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World Cup hands Trump unexpected leverage in foreign policy

As the host of the next World Cup, Trump sees the ball at his feet in thorny foreign policy situations involving Israel, Russia, Iran and Brazil.

President Donald Trump, pictured here in a May 2025 state dinner in Qatar, has embraced soccer as a unexpected source of leverage in international relations. | Win McNamee/Getty Images

President Donald Trump, pictured here in a May 2025 state dinner in Qatar, has embraced soccer as a unexpected source of leverage in international relations. | Win McNamee/Getty Images

Last week, as the leaders of other Western nations used their trips to the United Nations to announce recognition of a Palestinian state, President Donald Trump was able to do little but watch disapprovingly. But now that a question about Israel is coming to the fore in a very different international organization, Trump finds himself with potentially much more power.

Next week, the executive committee of soccer’s European governing body UEFA could vote to suspend Israel from the continental federation where its teams have competed internationally since the 1990s. Dozens of UEFA members have encouraged the organization to reconsider Israel’s standing, which could begin a process of effectively banishing the country entirely from international soccer, much as UEFA and its global analogue FIFA did in 2022 with Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

Trump, who has proposed undoing the Russian ban as part of a potential resolution to its war with Ukraine, now may be the only world leader with the influence to keep Israel from the same fate.

It is an unanticipated source of influence for Trump in his second term, derived entirely from the United States’ temporary position as the primary host of next summer’s World Cup. “We will absolutely work to fully stop any effort to attempt to ban Israel’s national soccer team from the World Cup,” a State Department spokesperson told POLITICO.

Trump has dangled the ability to compete as a possible reward for Russia to end its war in Ukraine and is expected to enforce his antagonistic posture toward Iran by blocking the country’s fans from traveling into the U.S. to cheer on their team. Some prominent Brazilians fear his administration will limit visas to spectators or government officials from their nation, too, as a way of gaining an upper hand in trade negotiations.

“We know soccer is so important to so many countries all around the world,” White House FIFA World Cup Taskforce head Andrew Giuliani told POLITICO last month. “The president knows that better than anybody, and I think he’s willing to utilize whatever he has to to actually create peace around the world.”

Switch of play

When FIFA awarded the United States co-hosting duties for the 2026 tournament, Trump celebrated it as personal affirmation.

“I fought very hard to get it in the U.S., Mexico and Canada,” he said in June 2018. “We are very honored to be chosen.”

But Trump did not expect to be in office when the tournament took place in the summer of 2026. Now that it is months away, Trump is finding that being at the center of the world’s preeminent sporting event — and the practical and symbolic power that accompanies it — provides him a new, unexpected tool to use to advance American interests.

Trump has grasped for leverage in international negotiations wherever he can find it, often mixing issues traditional diplomats would keep at a distance. He threatened to impose tariffs on French wine unless the country cut its tax on digital services, and on all imports from Mexico if it did not curb outbound migration. He floated intervening in the prosecution of a Huawei executive to help secure a trade deal with China.

Trump expressed a willingness to mix sports and diplomacy in May, when he learned during the inaugural meeting of his White House task force that Russia was forbidden from participating in the tournament. The country had been under a joint ban from FIFA and UEFA, dating from the early days of the Ukraine invasion in February 2022, which excluded Russian teams from all international competition. (Those policies have since been relaxed to permit youth teams to compete under certain conditions.)

Trump suggested that allowing Russia to compete again “could be a good incentive” for the country to end the war, a top diplomatic priority that continues to elude and frustrate Trump.

“We want to get them to stop,” said Trump, sitting next to FIFA President Gianni Infantino. “Five thousand young people a week are being killed. That’s not even believable.”

During another White House visit by Infantino three months later, Trump again invoked Vladimir Putin, this time brandishing a photograph of the two men together in an attempt to spur Russia’s president to resume negotiations over a possible truce.

“He’s been very respectful of me and of our country, but not so respectful of others,” Trump said in the Oval Office, with the World Cup trophy at his side. “He may be coming and he might not, depending on what happens. We have a lot of things coming in the next couple of weeks!”

