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Trump verdirbt WM-Stimmung? EU-Abgeordnete debattieren in The Ring
Die WM läuft, das größte Sportereignis des Jahres, verfolgt von Millionen. Doch die Stimmung bleibt verhalten: Kartenverkauf und Hotelbuchungen hinken hinterher, Einwanderungsfragen sorgen vor allem in den USA für Schlagzeilen.
LESEN SIE MEHR : http://de.euronews.com/2026/06/15/trump-verdirbt-wm-stimmung-eu-abgeordnete-debattieren-in-the-ring
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Die WM läuft, das größte Sportereignis des Jahres, verfolgt von Millionen. Doch die Stimmung bleibt verhalten: Kartenverkauf und Hotelbuchungen hinken hinterher, Einwanderungsfragen sorgen vor allem in den USA für Schlagzeilen.
LESEN SIE MEHR : http://de.euronews.com/2026/06/15/trump-verdirbt-wm-stimmung-eu-abgeordnete-debattieren-in-the-ring
Abonnieren Sie! Euronews gibt es in 12 Sprachen.
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NewsTranskript
00:08Hello and welcome to The Ring, Euronews' weekly debate show broadcasting from the European
00:14Parliament in Brussels. I'm Stefan Grobe. On The Ring, debaters go face-to-face on some of
00:20the top political issues facing Europe. Today we want to talk about one of the biggest events
00:25of the year, the FIFA Football World Cup 2026. It's uniting the world, creating a vibe of
00:33friendship and festivity and leaving politics outside. Now, if you believe that, you better
00:39think twice. Luis Alberto tells you why. This week, the FIFA Football World Cup will kick
00:48off, capturing the attention of millions of people around the globe.
00:55But headlines will not only dominate the sport pages, rarely has the politics of football
01:01fueled such controversial debates in the run-up to a tournament like this year.
01:06It starts with the rationale behind giving this event for the first time to three host countries
01:12covering almost an entire continent, and expanding the number of teams from 32 to 48, with more
01:18than 1200 players taking part. Then there's the exploding ticket prices, the fan boycotts, security
01:26concerns, whether Iran and Congo can take part, Trump, racism, the list is long.
01:36Has the world's most popular sport become a platform for global politics? Is football no
01:42longer just a sport? And what does the future of the World Cup look like?
01:57Rasmus Andresen, a German MEP from the Greens. He is a member of the committees on budget,
02:03economic and monetary affairs, as well as a delegation for relations with the United States.
02:08Football must not become a playground for investors and pricing algorithms. When supporters are priced
02:14out of stadiums and clubs become assets in global ownership networks, we risk losing the very
02:19social and community value that makes sports special, he said.
02:24Lukas Mandl, an Austrian MEP from the Central Right European People's Party. In the European
02:29Parliament, he sits in the committees on Development, Legal Affairs and Civil Liberties, Justice and
02:35Home Affairs. In the run-up to the 2026 World Cup, he says, for these few weeks football makes the
02:41world a
02:41family. To make it political or posh will not help.
02:49So let me welcome to the ring Lukas Mandl and Rasmus Andresen. Great to have you here. Good to see
02:56you.
02:57Now, the aim of the ring is to offer our viewers a glimpse at European Parliament debates, so you should
03:03feel right at home here. Are you ready? I think so, yes. We are ready. Good. Now, after all we've
03:09heard about
03:10the non-football related issues in the run-up of the tournament, are you still excited about the
03:16World Cup? I'm totally excited. Football is king for the weeks ahead. Such a big game that's involving
03:24so many people worldwide is automatically with some political impact, but to politicize it purposely would
03:30be the absolutely 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. Okay. Well,
03:45I'm
03:45ready and I love the sport, so I'm really looking forward to see some nice matches to follow the
03:50German national team, but also some of the others. But I also have some concerns in mind looking on that
03:58this tournament mainly will be played in the U.S., where we have a sitting president who tries to
04:05do sports washing and to get a better image out of football. And there are some other issues I think
04:12we need to address where we need to ensure that football still will be the sports for the people
04:17and not for some very few. Was it smart to give the tournament to three countries covering half a
04:25continent? I think yes. Actually, it became the habit that big games would be hosted by several
04:33countries, which is cross-border and cross-border even more provides sports to be a factor that makes
04:41people a family, the world a family. So it's good that there are three host countries. Of course,
04:46there 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. But if the venues, the teams, the fans
04:59are
04:59hundreds of kilometers, thousands of kilometers away, how can you inspire that vibe and festivity
05:08if they're in, you know, remote places scattered across the 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
05:20too big. And the reason for this is not that they want to promote the values of football all over
05:27the
05:27world and they don't want to connect the world together. But what they want to create is money and
05:34profits. And in a way, you can say that's fine. Sports had always been a business. But for me,
05:41some of the decisions made by the FIFA in the run up for the for the tournament have been too
05:48much.
