Early Wednesday morning the Donald Trump administration announced they will be pausing visa processing for immigrants from 75 countries. This pause is indefinite and will go into effect on January 21st and comes off the back of an increase in ICE activity across major cities in the United States.
The pause in visa processing will affect much more than the World Cup but many soccer fans have been asking if attendees from countries on the list will not be allowed to join in the festivities this summer. The World Cup is being jointly hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico and the other two countries have not announced any pause in processing visas for visitors.
Several countries in that list of 75 have already qualified for the World Cup including title contenders like Brazil and Colombia and footballing giants from Africa and Asia like Egypt and Iran. While it was hard to imagine many fans from Iran, currently embroiled in civil unrest and protests, coming to America for the World Cup, fans from many of the other countries on the list likely had plans to attend matches in the states.
This begs the question of whether the United States is even fit to host the World Cup this summer considering our own civil unrest and the attitude of this administration towards immigration, legal or otherwise. The videos of ICE agents engaging in violence will surely turn off tourists from wanting to make the trip and even the most soccer-obsessed fans will think twice.
The pause in visas includes 15 countries that have already qualified but the full list of 75 represents almost half of the nations represented in the United Nations. Your country being in the World Cup is not a prerequisite for attending so this may shut out a huge number of fans that just want to attend for the love of the game.
It is also important to note that this pause in processing does not include limited stay or tourist visas and is currently only limited to permanent residence visas. The question fans from those countries will have to ask is it worth the risk to come to the United States and hope that they don’t get caught up in ICE activities in order to root for their country at the World Cup.
We know that soccer fans are among the most passionate in the world and they will risk life and limb in some cases to cheer on their teams but there has to be a limit at some point. It is too soon to tell for sure if this will affect attendance and ticket prices but the uncertainty around all this is not doing FIFA or the World Cup any favors.
