With just 10 weeks to go before the World Cup kicks off, FIFA’s commitment to organizing a tournament in which everyone ‘feels safe, included and free to exercise their rights’ requires urgent action to prevent this great competition from ending in an unfortunate outcome,” warns Amnesty.
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