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Comment by QuercusMax | Hacker News Reader

How on EARTH are we going to host the World Cup this year?

This is my question. Foreign athletes typically enter the U.S. on a P-1A visa for internationally recognized athletes or an O-1 visa for those with "extraordinary ability" but they're still Visas. Maybe they'll carve out holdouts for this that the news articles aren't delving into (probably because they haven't been announced).

I think the concern is around fans getting into the country, not players.

Nobody wants to just hear US citizens chanting 'Defence, Defence' all the time.

I need to chug more coffee, you're absolutely right.

This pause does not apply to visitor visas

Many Ethiopian cross-country runners were not able to participate in the recent World Cross Country Running championships in Tallahassee Florida due to rejected visas.

The USA is also supposed to host the World Track & Field Championships for under-20 in Eugene Oregon this summer.

see https://www.letsrun.com/news/2026/01/world-cross-country-cha...

Why do people downvote this? Bizarre - and plain stupid. This is a legitimate question and has precedent:

Hugo Calderano, the third best table tennis player in the world, is denied an entry visa to the USA. Thus, the Brazilian misses the prestigious tournament Grand Smash in Las Vegas. https://swedenherald.com/article/hugo-calderano-denied-us-vi...

Ethiopian athletes denied U.S. visas ahead of 2026 World Athletics Cross Country Championships https://amileaminute.com/news/ethiopian-athletes-denied-us-v...

Vancouver Whitecaps split with left back Ali Adnan following extended visa issues https://rdnewsnow.com/2021/07/03/vancouver-whitecaps-split-w...

>Why do people downvote this? Bizarre - and plain stupid.

A sizable chunk of the HN userbase is All-In on the Trump cult. They try to bury anything that questions the infallibility of the administration.

Russia in 2018 just made tickets valid visas, something like that should be done. Also no one is blocking non-immigrant visas, so there is no issue here.

The last World Cup used slave labor to build their stadium in the desert, in a country that banned beer/alcohol consumption - the latter of which was relaxed eventually due to heavy lobbying (and possibly corruption.)

Relax.

I'm curious what it would take for FIFA, or one of the teams, to reneg.

Nothing. He could drop a nuclear bomb on Madrid and FIFA would give him a second peace prize.

I'm guessing this is only getting downvotes because Americans don't realise quite how corrput and disgusting FIFA are.

The prior World Cup was held in stadiums built by slave labor in a country that banned beer. I genuinely don't think there's anything, up to and including visa denials for competing teams, that would get FIFA to give up their chance for bribes.

I don't know, FIFA is a den of villainy, but what happens if I dunno... half the Brazilian team ends up on an ICE camp? It wouldn't be during airport customs, but what if Agent Cletus sees the team bus and thinks that he can get a nice bonus.

FIFA will ignore unlimited human suffering but if matches don't happen it might be a problem.

FIFA has been doing damage containment (everybody is but especially FIFA) ever since the November election.

When the World CUp was assigned to the US during Trump first term one of the implied things was that he'd be long gone in 2026

Nobody could have possibly predicted 12 years of Trumpism and pulling a Grover Clevalend by skipping a term and getting re-elected

>How on EARTH are we going to host the World Cup this year?

Good question. Which is likely another reason for more ticket cancellations[0].

[0] https://www.financialexpress.com/sports/fifa-calls-for-emerg...

The WC has already been ruined by pausing games for commercial breaks.

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