05:48And one of the issues I think we have to deal with is that the tournament is too big. There
05:54are too
05:54many countries participating there. The tournament takes too long time. It has an impact also for clubs
06:01at national level who have to suffer to suffer. It has an impact on the players and the health of
06:08the
06:08players because we are creating a lot of matches. And this is why I'm a bit skeptical about that.
06:14This is right. I think next time is going to be in Spain, Portugal and Morocco is also kind of
06:18an odd mix.
06:19Exactly. Yeah. That part at least will be better in four years when we will have it in Europe together
06:25with Morocco, of course, because the distances will be smaller. And I think this dynamic pricing systems,
06:33which makes tickets not a business, which is good. I agree with that, but makes them a posh adventure
06:42is just wrong. And 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. What about the
06:57environmental footprint? I 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
07:10with planes. The fans need to do the same. If you, for example, would like to follow the German team,
07:15you have to take the plane and for a long distance to reach all to the to all of the
07:20different games.
07:21But what I think is much more concerning is that this tournament is really something
07:26regular citizens can't afford. You need to have a lot of money if you want to watch the game,
07:31because the prices are far too high for the tickets, but also to travel in the US, even with public
07:37transport,
07:38is far too expensive. And this means that like the idea of that the world comes together,
07:46supporters meet each other, are not realistic any longer, at least in this tournament.
07:53Well, when you're talking 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,
08:04like the prices were like 10 times higher than they normally were. So even there,
08:09you cannot afford to go to the stadium or to travel to the stadium by train.
08:14Is that an issue here? Absolutely. I mean, there's a lot that stands between us. Not only that
08:20my colleague is from the Greens, I'm from the Christian Democrats. He's even German and I'm
08:24Austrian. It's the biggest difference, especially when it comes to the World Cup. But to be serious,
08:29these algorithms that stand behind this pricing does not serve a very important cause. That football has
08:35always been inclusive, something for everybody. I mean, in front of TV, with the whole excitement,
08:42everything around worldwide, it will still be something for everybody. So we must not forget that.
08:48I'm glad you say that. But this is a bad example of a too posh adventure.
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. But there's another aspect. Many fans just fear to fall into the hands of the U.S.
09:09immigration system, get locked up or whatever. Is this understandable?
09:14Absolutely. There was a referee from Somalia, I've heard, who was held back for hours and hours at the airport
09:20entering the U.S. There were even in regular times before the World Cup, ICE agents even
09:27approaching playgrounds of children, basically football playgrounds where they assumed to find
09:36people they wanted to detain in the end and even children would be detained by them.
09:41Yeah. So there is something ongoing which can be of concern and we have to observe it carefully.
09:47We have the issue with the Ebola outbreak in Congo. Generally, there would be a restriction for
09:54traveling from Congo to the U.S. We will see how that applies to the players and maybe the fans
10:01and
10:01everybody around. And of course, the big the elephant in the room, as the saying says, is that for the
10:08first time in history, two countries at war are not only meeting, but one of the countries is the host
10:13country
10:14and the other country sends a national team, which has already misused the whole situation for a
10:19political statement, by the way. I mean, the Iranian team. But we will see how this can be observed.