A senior White House official granted anonymity to discuss Trump’s thinking on the World Cup said that the president’s priority is to showcase American ingenuity, spotlight domestic infrastructure and highlight the economic impact of his policies on the country’s cities — not to use tournament plans as leverage in other negotiations. But if they yield progress toward ending wars as a byproduct, the official said, Trump would happily accept it.

Much of Trump’s new influence comes from his close personal rapport with Infantino, who has spent significant time ingratiating himself with American political figures and raising his public profile. He has met with Trump at least a dozen times and traveled the country on a campaign-style tour of host cities for the World Cup and this year’s Club World Cup.

Now the State Department may be counting on that relationship, as the Trump administration tries to aid an ally losing support from other Western countries from also losing its position on the soccer field.

The wandering team

Since Israel’s founding in 1948, the country has struggled to find a permanent home in the governing structure of international soccer.

Unlike most national teams, which fight for World Cup places against other teams on their continent, Israel is functionally unable to play against its neighbors due to an Arab League boycott in place since the country’s 1948 founding. (Israel won its sole major international trophy, the 1964 Asian Cup, only after 11 of the 15 other competitors withdrew.)

After a brief period competing as a far-flung outlier in the Oceania Football Confederation, Israel joined the Union of European Football Associations in 1991. Instead of traveling to Beirut or Kuala Lumpur for foreign matches, Israeli players are now more likely to end up in Dublin or Athens.

That has subjected Israel to new political pressures since the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, and its military response. Then, citing security concerns, UEFA decided to indefinitely relocate all international matches from Israel, forcing the country’s teams to play in neutral locations overseas. The country has played its home matches for World Cup qualifying in Hungary.

The situation has grown even more complicated as European public opinion has turned aggressively against Israel amid its siege of Gaza. Many European clubs no longer want to host Israeli squads in continent-wide tournaments. When the Israeli national team has traveled to play qualifying matches in other countries, some national governments have imposed travel restrictions on players, while others limited stadium attendance due to security concerns.

The national team, which remains in contention to reach next year’s World Cup, now faces two crucial matches next month in countries whose soccer leadership have been critical of its actions in Gaza. Italy’s federation president has said “there is nobody who could be indifferent to this feeling of suffering and pain,” while the Norwegian Football Federation announced in August that it would donate proceeds from the match to organizations delivering aid in Gaza.

“Neither we nor other organizations can remain indifferent to the humanitarian suffering and disproportionate attacks that the civilian population in Gaza has been subjected to for a long time,” federation president Lise Klaveness said then.

Well over half of UEFA’s 55 member associations have called on its leadership to take action against Israel, a high-ranking UEFA official told POLITICO, prompting ongoing discussions within soccer’s governing body about how to deal with Israeli clubs and the national team. UEFA’s executive committee could vote to suspend Israeli club teams from European club tournaments. Maccabi Tel Aviv saw its Europa League match last week in Thessaloniki, Greece, met with protesters carrying a banner that said GENOCIDE.

UEFA officials, granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, justified the discussions to boot Israel from continental competitions by citing security concerns. “We are responsible for the safety of fans and players in the stadiums,” one representative said, noting that match organizers “fear fatalities.”

A UEFA decision to suspend Israeli club teams could provoke a similar campaign forcing FIFA to reconsider the place of the country’s national team in World Cup qualifying. A State Department statement said the U.S. government would work to block any “attempt to ban Israel’s national soccer team from the World Cup,” but it did not address European club competitions under UEFA’s purview.

If the United States were not hosting next year’s tournament, it would be just one of 208 member nations in FIFA — a weaker position than it has in the United Nations, where at least the U.S. can wield a security-council veto to relieve pressure on Israel. (It did so again this month to block a draft resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.) But Infantino is highly motivated to keep Trump happy as a way to ensure preparations for next summer’s tournament proceed with full federal support.

