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Black Alliance for Peace New York City/New Jersey Endorses the Anti-Fascist Football Coalition’s Campaign to Move the World Cup from the U.S.
April 23, 2026 — The FIFA World Cup 2026 is scheduled to begin in the United States, Canada and Mexico on June 11, 2026. The Black Alliance for Peace New York City/New Jersey Citywide Alliance (BAP NYC NJ) is announcing its participation in the Anti-Fascist Football Coalition that has launched a coordinated campaign demanding that FIFA move these matches away from the United States.
In 2026 alone, the U.S. kidnapped the president of Venezuela, waged a war of aggression against Iran, continued its genocide and war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza, and, in an effort to implement regime change, created a humanitarian crisis in Cuba. In addition to these violations of international law, a mass deportation campaign has imprisoned thousands of people held in inhumane conditions, and athletes from countries such as Iran, which have qualified for the World Cup, have no assurance of safety while in the U.S.
FIFA’s granting of World Cup hosting privileges lends an air of respectability to the winning nation and implies its compliance with international laws and norms of ethical behavior. The U.S. should not be granted even a symbolic seal of international approval when it is actively instigating what could become a world war and subjecting thousands of people to surveillance and incarceration, and even killing its own citizens, as ICE agents did during the Minnesota protests. ICE will bring that ability to use force to World Cup matches, making them unsafe for the participating athletes, spectators, and the community at large. MetLife Stadium, renamed the New York-New Jersey stadium for the World Cup, will host eight matches, including the final on July 19.
“FIFA is asking the world to celebrate in the shadow of the Delaney Hall immigration detention center,” said BAP Northeast Co-coordinator, JP Sloan. “The games are set to be hosted just a short 16-minute car ride away from Delaney Hall, the very location where a Haitian detainee, Jean Wilson Brutus, died while in ICE custody, and who still has not received justice. This is not a coincidence we are willing to ignore.”
While FIFA placates the U.S. by making President Trump the first winner of the FIFA Peace Prize, the U.S. continues to kill workers and fishermen in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean regions bordering South America in order to manufacture a pretext for the illegal war against the nation of Venezuela. FIFA has made itself a partner in the active aggression against the Palestinian people by participating in the sham Board of Peace, which covers for the U.S./Israeli occupation of Gaza. FIFA allows the U.S. to present itself as a country that respects civilized norms when, in fact, it violates them. Adding insult to injury, FIFA has pledged $50 million for a new stadium in Gaza, completely sidestepping the fact that Israeli military operations are the source of the crumbling football infrastructure and that over 800 athletes have been murdered since the start of the Gaza genocide.
Ewan, a BAP NYC NJ co-coordinator, pointed out the hypocrisy and the damage to FIFA and to the sport followed by millions of people throughout the world. “How does FIFA gain the authority to award a Peace Prize to the U.S. President while U.S. forces kill unarmed fishermen and workers in the Caribbean? It is not lost on any of us that this organization has gone out of its way to be an active participant in this malevolent whitewashing of war criminals.”
The United States is not an appropriate nation to host the World Cup or the Olympic Games in 2028. Nor should apartheid Israel be allowed to participate in these or any other international sporting events. It should be banned from these competitions, just as apartheid South Africa was banned.
As the World Cup begins in 51 days, the BAP NYC NJ Citywide Alliance strongly supports the demand to move the games. Keeping them in the U.S. would legitimize repression, genocide, human rights violations, and war crimes. FIFA must move the games and boycott the U.S. until it has demonstrated that it is prepared to act as a responsible member of the world community.
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