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Mundial: czy Trump zepsuł atmosferę? Europosłowie dyskutują w „The Ring”
Trwa mundial, największe sportowe wydarzenie roku, śledzone przez miliony. Nastroje są jednak zaskakująco stonowane: sprzedaż biletów i rezerwacje hoteli rozczarowują, a problemy imigracyjne, zwłaszcza w USA, dominują w mediach.
CZYTAJ WIĘCEJ : http://pl.euronews.com/2026/06/15/mundial-czy-trump-zepsul-atmosfere-europoslowie-dyskutuja-w-the-ring
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Trwa mundial, największe sportowe wydarzenie roku, śledzone przez miliony. Nastroje są jednak zaskakująco stonowane: sprzedaż biletów i rezerwacje hoteli rozczarowują, a problemy imigracyjne, zwłaszcza w USA, dominują w mediach.
CZYTAJ WIĘCEJ : http://pl.euronews.com/2026/06/15/mundial-czy-trump-zepsul-atmosfere-europoslowie-dyskutuja-w-the-ring
Zasubskrybuj nasz kanał.Euronews jest dostępny na Dailymotion w 12 językach
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NewsTranscript
00:08Hello and welcome to The Ring, Euronews' weekly debate show,
00:12broadcasting from the European Parliament in Brussels.
00:15I'm Stefan Grobe.
00:16On The Ring, debaters go face-to-face
00:19on some of the top political issues facing Europe.
00:23Today we want to talk about one of the biggest events of the year,
00:26the FIFA Football World Cup 2026.
00:30It's uniting the world, creating a vibe of friendship and festivity
00:34and leaving politics outside.
00:37Now, if you believe that, you better think twice.
00:41Luis Albertos tells you why.
00:45This week the FIFA Football World Cup will kick off,
00:49capturing the attention of millions of people around the globe.
00:55But headlines will not only dominate the sport pages,
00:58rarely has the politics of football fueled such controversial debates
01:03in the run-up to a tournament like this year.
01:06It starts with the rationale behind giving this event for the first time
01:10to three host countries covering almost an entire continent
01:14and expanding the number of teams from 32 to 48,
01:18with more than 1,200 players taking part.
01:22Then there's the exploding ticket prices,
01:25the fan boycotts, security concerns,
01:27whether Iran and Congo can take part,
01:30Trump, racism, the list is long.
01:35Has the world's most popular sport become a platform for global politics?
01:41Is football no longer just a sport?
01:44And what does the future of the World Cup look like?
01:51A lot to unpack for our contenders, and here they are!
01:57Rasmus Andresen, a German MEP from the Greens.
02:00He is a member of the Committees on Budget, Economic and Monetary Affairs,
02:04as well as a delegation for relations with the United States.
02:08Football must not become a playground for investors and pricing algorithms.
02:12When supporters are priced out of stadiums
02:15and clubs become assets in global ownership networks,
02:18we risk losing the very social and community value that makes sports special, he said.
02:24Lukas Mandl, an Austrian MEP from the Central-Right European People's Party.
02:28In the European Parliament, he sits in the Committees on Development,
02:32Legal Affairs and Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.
02:35In the run-up to the 2026 World Cup, he says,
02:39for these few weeks, football makes the world a family.
02:42To make it political or posh will not help.
02:49So let me welcome to the ring Lukas Mandl and Rasmus Andresen.
02:53Great to have you here. Good to see you.
02:57Now, the aim of the ring is to offer our viewers a glimpse at European Parliament debates,
03:02so you should feel right at home here. Are you ready?
03:05I think so, yes.
03:07We are ready.
03:07Good. Now, after all we've heard about the non-football-related issues
03:12in the run-up of the tournament, are you still excited about the World Cup?
03:17I'm totally excited. Football is king for the weeks ahead.