It is unclear whether Trump has personally appealed on Israel’s behalf to Infantino, who has asked UEFA’s President Aleksander Čeferin to approach the matter with patience, according to a European soccer official, citing the possibility that a peace deal between Israel and Hamas could moot the question.

“It’s looking like we have a deal on Gaza, and we’ll let you know. I think it’s a deal that will get the hostages back. It’s going to be a deal that will end the war,” Trump told reporters before departing the White House on Friday.

Everywhere you want to be

Trump’s willingness to commingle the World Cup with his other diplomatic challenges is winning attention worldwide from those who think he could wield the easiest power at his disposal — to control who enters the United States during the five-week tournament — as a cudgel.

That power was on display around last week’s United Nations General Assembly, when Trump’s administration used it to punish representatives of countries vexing his foreign-policy agenda, several of which have qualified for a place in the World Cup. A visa issued to Brazilian Health Minister Alexandre Padilha circumscribed his movements to the U.N. headquarters and a few blocks around his hotel, while Iranian diplomats were barred from shopping at Costco and Sam’s Club without State Department permission. On Friday, the State Department announced it was revoking the visa of Colombian President Gustavo Petro after he spoke at a pro-Palestinian gathering while in New York.

Iran is among the 12 countries whose citizens face a total travel ban under an executive order Trump signed in June. Two others, Equatorial Guinea and Haiti, could still qualify for the World Cup. (The ban also partially restricts travel from another seven countries, none of which are still in contention for a tournament spot.)

Under the order, Iranian fans will be barred from the United States next summer, despite historical precedent in which World Cup hosts allow ticketholders free border entry. “You’ll have an issue with [visas for] Iran,” Giuliani told POLITICO.

Although the travel ban includes an exemption for athletes, coaches and essential personnel participating in “major sporting events,” including the World Cup, that carveout does not extend to fans. American authorities will still have to approve visas for heads of state, business leaders and other prominent officials hoping to cheer on their teams.

“There are other conversations [about Iran] that are teed up for the president and Secretary Kristi Noem and Vice President [JD] Vance, which we’ll be discussing here in the fall,” Giuliani said, in an interview at the Department of Homeland Security’s headquarters.

Brazilian officials worry that the administration could weaponize World Cup visas for the country’s sports fans, part of a spiraling conflict with its origins in a prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro and the aggressive enforcement by the country’s election regulator against online political speech.

CNN reported in July that Trump is actively considering blocking visas for Brazilian fans. Since then, the State Department has imposed visa restrictions on Brazilian judicial officials and their families and Trump has imposed a 50 percent tariff rate as payback for what he characterizes as a “witch hunt” of Bolsonaro.

A Brazilian government official cautioned that it was unlikely that American consular officials would deny visas en masse for Brazilian nationals wanting to attend the World Cup and noted that Brazilians already encounter lengthy delays in obtaining visas to enter the United States.

But the Trump administration has already demonstrated a willingness to interfere with international sporting events in the service of its diplomatic aims. Iran’s men’s team was denied visas to compete in next month’s FIP Arena Polo World Championship in Virginia, reported the Tehran Times this week, much as a Venezuelan Little League team and Cuban women’s volleyball team were earlier in the year.

Those events foreshadow the higher-stakes flashpoints that could arise as the list of 48 countries that will send teams to the World Cup is finalized this fall. Among those that have already secured a place are some where Trump might be looking for any possible geopolitical edge.

The U.S. is still trying to wrangle a new trade deal with South Korea, for example, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said the United States “stands ready to do what is needed” as it works to boost Argentina’s President Javier Milei’s fortunes ahead of an Oct. 26 election.

“Many times, it’s sports diplomacy that creates opportunities for foreign leaders who might not see other things eye to eye, to actually sit down,” Giuliani said. “By the time the World Cup kicks off next June, hopefully we have some of these foreign wars solved.”

Author: Sophia Cai, Tim Röhn and Eric Bazail-Eimil

Source: Politico

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