A senior German football official has called for European nations to 'seriously consider' boycotting the 2026 World Cup scheduled to be held in the United States, sparking a transatlantic debate over whether sport can remain separate from politics whilst President Trump threatens to annex Greenland and pursues aggressive immigration enforcement tactics.
Oke Göttlich, who serves as president of Bundesliga club St Pauli and vice-president of the German Football Association, said that 'the time has come' to discuss a boycott. His remarks followed heightened transatlantic tensions after Trump threatened to acquire Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of NATO member Denmark, and subsequently threatened tariffs against eight European countries that opposed the takeover. 'What were the justifications for the boycotts of the Olympic Games in the 1980s?' Göttlich asked, drawing parallels with the US-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. 'By my reckoning, the potential threat is greater now than it was then. We need to have this discussion.'
