Iran’s Soccer Team Forced to Return to Mexico Immediately After First Game

Members of Iran’s national soccer team expressed frustration about their treatment after they were told the team needed to leave Los Angeles immediately after playing their opening World Cup game against New Zealand on Monday night. After a 2-2 draw in their opening game with New Zealand Monday night, Iran’s team was forced to fly back to Mexico rather than remain in Los Angeles and do a…
Source

Original

Anti-Austerity Protests Rock World Cup Kick-Off in Mexico

We continue our World Cup coverage in Mexico City, where local protesters are using the global event to bring attention to their causes. A sit-in by a teachers’ union is targeting World Cup festivities. And “the mothers of disappeared people have been protesting, trying to reach the stadium in the far south of the city,” says José Luis Granados Ceja, who covers Latin America for Drop Site News.
Source

Original

Scared of ICE, Angry at Trump, and Facing Red Tape, Many Are Skipping World Cup

Since Donald Trump’s second inauguration, the number of international travelers visiting the United States has fallen by more than 5 percent. The number of Canadians visiting the country has plummeted by more than 20 percent. All told, the fall-off in international tourism has translated into a decline of $8.4 billion in tourists’ spending in the U.S. The World Travel and Tourism Council…
Source

Original

Iran’s Soccer Team Says US Revoked Its Ticket Allocation Ahead of World Cup 

Iran’s soccer federation says that its ability to issue tickets for the World Cup has been revoked, just days before the start of the tournament — an announcement that comes as U.S. President Donald Trump’s draconian border policies have posed hurdles for tournament participants from around the globe. Under regulations set by FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, each team receives 8…
Source

Original

If ICE Shows Up at the World Cup, Essential Service Workers Are Ready to Strike

As the World Cup nears, Los Angeles’s service workers — the people who staff hotels and keep the restaurants and bars going inside the city’s big stadium — have threatened to go on strike if the tournament becomes hunting grounds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). They have good reason to be worried. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has indicated that it may not routinely…
Source

Original

Trump Envoy Says Italy Should Replace Iran in World Cup

Paolo Zampolli, special envoy for global partnerships within the Trump administration, has personally asked both President Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino to remove Iran from this summer’s World Cup tournament, to be replaced by Italy, Zampolli’s home country. Zampolli — who reportedly introduced Trump to his third wife, first lady Melania Trump — is a businessman and a…
Source

Original