Football belongs to the world.
FIFA is planning the biggest World Cup ever: 48 teams, matches in 16 cities across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and billions watching around the world.
FIFA has promised a safe, welcoming and ‘inclusive’ tournament through its Human Rights Framework. But under U.S. President Donald Trump, harsh anti-human rights rhetoric and immigration policies are creating fear instead.
With less than 100 days until kick-off, escalating attacks on immigrants and threats to press freedom and peaceful protest signal a tournament heading in the wrong direction. Read our open letter to FIFA.
And the world belongs in football.
Players across national teams, including those from the U.S., are often immigrants or come from immigrant families. Football’s history is one of crossing borders and chasing dreams. But new U.S. rules and rhetoric slam the door on the world.
We are a movement of fans, athletes, workers, local community members, and human rights organizations calling on FIFA to work with host countries to protect host city residents and communities, athletes’ rights, free speech, fans’ rights, press freedom, LGBTI rights, workers’ rights, and children’s rights to a safe tournament environment. This means among other things:
- Securing a public commitment to refrain from immigration enforcement operations at all World Cup events and venues, as a first step to ending abusive detention and deportation practices throughout the U.S.
- Ensure that all qualified teams, media, and fans affected by discriminatory visa and entry bans and social media surveillance will have equal access to the tournament regardless of nationality, religion, gender, or opinion.
- Establishing a formal FIFA human rights monitoring mechanism, with independent oversight, engagement with civil society, and public reporting, for the duration of the tournament.
- Implementing a FIFA child safeguarding policy that ensures families — including mixed-immigration status families — can attend the World Cup without fear of separation.
- Making a clear public commitment to press freedom and regular access for journalists, from the border to the stadium and everywhere in between, so journalists can do their jobs telling the full story of this tournament both on and off the field.
Join us in telling FIFA to keep the world in the World Cup.
Read the open letter below and stay tuned for more ways to get involved.