03:21Such a big game that's involving so many people worldwide
03:25is automatically with some political impact, but to politicize it purposely would be the
03:31absolutely wrong thing to do. I see the trouble. We will talk about it in today's discussion.
03:37But in the first place, also for myself, as a fan, I see the excitement about the game.
03:44Well, I'm ready and I love the sport, so I'm really looking forward to see some nice matches
03:49to follow the German national team, but also some of the others.
03:53But I also have some concerns in mind looking on that this tournament mainly will be played in the U
04:01.S.
04:01where we have a sitting president who tries to do sports washing and to get a better image out of
04:08football.
04:10And there are some other issues I think we need to address where we need to ensure that football
04:15still will be the sports for the people and not for some very few.
04:19Was it smart to give the tournament to three countries covering half a continent?
04:26I think yes. Actually, it became the habit that big games would be hosted by several countries,
04:34which is cross-border. And cross-border even more provides sports to be a factor that makes people a family,
04:42the world a family. So it's good that there are three host countries.
04:46Of course, there are always also political implications, also due to the current U.S. president, of course.
04:53But I think this part of the decision is a good one.
04:56But if the venues, the teams, the fans are hundreds of kilometers, thousands of kilometers away,
05:03how can you inspire that vibe and festivity if they're in remote places scattered across
05:12the United States, Canada and Mexico?
05:14Yeah, well, I mean, that's a fair question to ask. And if you ask me, I think the tournament is
05:20far too big.
05:20And the reason for this is not that they want to promote the values of football all over the world
05:27and they don't want to connect the world together. But what they want to create is money and profits.
05:34And in a way, you can say that's fine. Sports had always been a business.
05:39But for me, some of the decisions made by the FIFA in the run-up for the tournament have been
05:47too much.
05:48And one of the issues I think we have to deal with is that the tournament is too big.
05:54There are too many countries participating.
05:57The tournament takes too long time. It has an impact also for clubs at national level who have to suffer.
06:05It has an impact on the players and the health of the players because we are creating a lot of
06:11matches.
06:12And this is why I'm a bit skeptical about that.
06:14I think the next time it's going to be in Spain, Portugal and Morocco. It's also kind of an odd
06:18mix.
06:19Exactly. That part at least will be better in four years when we will have it in Europe, together with
06:26Morocco, of course,
06:27because the distances will be smaller.
06:29And I think these dynamic pricing systems, which makes tickets not a business, which is good, I agree with that,
06:38but makes them a posh adventure, is just wrong.
06:43And this is why a more decent approach on European soil in four years will be better.
06:48But this doesn't take anything away from the excitement about football.
06:51Are you sure? I mean, the fans will basically meet each other at airports.
06:56What about the environmental footprint?
06:59I mean, the environmental footprint of this tournament is a big catastrophe.
07:03I mean, we can be very clear about that also because the national teams have to travel on long distances
07:09with planes.
07:11The fans need to do the same.
07:12If you, for example, would like to follow the German team, you have to take the plane for a long
07:18distance to reach all of the different games.
07:20But what I think is much more concerning is that this tournament is really something regular citizens can't afford.
07:28You need to have a lot of money if you want to watch the game because the prices are far
07:33too high for the tickets,
07:34but also to travel in the U.S., even with public transport, is far too expensive.
07:40And this means that, like, the idea of that the world comes together, supporters meet each other, are not realistic
07:51any longer, at least in this tournament.
07:53Well, when you talk about public transport, it's basically no public transport in the United States.
07:57But even in cities like New York or New Jersey, where we could see some news about that, like, the
08:04prices were, like, ten times higher than they normally were.
08:08So even there, you cannot afford to go to the stadium or to travel to the stadium by train.
08:14Is that an issue here?
08:16Absolutely.
08:17I mean, there's a lot that stands between us.
08:19Not only that my colleague is from the Greens, I'm from the Christian Democrats.
08:23He's even German, and I'm Austrian.
08:24And that's the bigger difference, especially when it comes to the World Cup.