10:25Obviously, for the time being, Iran will only play Mexico at this point. At this point in age,
10:31we cannot separate football from politics, right? There's the actual accusation of racism. You mentioned
10:36the Somali referee that came to Miami and wasn't wasn't let in. That was the team from Senegal that was,
10:44you know, pulled out of the plane, put on the tarmac and then had to undergo a very aggressive
10:51search operation. This is not really what we want to see at the World Cup, right?
10:56No. And I have to say that I think the FIFA is doing a very bad job in protecting their
11:05own referees,
11:06some of the players and I guess also the supporters in dealing with the US administration in a way which
11:15like more or less is protecting the US administration and especially President Trump. And they want to
11:26avoid big conflicts with the current administration. And this I found quite weird in a way, I have to say,
11:35because, I mean, you can have different opinions 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. It's in a way weird,
11:56from my perspective. Let me just stop you. We'll be talking about this in a moment, as we are just
12:01getting warmed up here. Now it's time for gloves off.
12:09Now we want viewers to get a real flavor of the European Parliament Chamber where members ask each
12:16other questions. That means we want our debaters to challenge each other directly, just as you do in
12:22the hemicycle. Let's get started with Lukas Mandl. Dear colleague, you have advocated for boycotting the
12:30World Cup. I don't agree with that. I think the excitement about football is much bigger than
12:33politics can ever be. And the direct question would be, how would you explain to, let's say,
12:39a child excited about football, just interested into football and this exciting game, how would you
12:44explain to such a child to boycott the game? I did not advocate to boycott the tournament,
12:50especially not for supporters. But what I think politicians should do is to take a clear
12:55stance and to criticize both the FIFA but also the current US administration on the mistakes they
13:02are making when it also comes to organizing sports. And there I think that politicians have a different
13:09kind of responsibility, meaning that they should not travel there and be part of the tournament and
13:17green light both the actions of the FIFA and of the US president. So for me it's not a general
13:23boycott,
13:24but I think as politicians we should not go there and then support. We have to tell the child that
13:29most games are in the middle of the night. And that's also true. Watch it. All right, Rasmus,
13:35your question. That's up to the parents, I guess, to decide. My question goes on the question,
13:41if you think we need to regulate European football in general, also with regulation we can do at European
13:50level. Also because, and this is what I understood, you're also very critical about what we can see on
13:57the ticket prices, for example. So my question would be how should we address that or should we address
14:03that as legislators or is this something the FIFA and other organizations need to deal with? Well,
14:09thanks for the question because I also wanted to echo what you have just said that criticism is good,
14:14I think. But we also have to act to contribute to a better solution, better circumstances in four
14:20years from now when Europe will be mainly the soil where the World Cup will take place. And I think
14:27regulation is not the first word that comes to my mind when it comes to that because I think there's
14:31a
14:31lot of freedom and opportunity to decide responsibly. But I think what we need is clear lines for what
14:37responsibility means for a game that affects the whole world, for a game that involves everybody,
14:44men and women, by the way, today more than ever, in four years more than today. And that it can
14:49also
14:50make the world a family in the best sense one can imagine. This will not happen to the full extent
14:57this year, but it can happen in four years when we contribute to responsibility. We must also not
15:03overestimate our say as lawmakers. I mean, we 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. And
15:17this is what I want to contribute to. And I think we can work on that together for in four
15:23years from now.
15:24Okay. Do you have another question to Rasmus? Who will win the World Cup?
15:30I hope, my hope goes to Germany. That puts him in the bind here, I see.
15:35That puts you in a bind now. Well, my hope goes to Germany, but I think it will be Spain
15:41or France.
15:43It occurs to me, four years ago, the World Cup was in Qatar. Four years before that, it was in
15:50Russia.
15:51Does FIFA have a blind eye when it comes to, you know, hosting these tournaments? I mean,
15:58do we? And this year we have a huge discussion about, you know, Trump's America. Isn't that unfortunate?
