President Donald Trump attends the American football game at M&T Bank Stadium on December 13, 2025. PHOTO: American Photo Archive / Alamy / Profimedia
The German Football Federation (DFB) and the International Federation (FIFA) will decide “autonomously” whether or not they will boycott the World Cup organized this summer mostly in the United States, the German government told AFP, after calls to this effect in response to Donald Trump's threats, according to News.ro.
“This assessment therefore rests with the federations involved, in this case the DFB and FIFA. The federal government will accept this assessment,” State Secretary for Sports Christiane Schenderlein said in an emailed comment to AFP, which asked the government about the possibility of a boycott of the World Cup organized in Canada, the United States and Mexico (June 11-July 19).
“The federal government respects the autonomy of sports. Decisions regarding participation in major sports events or their boycott are exclusively the competence of sports federations, and not of the political class,” Schenderlein, a member of the CDU, the conservative party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, also declared.
In the context of the tensions generated by the desire of the United States to take control of Greenland and the threats of increasing customs duties against the European states that oppose this approach, in the last few days, the first voices calling for a boycott – or even a cancellation – of the World Cup began to be heard in Germany, a great soccer nation.
If Donald Trump implements his “threats about Greenland and starts a trade war with the EU, it is hard for me to imagine that European countries will participate in the World Cup”, the influential conservative deputy Roderich Kiesewetter told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper on Tuesday. Another CDU deputy, Jürgen Hardt, his group's foreign policy spokesman, mentioned in the Bild newspaper the “cancellation of the tour” as “the last resort to bring President Trump to his senses.”
Requesting a “common response” from Europe, the Social Democrat (SPD) deputy Sebastian Roloff mentioned in the economic newspaper Handelsblatt the option to “consider giving up participation in the World Cup”.
According to a survey carried out on Thursday and Friday by the Insa institute for Bild on a sample of 1,000 people, almost half of Germans (47%) would approve a boycott of the World Cup in the event of the actual annexation of Greenland by Washington. A third (35%) would remain against this measure.
Four-time world champions, Germany's national team (also known as the “German Panzers”) has not missed a World Cup since the immediate post-war period (1950).
Donald Trump has recently shown a closeness to FIFA chief Gianni Infantino, who presented him with a newly created “FIFA Peace Prize” at last month's World Cup draw.
Photo: © Pavel Byrkin | Dreamstime.com