08:27But to be serious, these algorithms that stand behind this pricing does not serve a very important cause.
08:34That football has always been inclusive, something for everybody.
08:38I mean, in front of TV, with the whole excitement, everything around worldwide, it will still be something for everybody.
08:46So we must not forget that.
08:48But this is a bad example of too posh adventures.
08:52I'm glad you say that, because what we've seen so far is not that many fans on the ground just
09:01yet.
09:01We'll see, right?
09:02But there's another aspect.
09:04Many fans just fear to fall into the hands of the U.S. immigration system, get locked up or whatever.
09:13Is this understandable?
09:14Absolutely.
09:15There was a referee from Somalia, I've heard, who was held back for hours and hours at the airport entering
09:21the U.S.
09:22There were even, in regular times before the World Cup, ice agents even approaching playgrounds of children, basically football playgrounds,
09:33where they assumed to find people they wanted to detain in the end.
09:39And even children would be detained by them.
09:41So there is something ongoing which can be of concern.
09:45And we have to observe it carefully.
09:47We have the issue with the Ebola outbreak in Congo.
09:51Generally, there would be a restriction for traveling from Congo to the U.S.
09:57We will see how that applies to the players and maybe the fans and everybody around.
10:03And, of course, the big, the elephant in the room, as the saying says, is that for the first time
10:08in history, two countries at war are not only meeting,
10:12but one of the countries is the host country and the other country sends a national team, which has already
10:17misused the whole situation for a political statement, by the way.
10:20I mean, the Iranian team.
10:22But we will see how this can be observed.
10:25Obviously, for the time being, Iran will only play in Mexico.
10:29So we cannot separate football from politics at this point.
10:29At this point in age, we cannot separate football from politics, right?
10:34There's the accusation of racism.
10:36You mentioned a Somali referee that came to Miami and wasn't let in.
10:41That was the team from Senegal that was, you know, pulled out of the plane, put on the tarmac and
10:47then had to undergo a very aggressive search operation.
10:52This is not really what we want to see at the World Cup, right?
10:56No.
10:56And I have to say that I think the FIFA is doing a very bad job in protecting their own
11:05referees, some of the players and I guess also the supporters in dealing with the US administration in a way
11:15which, like, more or less is protecting the US administration and especially President Trump.
11:25And they want to avoid big conflicts with the current administration.
11:31And this I found quite weird in a way, I have to say, because, I mean, you can have different
11:37opinions on the political situation in the US and so on.
11:42And it's maybe not up to the FIFA president to take a big stance on this, but not even protecting
11:48their own participants in their tournament, which are necessary to organize it is in a way weird from my perspective.
11:57Let me just stop you here.
11:57We'll be talking about this in a moment as we are just getting warmed up here.
12:03Now it's time for gloves off.
12:10Now we want viewers to get a real flavor of the European Parliament chamber where members ask each other questions.
12:17That means we want our debaters to challenge each other directly, just as you do in the hemicycle.
12:24Let's get started with Lukas Mandl.
12:26Dear colleague, you have advocated for boycotting the World Cup.
12:30I don't agree with that.
12:31I think the excitement about football is much bigger than politics can ever be.
12:35And the direct question would be, how would you explain to, let's say, a child excited about football, just interested
12:41into football and this exciting game, how would you explain to such a child to boycott the game?
12:47I did not advocate to boycott the tournament, especially not for supporters.
12:51But what I think politicians should do is to take a clear stance and to criticize both the FIFA but
12:57also the current U.S. administration on the mistakes they are making when it also comes to organizing sports.
13:05And there, I think that politicians have a different kind of responsibility, meaning that they should not travel there and
13:15be part of the tournament and green light both the actions of the FIFA and of the U.S. president.
13:23So for me, it's not a general boycott.
13:24But I think as politicians, we should not go there and then support.
13:28We have to tell the child that most games are in the middle of the night.