16:04I mean, I'm not here in any way to defend FIFA. I think there are decision takers with good decisions,
16:12with bad decisions. I just wanted to draw the picture on the larger overview. The decisions of the
16:17venues for games like this, especially the Football World Cup, have been taken many years before
16:23political developments broke out. And this was true for Russia. By the way, when we discuss Iran
16:30and USA today, we as Europeans know very well that with Russian sports teams in many areas,
16:37very often agents and spies come along. But I mean, also, I remember how naive the world was,
16:43not only FIFA, how naive when it came to the games in Qatar. All the world was about judging,
16:50for example, the labor standards when the stadiums were built and so on in Qatar. I have some confidence
16:55that today such naivety would not occur anymore. At least in Qatar the distances were shorter.
17:03Rasmus, your take on this and then we move on. Well, on the other side, like I think also back
17:09that time there had been a lot of criticism on that the tournament took place in Qatar because of good
17:15reasons, human rights situations, workers' rights and so on, freedom of media, for example.
17:22I think they have a blind spot. FIFA has a blind spot. And for me, this is an argument for
17:28that
17:29the big football associations like the FIFA are money driven and they are arguing with values they
17:39are not really following up to. And that's what I'm mostly criticizing. And this we could see
17:45with a lot of examples. And this is what I think needs to change.
17:49Okay. Well, we've heard the views from our guests. Now 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
18:05in Brussels in April. He said this, our responsibility is to give 90 minutes of a match where people can
18:14forget their issues, the problems they have at home, they have in work, they have in their
18:19countries, they have on a political level. Is he right? Of course, he's right. I mean,
18:25that's the basic thing you have to say, no matter whether one decision of him is bad,
18:29the other one would be good. One can argue about FIFA, about any organization as well. But of course,
18:34this quote is exactly how I see it. Well, from my perspective, he's not right,
18:39because that's not what he's doing and what he's participating in or how he's organizing the
18:46sports. Football had been community-driven for more than 100 years. And I think that organizations
18:53like FIFA and people like Mr. Infantino are part of the process which are taking this away from
19:05football and where he basically is supporting commercialization and on the other side sports
19:14washing. So if he sits next to President Trump in the football stadium and he will sometimes be on
19:22camera seen by people back home, then it's not so easy for immigrants, for example, to enjoy the nice
19:28game they want to see being played because they are confronted with his brothership, with a friendship
19:36with Donald Trump. So I think he's right in what it should be about, but he's not living up to
19:44that
19:45completely. Let's take a break here on The Ring. We'll be back with more after this. Don't go away.
20:00Welcome back to The Ring, Euronews' weekly debate show. I'm Stefan Grob and I'm joined by Osmus Andresen
20:06from The Greens from Germany and Lukas Mandl from the European People's Party from Austria. At this
20:12point, let's take a look at fan excitement, or should I say demand versus reality. According to FIFA,
20:21there have been over 500 million ticket requests and more than 5 million tickets have been allocated
20:27at early sales phases. But according to a survey by the American Hotel and Lodging Association,
20:3580% of hotel operators said bookings were below their initial forecasts. And between 65 and 70% of
20:44respondents said visa barriers and geopolitical concerns were suppressing international demand. So
20:52anticipated demand has not translated into strong hotel bookings so far. Your comments on this?
20:59Well, I mean, that's because of the general price level, I think, both when it comes to the tickets,
21:06but also to other elements you need to pay for if you travel. And normally, people are traveling to
21:14the country, even if they don't have tickets or can't afford the tickets, because they want to be part of
21:18that. But this cannot be the case in the U.S., because it's far too expensive. And then there are
21:24some 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
21:35on social media. The president doesn't like it. There's also Canada and Mexico. We forgot about that.
21:41The tournament mainly takes part in the U.S. That's right. That's right. The ticket prices are a sign of
21:47a decadent society. Not all ticket prices, but when it comes to this dynamic pricing, the algorithms,
21:53in the end, the numbers that are told from there are absolutely crazy. It's like when the ancient Rome
22:00came to an end. This is not at all a game for everybody. This is not even a game for
22:05a minority.
22:06This is a game for maybe extremely wealthy people. If this goes that direction, this is absurd.
