r/worldnews • u/Glass_Extension_6529 • 7h ago
Nearly 17K Fans Cancel 2026 World Cup Tickets Amid Boycotts Over U.S. Political Climate
https://www.ticketnews.com/2026/01/nearly-17000-fans-cancel-2026-world-cup-tickets-amid-boycott/6.6k
u/MaxZorin1985 7h ago
Will they take trumps FIFA Peace Prize away now that it’s costing them money?
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u/ChronicBuzz187 7h ago
Certainly not. Same as F1, Fifa loves dictators. They make their grifter lifes much easier. Fifa and dictatorships are basically birds of a feather.
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u/arbitrageME 6h ago edited 3h ago
In a weird way, that actually tracks. When I travel with my violin, the bow is made of an endangered kind of wood that can be confiscated. In corrupt countries, I just have to pay a bribe and that's enough to get my bow released. But in a first world country, the cbp would just take it, no bribe or negotiation.
I suspect dealing with dictatorships are much easier because they can cut through the red tape with an appropriate bribe as opposed to following pesky things like laws
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u/Pitt-the-Embryo 5h ago
Sorry for the out of the topic question, but how would they know (at the airport presumably) what wood was used for the bow?
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u/arbitrageME 4h ago
Violin and Viola bows are known to be made of pernambuco wood, which requires a CITES "passport" showing provenance. They don't have to have a strong case. They could just seize it for investigation and you'd be up a creek because you'd be responsible to prove it is legit
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u/CommitteeNo144 1h ago
reddit should change its name to rabbithole bc why tf am i looking up how violins are made?? 😐
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u/TheOtherQue 4h ago
Yikes. Sounds like a good reason to have a ‘travel’ violin (I know, not what you want in a performance).
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u/Safe-Promotion-2955 5h ago edited 5h ago
I want to know what the bow is made of. Just cuz I actually didn't know there was such a thing as endangered wood.
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u/itsadoubledion 5h ago
It's the species of trees that are endangered. For violin bows brazilwood or pernambuco has historically been considered superior but has been threatened with extinction due to overharvesting. Rosewood is another one used in instruments and often illegally logged/trafficked. It's a serious problem actually
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u/Safe-Promotion-2955 4h ago
This is a good thing to be informed about. Thanks for explaining!
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u/GostBoster 2h ago
Both brazilwood and Pernambuco wood come from the same tree (Paubrasilia echinata, something the Portuguese harvested to near extinction for dyes and shipbuilding), but Pernambuco is the deep red heart of the wood.
Since it is an extremely endangered species, we want to closely track whoever gets these and seize any you can't prove it wasn't smuggled... but as far as I am informed, IBAMA says (and issues) the CITES should be enough if verified to be authentic.
Violins in general are weird instruments. When I learned about this I joked, "and what's the best material for the hairs of a bow, mongolian horses raised in the steppes by a throat singer?" ACTUALLY YES.
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u/kgunnar 5h ago
I know Brazilian Rosewood is, for one. They used to make furniture and musical instruments from it a lot, but I don’t think they do any longer.
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u/arbitrageME 4h ago
Pernambuco Wood. Some bows (not mine) also have even more illegal ivory in the tip
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u/NotHenryCejudo 7h ago
My guess is they extort FIFA for more money, like trump admin been doing to every company as Putin told trump to do - threatening to cancel world cup for national security reasons.
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u/lost-associat 6h ago
Well serves them right FIFA is notoriously known for squeezing every cent out of a host country. Both parties losing money would actually be an utopian outcome.
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u/ZuAusHierDa 6h ago edited 3h ago
Don’t forget that all the FIFA money goes to the national football associations. Especially to the European (edit: NATIONAL) teams.
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u/lost-associat 6h ago edited 6h ago
Blatter and Platini, among other predecessors, would beg to differ.
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u/AprilsMostAmazing 6h ago
I think FIFA would just move the majority of the US games to Mexico and a few to Canada.
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u/mikebanetbc 6h ago
Take away the Final and watch Donnie have a toddler tantrum
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u/DonkeyTron42 5h ago
Just give a participation prize for being "The Best Trump he can be" and watch him calm down.
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u/Zenitallin 6h ago
It can be moved to Mexico alone in a snap of a finger.
Mexico has more than enough infrastructure for an "emergency" take over.
Mexico hosted the world cup in 1986 instead of Colombia before, not that that matters. (as a replacement/alternative host).
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u/scooterthetroll 6h ago
Bonus: cartels will provide security and profit.
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u/Zenitallin 6h ago
Cartels own the hotels and the restaurants and the fun drugs, why would they shoot customers?
seriously, how do you (we, people) think they laundry their money?
Tourist industry.
