Governments decide whether to withdraw their teams from a World Cup, but it would be hard to see anything but a boycott for the Danes in those circumstances. People of ethnic extraction are afraid to leave the house, even with the Green Card which they must display if stopped by ICE agents. If the situation on the US domestic and geo-political fronts materially worsened, what would it take for the World Cup, or at least the United States’ majority part in it, to be cancelled? As it did before Colombia voluntarily withdrew as hosts of the 1986 World Cup, amid currency instability, failing stadium construction and rising guerilla violence. Should Trump’s military adventurism persist, the kind of boycott which hit the 1980 Moscow and 1984 LA Olympics, after Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan, is conceivable.

Source: Daily Mail January 18, 2026 00:05 UTC