Global fans should be able to visit US for World Cup, FIFA president says

FIFA President Gianni Infantino said Wednesday that some of the travel bans and stricter rules that the Trump administration has put in place should not affect the ability of fans to travel to the US to watch the World Cup.

“We already obtained … a quicker path to obtain a visa for many fans, and that works actually quite well,” Infantino said at Semafor World Economy in Washington, DC.

In November, the Trump administration said it would give priority visa appointments to fans who have tickets to the World Cup, within six to eight weeks of them applying.

Still, the Trump administration’s visa and immigration policies remain a lingering concern for many fans. Top managers at FIFA have discussed having Infantino directly ask Trump for a moratorium on ICE raids during the World Cup this summer, The Athletic reported.

Iranian officials suggested that they wanted FIFA to move the Iranian team’s matches to Canada and Mexico, a suggestion the soccer organization declined. Infantino reiterated that despite the ongoing geopolitical tensions, Iran’s team will play its matches in the US as planned.

“I hope — and probably everyone hopes — that the situation by then will be calm and that there will be a peace, or at least some sort of peace,” Infantino said. “I believe that we need competitions, events that bring people together from all over the world to unite people.”

Economic indicators also suggest that some fans are hesitating. Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta said at Semafor World Economy on Tuesday that hotel bookings in host cities were not “as strong as what we had hoped” but still thinks that more reservations will come in closer to the game.

Still, Infantino noted that FIFA got about 508 million ticket requests for the 6.5 million tickets for the 105 matches that will be played.

“The ticket demand has been unprecedented,” Infantino said. “All those people who buy tickets, they need to sleep somewhere.”