FIFA World Cup trophy. Photo: FIFA.
Black Alliance for Peace Launches Petition Drive Calling on the US and Israel to be Excluded from All International Sporting Events for Crimes Against Humanity and Domestic Repression
June 30, 2025 – The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) calls for the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to withdraw the invitations for the United States to host the World Cup in 2026 and the International Olympics in 2028. Ajamu Baraka, the director of BAP’s North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights, states:
“There are two factors that make this call imperative. The environment of fear and political repression in the United States directed toward individual travelers to the U.S. and even those in transit to other nations has resulted in a number of nations issuing travel advisories against travel to the U.S. The other factor that is even more egregious is the lawlessness of the U.S. and Israel, who are engaged in an ongoing genocide against the occupied Palestinian population of Gaza.”
With tens of thousands of people from around the world who would like to attend the World Cup and the Olympic Games, the U.S. has become a dangerous place to visit, especially for people of color. But as the petition points out, “anyone suspected of residing in and/or visiting the United States with or without “proper” documentation, including U.S. citizens, are being harassed, questioned about their political beliefs and even detained without due process.”
But the fact that the U.S. and Israel continue to operate as rogue states completely rejecting all of the normal constraints on lawless international behavior by engaging in unprovoked attacks on sovereign nations such as Lebanon and Iran and a barbaric slaughter of occupied Palestinians in Gaza and the murder of thousands in the West Bank by settlers and the Israeli Army, disqualifies both nations of hosting and participating in events involving the community of civilized nations.
Both FIFA and the IOC have previously denied hosting of, and participation in, international events for nations and governments that have acted in ways they deemed antithetical to their stated core values of human rights and anti-discrimination.
There is no more horrific example of the violation of FIFA, IOC, and civilized values than what the world is witnessing today in Gaza.
FIFA and the IOC must be consistent. There must be accountability with one human rights standard for all! Ban the U.S. and Israel, withdraw the invitations to host these events in the U.S.