13:31And it's also true.
13:33Hey, look, watch it.
13:34All right, Rasmus, your question.
13:35That's up to the parents, I guess, to decide.
13:38My question goes on the question if you think we need to regulate European football in general, also with regulation
13:49we can do at European level.
13:51Also because, and this is what I understood, you're also very critical about what we can see on the ticket
13:58prices, for example.
13:59So my question would be how should we address that or should we address that as legislators or is this
14:06something the FIFA and other organizations need to deal with?
14:09Well, thanks for the question because I also wanted to echo what you have just said, that criticism is good,
14:14I think.
14:15But we also have to act to contribute to a better solution, better circumstances in four years from now, when
14:21Europe will be mainly the soil where the World Cup will take place.
14:27And I think regulation is not the first word that comes to my mind when it comes to that, because
14:31I think there is a lot of freedom and opportunity to decide responsibly.
14:35But I think what we need is clear lines for what responsibility means, for a game that affects the whole
14:41world, for a game that involves everybody, men and women, by the way, today more than ever, in four years
14:47more than today.
14:48And that can also make the world a family in the best sense one can imagine this will not happen
14:56to the full extent this year, but it can happen in four years when we contribute to responsibility.
15:01We must also not overestimate our say as lawmakers, I mean, we make laws especially to protect freedom, and this
15:10is also the freedom of decision of FIFA, of UEFA, as long as there are responsibility boundaries.
15:17And this is what I want to contribute to, and I think we can work on that together in four
15:23years from now.
15:24Okay, do you have another question to Rasmus?
15:27Who will win the World Cup?
15:30I hope, my hope goes to Germany.
15:33That puts him in the bind here, I see.
15:35What?
15:35That puts you in a bind now.
15:37My hope goes to Germany, but I think it will be Spain or France.
15:43Just, it occurs to me, four years ago the World Cup was in Qatar.
15:48Four years before that it was in Russia.
15:51Does FIFA have a blind eye when it comes to, you know, hosting these tournaments?
15:57I mean, do we, and this year we have a huge discussion about, you know, Trump's America.
16:02Isn't that unfortunate?
16:04I mean, I'm not here in any way to defend FIFA.
16:08I think there are decision-takers with good decisions, with bad decisions.
16:13I just wanted to draw the picture on the larger overview.
16:16The decisions of the venues for games like this, especially the Football World Cup, have been taken many years before
16:22political developments broke out.
16:25And this was true for Russia.
16:28By the way, when we discuss Iran and USA today, we as Europeans know very well that with Russian sports
16:35teams in many areas, very often agents and spies come along.
16:39But, I mean, also, I remember how naive the world was, not only FIFA, how naive when it came to
16:46the games in Qatar.
16:47All the world was about judging, for example, the labor standards when the stadiums were built and so on in
16:53Qatar.
16:54I have some confidence that today such naivety would not occur anymore.
17:00At least in Qatar the distances were shorter.
17:03Rasmus, your take on this and then we move on.
17:05Well, on the other side, like I think also back that time there had been a lot of criticism on
17:11that the tournament took place in Qatar because of good reasons, human rights situations, workers' rights and so on, freedom
17:20of media, for example.
17:22I think they have a blind spot.
17:24FIFA has a blind spot.
17:25And for me, this is an argument for that the big football associations like the FIFA are money driven and
17:34they are arguing with values they are not really following up to.
17:41And that's what I'm mostly criticizing.
17:43And this we could see with a lot of examples.
17:46And this is what I think needs to change.
17:49OK, well, we've heard the views from our guests.
17:52Now it's time to hear from a new voice.
17:58I would like to bring in Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA at the 50th UEFA Congress in Brussels in
18:06April.
18:07He said this, our responsibility is to give 90 minutes of a match where people can forget their issues, the
18:15problems they have at home, they have in work, they have in their countries, they have on a political level.
18:23Is he right?
18:24Of course, he's right.
