FIFA has finally broken silence on US President Donald Trump’ repeated threats to relocate World Cup matches.
According to Metro, it seems that the International Federation of Association Football supports Trump in moving upcoming World Cup matches from certain cities that are “not safe.”
The Football World Cup in the next summer is scheduled to be held across several cities in the US, including Democrat-run big cities like Los Angeles and New York.
The Republican president has multiple times warned to relocate matches, and earlier this year he claimed that FIFA president Gianni Infantino would “easily” support him in moving matches from the cities that are “not safe.”
The 79-year-old, “We could take them away. Their mayor [Michelle Wu] is not good … She’s radical left, and they’re taking over parts of Boston. That’s a pretty big statement, right? If someone is doing a bad job, and I feel there are unsafe conditions.”
He added that when he would call Infantino and ask to move matches to another location, he would “very easily do that.”
Despite having no legal authority to change the locations of World Cup matches, Trump, who has a close relationship with the FIFA president, could pressurise the governing body to make changes.
Even in the latest statement, FIFA suggested that the US government has the right to decide which city is safe for the event.
A statement from the governing body read, “Safety and security are the top priorities at all FIFA events worldwide. Safety and security are obviously the government’s responsibility, and they decide what is in the best interest for public safety. We hope every one of our 16 host cities will be ready to successfully host and fulfil all necessary requirements.”
Notably, the US will host 78 of the 104 matches of the mega event, while the remaining games will be played in Canada and Mexico.
