05/31/2026
May 28, 2026 — The Black Alliance for Peace’s North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights (the Project) raised the issue months ago of the fundamental inappropriateness of the 2026 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup being hosted in the United States. The Project argued that the U.S. human rights record—including blatant actions globally that constitute crimes against humanity, war crimes, and complicity in genocide, along with the systematic abuse of the human rights of migrants, immigrants, and even U.S. citizens domestically through the unleashing of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE)—renders the United States ineligible to host the games.
The Project called for the tournament to be moved from the United States, a call that was ignored. Now, with the games scheduled to begin in just a few weeks, the Black Alliance for Peace and its human rights project have no other choice but to call on the international community to withdraw all support for the games through an international boycott.
“It is outrageous and obscene that FIFA would allow the United States—a nation operating completely outside the bounds of international law and established international morality—to host the World Cup while providing material and political support for an ongoing genocide; constructing a regime of domestic terror through ICE goons who beat, murder, and disappear people into the vast detention gulags of the United States; invading and capturing a sitting president; attacking Iran; and imposing a humanitarian crisis on Cuba through criminal siege tactics perfected by Israel in Gaza,” stated Ajamu Baraka, Director of the North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights.
BAP is clear: as long as the United States continues its brutal assaults on the humanity and sovereignty of peoples and nations throughout the world in pursuit of full-spectrum domination, it remains an illegitimate and dangerous host for the World Cup.
But even more importantly, we believe it is a moral necessity to reject any attempt to use the World Cup as an instrument for normalizing international lawlessness, marginalizing accountability, and desecrating the memory of the tens of thousands of victims of U.S. criminality around the world.
BAP National Coordinator Erica Caines understands that this is a controversial position that may not be understood, even by people who recognize and oppose U.S. domestic and foreign policies. “We understand the excitement and pride of the nations that qualified and will compete in the World Cup. However, participation in the games while they are hosted in the United States does not uphold the Beautiful Game as it was meant to be celebrated. Instead, it risks normalizing genocide, domestic repression, militarism, and death.”
That is precisely why the Black Alliance for Peace stands firm in the insistence that this year’s World Cup—and the United States itself—must be boycotted. Conscience and political consistency demand nothing less.
The U.S. agenda for domination is clear, and therefore our response must also be clear. We will not bend to U.S. imperialism or to any of its subordinate international institutions, including FIFA. Our resistance is politically grounded and informs our focused commitment to boycott the World Cup, boycott the United States, and advance the collective struggle for People(s)-Centered Human Rights.
BAP calls on the international community to join us in the fight for authentic human rights grounded in the principles of self-determination, social justice, democracy, and radical social transformation.
Read the statement: https://bit.ly/boycott-world-cup-2026
Support and join the Global Network for the Advancement of People(s)-Centered Human Rights: bit.ly/GNPCHR