18:25I mean, that's the basic thing you have to say.
18:27No matter whether one decision of him is bad, the other one would be good.
18:30One can argue about FIFA, about any organization as well.
18:33But, of course, this quote is exactly how I see it.
18:37Well, from my perspective, he's not right because that's not what he's doing and what he's participating in or how
18:45he's organizing the sports.
18:47Football had been community driven for more than 100 years.
18:51And I think that organizations like FIFA and people like Mr. Infantino are part of a process which are taking
19:04this away from football and where he basically is supporting commercialization and on the other side sports washing.
19:14So if he sits next to President Trump in the football stadium and he will sometimes be on camera seen
19:23by people back home, then it's not so easy for immigrants, for example, to enjoy the nice game.
19:29They want to see being played because they are confronted with his brothership, with a friendship with Donald Trump.
19:38So I think he's right in what it should be about, but he's not living up to that completely.
19:46Let's take a break here on The Ring.
19:48We'll be back with more after this.
19:51Don't go away.
20:00Welcome back to The Ring, Euronews' weekly debate show.
20:03I'm Stefan Grob and I'm joined by Asmus Andresen from The Greens from Germany and Lukas Mandl from the European
20:09People's Party from Austria.
20:12At this point, let's take a look at fan excitement, or should I say demand versus reality.
20:19According to FIFA, there have been over 500 million ticket requests, and more than 5 million tickets have been allocated
20:27at early sales phases.
20:30But according to a survey by the American Hotel and Lodging Association, 80% of hotel operators said bookings were
20:38below their initial forecasts.
20:41And between 65 and 70% of respondents said visa barriers and geopolitical concerns were suppressing international demand.
20:51So, anticipated demand has not translated into strong hotel bookings so far.
20:58Your comments on this?
20:59Well, I mean, that's because of the general price level, I think, both when it comes to the tickets, but
21:06also to other elements you need to pay for if you travel.
21:11And normally, people are traveling to the country, even if they don't have tickets or can't afford the tickets, because
21:18they want to be part of that.
21:19But this cannot be the case in the U.S., because it's far too expensive.
21:23And then there are some political issues that people have concerns about going there, because they don't know if they
21:29are allowed to enter the country because of their nationality, or because they maybe posted something on social media.
21:36The president doesn't like it.
21:38There's also Canada and Mexico.
21:39Yeah.
21:40We forgot about that so far.
21:41But the tournament mainly takes part in the U.S.
21:43Lukas, that's right.
21:44The ticket prices are a sign of a decadent society, not all ticket prices, but when it comes to this
21:51dynamic pricing, the algorithms in the end, the numbers that are told from there are absolutely crazy.
21:59It's like when the ancient Rome came to an end.
22:02This is not at all a game for everybody.
22:04This is not even a game for a minority.
22:06This is a game for maybe extremely wealthy people.
22:10If this goes that direction, this is absurd.
22:13This is wrong.
22:13The ticket price, just to open a bracket here, the ticket for the final is about $10,000.
22:21Yeah, I've even seen already larger prices in this dynamic pricing system than that.
22:27These extreme examples of where this dynamic pricing system can lead to are something we have to exclude, for example,
22:34for what will happen in four years from now in Europe.
22:37Is the best way to follow the matches in one's living room?
22:41Well, I don't know.
22:43I mean, you can still go in a bar and follow it.
22:46I know very well that the new mayor of New York City, Sora Mandami, he is a big football fan
22:52and he organized some community-driven events like we would like to see it taking place in different cities.
23:00But at least my feeling is that you don't have the same happening on the streets in the publics here
23:07with this tournament than you had earlier.
23:10All right, now it's time to move on to our fifth and final round.
23:18We're going to do something different.
23:21I'm going to ask you a set of questions and you can only answer with a yes or no.
23:27All right, let's get started.
23:30Most matches will take place in the middle of the night, as I said.
