{"id":388,"date":"2026-06-03T23:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T23:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=388"},"modified":"2026-06-03T23:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T23:10:16","slug":"we-are-being-made-to-look-like-fools-how-trump-is-weaponizing-world-cup-visas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=388","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe Are Being Made to Look Like Fools\u201d: How Trump Is Weaponizing World Cup Visas"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Breel<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The FIFA Men\u2019s<\/span> World Cup<\/span> starts next week\u2014and some players still don\u2019t know whether they\u2019ll be able to travel to their matches.<\/p>

Read more Jared Kushner\u2019s Albanian Resort Faces a Corruption Probe and Mass Protests<\/a><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Switzerland\u2019s main goalscorer, Breel Embolo, applied for a visa at the US embassy in the country\u2019s capital after US officials blocked him from boarding a flight with his teammates to their World Cup training camp in San Diego the day before.<\/p>\n

The Swiss soccer federation stated that the US has been reviewing Embolo\u2019s criminal conviction after a 2018 altercation in Basel, Switzerland. The verdict was finalized in April.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe embassy\u2019s inquiries focused specifically on whether any physical violence had been involved. This was not the case,\u201d the Swiss soccer body said in a statement. According to Swiss outlets, Embolo was sentenced to a fine of roughly $165,000, conditional on two years of probation, for making multiple threats during an argument.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile,the men\u2019snational team of South Africa, a frequent target of the Trump administration over \u201cwhite genocide\u201d claims, had to delay their Saturday flight from Johannesburg to Mexico City because at least 20 people in their traveling group\u2014mainlyplayers\u2014were still trying to get the US embassy in that country to process their visas.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Gayton McKenzie, South Africa\u2019s sports, arts and culture minister, announced that all of the national team players had received their visas to travel to the US, but that an assistant coach, team doctor, the head of security, and one team analyst were still waiting. McKenzie criticized the situation earlier that day, calling it \u201cembarrassing & grossly unfair towards the players & coaching staff.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAction must be taken against those responsible for this mess,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe are being made to look like fools.\u201d<\/p>

Read more \u201cThe Waste Is Heartbreaking\u201d: Fired Scott Pelley Accuses CBS of Courting Trump in Scathing Letter<\/a><\/p>\n

News24, a South African news platform, reported that the team arrived on Tuesday morning but that the assistant coach and head of security arrived late after their visas were finally approved. On Monday, McKenzie notably apologized for his criticisms, posting on X that \u201cthe fault is entirely on our side,\u201d and that US embassy workers in South Africa were \u201conly too helpful\u201d and \u201ceven worked on a Sunday for the first time ever.\u201d McKenzie did not elaborate on what mistakes South Africa made.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has a record of denying international athletes visas, including members of an Ethiopian delegation to the World Athletics Cross Country Championships, whose 44-year medal streak was broken by a mass visa denial in January. Multiple Cuban sports delegations have also been locked out of sports competitions since 2025 by the US\u2019 refusal to grant them visas\u2014including Olympic qualification events. And according to Television Jamaica, Javontae Smith, a shotput and discus thrower from Munro College in Jamaica, was denied a US nonimmigrant visa last month to compete in the Penn Relays in Philadelphia. <\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s national team is set to leave for Mexico on Saturday. The team\u2019s initial three matches will take place in the US, but the country\u2019s soccer federation won FIFA approval in May to move its training base from Tuscon, Arizona, to Tijuana, Mexico, due to security concerns amid the US and Israel\u2019s ongoing war in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Al Jazeera, the federation has not yet said whether the players had received all necessary visas for both Mexico and the US, though Mehdi Taj, Iran\u2019s football federation chief, said on Monday that they expected to receive visas for Mexico on Tuesday or Wednesday \u201cand then a US visa will be issued quickly.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The delays have created unprecedented uncertainty for many national team players and sparked outrage amongtheir fans, who now have to worry about whether they can even get to the tournament\u2014let alone whether their team will play well in it.<\/p>

Read more In Alabama, the Roberts Court Hands Republicans Yet Another Shocking Gerrymandering Win<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soccer stars with the wrong passport\u2014or complexion\u2014now have to worry about getting to play at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cWe Are Being Made to Look Like Fools\u201d: How Trump Is Weaponizing World Cup Visas - Moving and Mortgage Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=388\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cWe Are Being Made to Look Like Fools\u201d: How Trump Is Weaponizing World Cup Visas - 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