22:13This is wrong. Just to open a bracket here, the ticket for the final is about ten thousand dollars.
22:21Yeah, I've even seen already larger prices in this dynamic pricing system than that. These extreme examples
22:28of 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?
22:42Well, I don't know. I mean, you can still go in a bar and follow it. I know very well
22:47that the new mayor
22:48of New York City, Sora Mandani, he is a big football fan and he organized some community-driven events,
22:55like we would like to see it taking place in different cities. But at least my feeling is that you
23:03don't have
23:03the same happening on the streets in the public sphere with this tournament than you had earlier.
23:10Yeah. All right. Now it's time to move on to our fifth and final round.
23:18We're going to do something different. I'm going to ask you a set of questions and you can only answer
23:25with a yes or no. All right, let's get started. Most matches will take place in the middle of the
23:32night.
23:32As I said, do you plan on watching them anyway? Absolutely. Austria will play one time. I think
23:38at four in the morning in Austrian time, I will definitely watch it. I even have invited friends
23:43for that. We will have morning coffee and watch Austria win. Okay. Okay. I will watch most of it,
23:49I guess, but sometimes we have to negotiate important legislation in the parliament and then I also need
23:55to get some rest to be ready for that. Okay. Has FIFA effectively turned World Cup 2026 into a
24:01political branding exercise for the host governments? Yes or no? Yes. And not for the
24:07goods. I mean, they gave a peace prize to Donald Trump. I think no or not yet to be told.
24:12I don't
24:12agree with every FIFA decision, but for example, this very present decision about this peace prize for
24:18the current US president by FIFA. I mean, it tells more about the current US 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,
24:38also Olympics, other World Cups in many countries, while the distances are a problem. I think the
24:42distances are the real problem, not that it's three nations. Talk about that. It makes it harder,
24:46but that's also a reason for supporting, for example, civil society, like supporter organizations,
24:52human rights organizations on the ground, which are doing extraordinary and good work,
24:58excellent work in following what is actually happening and also reporting back so that you
25:04can also come up with problems like in a political sphere. Will security and immigration politics
25:09become one of the defining stories of this tournament? I mean, that depends on us,
25:14how we perceive it as fans, as citizens, also in public sphere. I mean, if we pay attention to the
25:21current US president more than to football, it's also partly our mistake. Football is king now.
25:25Okay. Okay. Okay. I don't think it's our mistake to criticize if referees are not allowed to enter
25:30the country or to discuss what is actually going on with the Trump administration when it comes to
25:40immigration and other questions. Security is part of this and both the FIFA and the US administration
25:49are doing a lot which then again needs to get the response. Okay. Next question. Will Austria win the
25:57World Cup? No. Of course. Of course, I support Austria and I'm a natural born optimist. The next question is,
26:04will Germany win the World Cup? Not at all. Okay. I'm afraid we won't do it, but I would love
26:11it. Okay.
26:12And finally, was there anything over the last half hour that you heard your opponents say that you
26:20agree with? I start with you. I've heard a lot, for example, the strong criticism on the ticket prices
26:26and general development. I 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 that FIFA
26:39is not able in doing that alone. Okay. Agreement with Lucas? I agree with the excitement about football.
26:44I agree with a lot that has been stated already. I even agree that something has to be done. Maybe
26:49the
26:50how and what exactly has to be done is something we have to work out together, whether it's rather
26:55regulation or rather contributing to your responsibility. I think political engineering is always the ultima
27:01ratio, the last possible option, not the first thing. And we will prove in Europe in four years
27:07from now, we will make it better and also learn from the lessons this time. But now, as I said,
27:12football is king. All right. Wonderful conclusion. And that final answer brings us to the end of this
27:18edition of The Ring. Thanks again to Rasmus Andresen and Lukas Mandl for a lively conversation
27:23here from the European Parliament. Thanks to our audience at home. If you like, you can continue the
27:29conversation by sending us your comments to the ring at Euronews.com. We'd love to have your feedback.
27:36That's it for today. I'm Stefan Grobe. Take care and see you soon here on Euronews.
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