23:34Do you plan on watching them anyway?
23:36Absolutely.
23:37Austria will play one time, I think at four in the morning in Austrian time.
23:41I will definitely watch it.
23:42I even have invited friends for that.
23:43We will have morning coffee and watch Austria win.
23:45Okay, okay.
23:46I will watch most of it, I guess.
23:49But sometimes we have to negotiate important legislation in the parliament.
23:54And then I also need to get some rest to be ready for that.
23:57Okay, has FIFA effectively turned World Cup 2026 into a political branding exercise for the host governments?
24:05Yes or no?
24:05Yes, and not for the goods.
24:07I mean, they gave a peace prize to Donald Trump.
24:10I think no or not yet to be told.
24:12I don't agree with every FIFA decision.
24:14But for example, this very present decision about this peace prize for the current U.S. president by FIFA,
24:21I mean, it tells more about the current U.S. president than about FIFA.
24:24Does giving the World Cup to three host nations make political accountability harder?
24:32It makes it harder, but I think there are still advantages of having such games,
24:38Ours Olympics, other World Cups in many countries, while the distances are a problem.
24:42I think the distances are the real problem, not that it's three nations.
24:44Talked about that.
24:45It makes it harder, but that's also a reason for supporting, for example, civil society,
24:50like supporter organizations, human rights organizations on the ground,
24:54which are doing extraordinary and good work, excellent work in following what is actually happening
25:02and also reporting back so that you can also come up with problems like in a political sphere.
25:08Will security and immigration politics become one of the defining stories of this tournament?
25:12I mean, that depends on us, how we perceive it as fans, as citizens, also in public sphere.
25:19I mean, if we pay attention to the current U.S. president more than to football,
25:23it's also partly our mistake.
25:24Football is king now.
25:25Okay.
25:26Okay.
25:27I don't think it's our mistake to criticize if referees are not allowed to enter the country
25:31or to discuss what is actually going on with the Trump administration
25:39when it comes to immigration and other questions.
25:43Security is part of this, and both the FIFA and the U.S. administration are doing a lot,
25:51which then again needs to get a response.
25:54Okay.
25:55Next question.
25:56Will Austria win the World Cup?
25:58No.
25:59Of course.
26:01Of course, I support Austria, and I'm a natural born optimist.
26:04So the next question is, will Germany win the World Cup?
26:06Not at all.
26:07Okay.
26:08I'm afraid we won't do it, but I would love it.
26:12Okay.
26:13And finally, was there anything over the last half hour that you heard your opponents say
26:20that you agree with?
26:21I start with you.
26:22I've heard a lot.
26:23For example, the strong criticism on the ticket prices and general development.
26:27I think where we maybe have a bit different opinion is on if politics should act.
26:34And I think we should act and we should come up with some solutions because we can see
26:38that FIFA is not able in doing that alone.
26:41Okay.
26:42Agreement with Lucas?
26:43I agree with the excitement about football.
26:44I agree with a lot that has been stated already.
26:47I even agree that something has to be done.
26:49Maybe the how and what exactly has to be done is something we have to work out together,
26:54whether it's rather regulation or rather contributing to your responsibility.
26:57I think political engineering is always the ultima ratio, the last possible option, not
27:04the first thing.
27:05And we will prove in Europe in four years from now we will make it better and also learn
27:09from the lessons this time.
27:10But now, as I said, football is king.
27:13All right.
27:13Wonderful conclusion.
27:15And that final answer brings us to the end of this edition of The Ring.
27:20Thanks again to Rasmus Andresen and Lukas Mandl for a lively conversation here from
27:24the European Parliament.
27:25Thanks to our audience at home.
27:27If you like, you can continue the conversation by sending us your comments to the ring at
27:33euronews.com.
27:34We'd love to have your feedback.
27:36That's it for today.
27:38I'm Stefan Grobe.
27:39Take care and see you soon here on Euronews.
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