Donald Trump has threatened to relocate World Cup games set to be played in Boston next year, after a major disagreement with the city’s mayor.
The games are set to take place at the home of the NFL’s New England Patriots in Foxborough, Massachusetts, which is around 30 miles from Boston, but Trump has suggested that he may take them away.
The US is set to co-host the 2026 World Cup with Mexico and Canada. On Tuesday, Trump was asked about the Boston mayor, Michelle Wu, a democrat who called Trump “intelligent” but “radical left”.
“We could take them away,” Trump said about the World Cup games. “I love the people of Boston, and I know the games are sold out. But your mayor is not good.”
Donald Trump is threatening to take games away from Gillette stadium in Foxborough, 30 miles away from Boston
|GETTY
He went on to suggest “they’re taking over parts of Boston,” without offering any further details, but added “we could get them back in about two seconds.”
The Trump administration has already deployed National Guard troops to Washington and Memphis, and further efforts to do so in Chicago, Portland, and Oregon have sparked legal battles.
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Wu’s office has not commented on the remarks made by the US President.
Trump’s comments were made during a meeting with Argentine President Javier Milei, and he did not specify which parts of Boston he believed had been seized.
Earlier this month, Boston saw multiple arrests in connection with a pro-Palestine protest that became violent in Boston Common, resulting in four police officers being injured.
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The revelation came in a meeting with Argentine President Javier Milei
|REUTERS
Trump has previously revealed he could declare cities “not safe” to host their allocation of the 104-game-tournament and rip up the detailed hosting plan that Fifa confirmed back in 2022.
Games will take place in high-capacity NFL stadiums all over the US, with notable games taking place in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
World Cup host cities are not something Trump has any control over, however, as they are all in contracts with Fifa.
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The 11 US cities, plus the three in Mexico, as well as the two in Canada, would mean that the US President would face extreme legal and logistical backlash if he attempted to move any of the events.
The World Cup only has eight months till it kicks off on June 11, 2026.
Earlier this month, Fifa's vice president Victor Montagliani said “It's Fifa's tournament, Fifa's jurisdiction, Fifa makes those decisions,” at a sports business conference in London.
Donald Trump believes Gianni Infantino will change World Cup fixtures for him should he ask
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Regardless of the challenges he may face, Trump said: “If somebody is doing a bad job, and if I feel there's unsafe conditions, I would call Gianni - the head of Fifa, who’s phenomenal - and I would say, ‘Let's move into another location’ and they would do that.”
Gianni Infantino is a close ally of President Trump, and he went on to say the head of Fifa, “wouldn't love to do it, but he'd do it very easily.”
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