World Cup 2026: FIFA and the U.S.’s White Supremacist Colonial Partnership is already on Full Display

World Cup 2026: FIFA and the U.S.’s White Supremacist Colonial Partnership is already on Full Display

The World Cup has begun, and we are witnesses to the contradictions of the full, bloody arc of 250 years of U.S. history, manifesting through the state’s partnership with the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, FIFA.  In just the last few days leading up to kickoff, we have seen an award-winning Somali referee barred from the opportunity to officiate, Senegalese and Uzbekistani players harassed and searched by state forces, the Haitian team forced to change their jersey and denied the ability to wear a celebration of their national independence, an Ecuadorian fan brutalized by police, dozens of members of the Moroccan and Iranian delegations denied entry. Meanwhile, Iranian players are treated not as competitors but as enemies to be monitored, disciplined, and made examples of in the service of imperialist war, and incarcerated freedom fighters hunger strike for justice at Delaney Hall. The World Cup exposes the racial geography of imperialism: some bodies move freely, while others are subjected to suspicion, exclusion, humiliation, and violence. 

In its acceptance of and complicity in these acts, FIFA has reminded the world that it serves as just another colonial instrument of the global white supremacist, imperialist structure headed by the United States and the capitalist elite. The decision not to pull the games from the U.S. – while that country engages in a war of aggression against Iran, funds and aides genocides and domestic repression against non-European peoples, supports the terror unleashed in the West Bank and Gaza, and tightens its inhumane collective punishment and strangulation of Cuba – shows FIFA’s true nature, and that despite its sordid past, it has found new depths to sink to in its abdication of morality and humanity. The bloody stain upon these 2026 World Cup Games will never be clean.

We condemn FIFA as the racist colonial entity that it is. In response, we continue to call for the international community, the peoples and nations of the world, to Boycott the World Cup and Boycott the U.S. 

Boycott is the weapon of the colonized, the sanctioned, the dispossessed, and we refuse to be spectators to our own subjugation.

No Compromise No Retreat!

BAP National Co-Coordinators

Austin, Erica, Tunde

10 Miles of Contradiction: Where the Beautiful Game Meets the Cage.

Preparations for the start of the World Cup on June 13th have begun, but while the ruling class prepares their party, the people will be on the streets. The day before the games, on June 12th, we gather at Delaney Hall to honor 50 people who tore down walls and fought for freedom. The Imperialists celebrate their war on Peoples- Centered Human Rights just a few miles away from those they crush. Delaney Hall is run by GEO Group, a private prison giant that profits from detaining the very people the World Cup claims to honor. Many of those inside come from the same countries, sending their teams to play. ICE agents will be at the stadium entrances, drones in the sky, while the carceral state uses the tournament to whitewash its violence as they brutalize those who seek liberation.

BAP and the AFFC call for a boycott of the World Cup; the U.S. has disqualified itself from the community of civilized nations. You cannot cage people from across the globe and then throw a party on the same ground. You cannot replace a hunger strike with a soccer match. Join us on June 12th at 8 pm at Delaney Hall (451 Doremus Ave, Newark). Stand with the uprising and the hunger strike still happening inside. Then, on June 13th, boycott the spectacle.

Read BAP’s statement here.

Blood in the Streets, Banners on the World Stage

U.S. officials have chosen to operate outside the bounds of law and basic morality — from supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza and illegal settlement expansion, to launching a direct military strike on Venezuela that kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, to escalating repression against migrants and racialized communities inside the U.S. that has led to murder. These are not isolated policies, but interconnected expressions of an empire that relies on illegal violence abroad and domestically to enforce dominance. Friday January 23rd was one of the largest labor mobilizations in recent U.S. history with 10s of thousands of Minnesotans taking to the street to end the tyrannical violence of ICE and its anti-immigrant operations.

One day later, ICE agents in Minnesota have murdered another person — this time a 37-year-old man. The federal government is systematically violating the most fundamental of human rights: the right to life. While federal officials run cover for their crimes, state and local officials do nothing but stand by, make statements but take no action. We must demand that these democratically elected officials act immediately to defend their constituents and combat all attempts to clean the image of this neo-fascist state.

This includes the World Cup, which should not be used to launder state violence or normalize genocide and international gangsterism. We must hold state and local authorities accountable and demand they use their power to defend the human rights and safety of the people they claim to represent. Organizations and people of conscience must demand that FIFA move the games out of the U.S. and take a stand for people-centered human rights rather than empire, repression, and impunity. Sign the petition demanding that FIFA and the IOC ban the U.S. and Israel from hosting or participating in international sporting events.

bit.ly/BANFIFA

More information on the printable 1-pager here.