Donald Trump’s newly signed travel ban contains an exemption that could apply to players, staff or associated families with clubs participating in the 2025 Club World Cup, the 2026 Fifa World Cup or the 2028 Olympics.
It is also not clear whether the “World Cup” mentioned in the exemption applies to both the 2026 World Cup involving international teams and the 2025 Club World Cup, which will feature many of the world’s top club teams in venues across the US this year.
They are scheduled to play two World Cup qualifiers: one against Bolivia on Friday night and another against Uruguay on Tuesday.
Teams that have qualified for the Club World Cup employ 10 players from countries named in the travel ban.
Only one country on the travel ban list, Iran, has already qualified for the 2026 World Cup.
A recent travel ban signed by Donald Trump includes an exemption that may apply to players, employees, or related families of teams competing in the 2025 Club World Cup, the 2026 FIFA World Cup, or the 2028 Olympics.
The travel restrictions from his first term have been revived and expanded by the US president’s sweeping order, which prohibits travel from 12 countries and restricts travel from seven others.
According to the proclamation, entry into the United States will be “fully” restricted for citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Meanwhile, there will be some restrictions on the entry of citizens of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
Section 4 of the order does, however, specify an exception, stating that “any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives, traveling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting event as determined by the secretary of state,” are exempt from the prohibition.
When asked if the governing body had lobbied for the placement of the exception, a Fifa spokesperson chose not to comment. In recent months, Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, has made a special effort to meet Trump in public. He sat next to the president at the first appearance of his World Cup taskforce and arrived late to the FIFA Congress to meet Trump while he was on a Middle East tour.
Furthermore, it is unclear if the 2026 World Cup involving international teams and the 2025 Club World Cup, which will take place this year in locations across the United States and feature many of the best club teams in the world, are both covered by the “World Cup” referenced in the exemption.
Whether the ban will compel US-based players who represent banned nations to return early from the current FIFA international window is also unclear. For instance, three members of Venezuela’s team compete in Major League Soccer. On Friday night, they will play Bolivia in a World Cup qualifying match, and on Tuesday, they will play Uruguay. On Monday, June 9, Trump’s travel ban is scheduled to take effect.
Teams from the countries listed in the travel ban employ ten players from the teams that have qualified for the Club World Cup. Telasco Segovia of Inter Miami (Venezuela), Jefferson Savarino of Botafogo (Venezuela), Roger Aholou of Espérance de Tunis (Togo), David Martínez of LAFC (Venezuela), Mehdi Taremi of Internazionale (Iran), Matías Lacava of Ulsan (Venezuela), Kodjo Fo-Doh Laba of Al-Ain (Togo), Josna Loulendo (Republic of Congo), and Mohamed Awadalla of Pachuca (Venezuela) are among them.
The only nation on the travel ban list to qualify for the 2026 World Cup is Iran. Although Venezuela is five points behind Colombia for a spot in the World Cup, they are still in the running to qualify through an inter-confederation playoff, currently sitting in seventh place in South American qualifying. Libya and Equatorial Guinea are theoretically still in the running for African qualifying, but they are not likely to advance to the next round. Sudan is only one point away from automatic qualification in their World Cup qualifying group, currently ranked third. It appears that Haiti will advance to the next round of the Concacaf World Cup qualifying process.
