HENRIQUE CAMPOS / Hans Lucas via AFP
Sports Minister Marina Ferrari, here leaving the Élysée in Paris, January 19, 2026.
The minister brushed aside the subject. “There is no desire to boycott on the side” of the French Ministry of Sports concerning the 2026 World Cup co-organized by the United States, said Marina Ferrari on Tuesday January 20, after calls to this effect in response to Donald Trump‘s international policy.
“At the stage where we are currently speaking, there is no desire for a boycott on the part of our ministry of this great competition which is expected”the minister told the press during the wishes of the sporting world.
“Now, I am not prejudging what could happen, but I have also heard voices being raised that come from certain political blocs. I want us to dissociate sport (and politics). The Football World Cup is an extremely important moment for all sports lovers”she added.
This World Cup is organized in Canada, the United States and Mexico, from June 11 to July 19.
Eric Coquerel’s reviews
On Tuesday, LFI deputy Éric Coquerel called on Fifa to only play the World Cup this summer in Mexico and Canada: “Seriously, can we imagine going to play the Football World Cup in a country which attacks its “neighbors”, threatens to invade Greenland, destroys international law, wants to torpedo the UN, establishes a fascist and racist militia in its country, attacks the opposition there, prohibits access to the event for supporters from around fifteen countries, plans to ban all LGBT signs from the stadiums, etc…? »he wrote on X.
Also on Tuesday, German State Secretary for Sports Christiane Schenderlein told AFP that the German Football Federation (DFB) and the International Federation (FIFA) will decide in full “autonomy” of a possible boycott or not of the World Cup, and that “the federal government will accept this assessment”.
Faced with tensions arising from the American desire to seize Greenland and threats of increased customs taxes against European states which oppose it, the first voices evoking a boycott – or even a cancellation – of the World Cup have been heard in Germany, a major football nation, in recent days.
If Donald Trump carries out his “Threats about Greenland and triggering a trade war with the EU, I find it hard to imagine European countries participating in the World Cup”influential conservative MP Roderich Kiesewetter told the newspaper on Tuesday Augsburger Allgemeine.
Monday in an interview with FigaroClaude Le Roy, the former coach of Senegal, said “wondering whether we should not call for a boycott of the 2026 World Cup, given the behavior of Donald Trump towards the continent, with a president of Fifa (Gianni Infantino) who prides himself on being at his side. Leaders at the highest level of football never talk about football anymore but only about money”.
