The United States is set to co-host the expanded 48-team World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico, with the vast majority of matches scheduled to take place on US soil. Of the tournament’s 104 games, 78 are due to be staged in American cities, underscoring the central role the US will play in the event.
Against this backdrop, Oke Göttlich, vice-president of the German Football Association (DFB) and president of Bundesliga club St Pauli, has publicly questioned whether the time has come to discuss a potential boycott. His comments follow President Trump’s recent confrontation with several European governments, including threats of punitive tariffs and controversial remarks about acquiring Greenland, a territory controlled by Denmark. While the US president later softened his stance, the episode has left diplomatic tensions unresolved.
Göttlich argued that football authorities cannot ignore the broader political environment in which global tournaments are held. Drawing parallels with history, he referenced the US-led boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, suggesting that the current situation may present an even greater challenge to shared democratic values. In his view, the seriousness of today’s political threats warrants open and concrete discussion rather than quiet discomfort.
Not all European stakeholders share this position. The French government has indicated it does not currently support a boycott, while the Danish Football Association has acknowledged the sensitivity of the situation without committing to any action. Denmark, notably, still faces qualification hurdles, with a place at the tournament dependent on the outcome of play-offs.
Göttlich’s intervention also reflects a longer-running unease within German football about the relationship between sport, politics, and values. At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Germany was at the centre of a dispute with Fifa after players were warned they could be booked for wearing the OneLove armband, a symbol intended to promote diversity and inclusion. The episode culminated in Germany’s players covering their mouths in a pre-match team photo, a gesture meant to signal that they felt silenced by the sport’s governing body.
For Göttlich, that controversy and the current debate over the United States are part of the same unresolved question. He argues that football cannot selectively declare itself apolitical, especially when fundamental principles are at stake. In his view, organisations risk losing their moral compass if they fail to define and defend clear boundaries—what he describes as essential “taboos”—in the face of threats, aggression, or loss of life.
By calling on both national and international football leaders, including DFB president Bernd Neuendorf and Fifa president Gianni Infantino, Göttlich is pressing for clarity on where those boundaries lie. Whether his remarks will translate into formal action remains uncertain, but they have ensured that the issue of political accountability in global sport is firmly back on the agenda ahead of the 2026 World Cup.