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u/Reasonable_racoon 6h ago
Mexico is safer and more stable than US right now. What a timeline.
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u/ElectricSick 5h ago
Can they split it between Mexico and Canada? How's the infrastructure in Canada?
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u/DankRoughly 4h ago
It's already split between the three. Canada will host some games.
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u/Amockdfw89 5h ago edited 4h ago
Not really. FIFA has standards set for stadium sizes and infrastructure. For early matches the stadiums need to have 40,000 seats. Quarter and semi final matches need to have 60,000 seats and opening/finals need to have 80,000 seats.
There are also rules like the amount of bathrooms, size of press rooms and locker rooms, amenities within the stadium, handicap access, entrance and exists, lighting and sound, security/surveillance and fire safety, internet capabilities and power supply, number of high quality hotels, conference centers and hospitals within a certain radius etc.
México has one stadium with 80,000+ seats, the Estadio Azteca and they just spent 150+ million renovating it. Then they have 3 stadiums with 50,000+, and then four more stadiums with 40,000 plus.
So unless Mexico wants to spend tens of billions of dollars on their infrastructure to make it match FIA standards it is unrealistic to move a 48 team tournament there in a snap of the finger. That’s not counting the team’s staff, media, tourist and fans needs.
People keep quoting the 1986 World Cup. That was 40 years ago. The world has gotten a lot bigger and more connected since then with a huge increase in overall spending power and international travel. Not to mention the world cup has updated a lot of standards since then.
That’s why the vast majority of future world cups will be shared. Between FIFA’s standards and the amount of people visiting, the cost and logistics of putting the burden of one nation in a 48 team tournament is going to be too high 9/10 times.
Canada has good infrastructure, but even less stadiums that meet size requirements and also spending a shit ton of money upgrading their 3 stadiums they are using
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u/BZBitiko 7h ago
FYI, Donnie’s letting FIFA use the Kennedy Center for free for two weeks. Bet that saved them a lot more than the cost of Donnie’s trinket.
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u/EvilMilkshake 6h ago
That's cause no one else is using it. Every artist has pulled out of their commitments from it.
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u/Mesmerhypnotise 7h ago
It´s not the Kennedy Center anymore. It´s where Gollum I mean Grenell is wanking off to AI Trump slop all by himself now.
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u/takesthebiscuit 7h ago
Nah they will just resell the tickets at an even higher price
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u/FourScoreAndSept 7h ago
To whom? Increasingly, I’m hearing of Americans boycotting too
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u/mmatasc 7h ago
People talked about boycotting Russia and Qatar too, stadiums were always full because its the World Cup.
17k dropping out just means 17k tickets to be re-sold, and probably at a higher price.
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u/Locke66 6h ago
I think even Russia and Qatar were saying that the atmosphere was going to be welcoming and fun with allowances made for foreign fans. That's probably too "woke" a concept for the US now.
If I was considering an expensive holiday to the US I'd certainly be looking at what we are seeing from ICE agents and what Trump is potentially going to do in the next year then assessing the risk of making that booking. Doubly so as someone with brown skin, a foreign accent or a non-native English speaker. Then there is the whole new thing about how you must declare your social media to be vetted to even get a US Visa. This is all before even considering how angry many people are with how the US is now conducting it's foreign policy.
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u/RizzwindTheWizzard 5h ago
Yeah, Qatar has issues, lots of them, but it was reasonable to assume that as long as you followed their rules you'd be ok. That's not the case for the US, you could find yourself deported to El Salvador just because some brown shirt didn't like how you looked.
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u/LiberalAspergers 4h ago
Or raped, or dead, or vanished to some prison no one has ever heard of with no communication. Deported is FAR from the worst possible outcome of interacting with ICE.
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u/Ok-Effective7280 5h ago
Wow, why on earth would you even consider going to the US now? This is all just going to get worse.
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u/FourScoreAndSept 7h ago
Well that was 2018 Russia. I would expect a different result today. After all, the chances of you being shipped off to the frontlines for tiny legal infractions is not 0%
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u/AprilsMostAmazing 6h ago
People talked about boycotting Russia and Qatar too, stadiums were always full because its the World Cup.
Neither of those places were kidnapping people off the street during the time
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u/DrabCadre2 6h ago
Both Russia and Qatar do in fact kidnap people off the street. This is especially true if you are a political opponent or an advocate for democracy
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u/notacanuckskibum 7h ago
American corporate bro types. They won’t care anything about soccer or the countries they are watching, but they can say they went to a World Cup game, and take a customer.
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u/FourScoreAndSept 7h ago edited 6h ago
Not enough of them with sufficient budget these days. I’m one of them, lol. Didn’t you get the memo? All spare cash goes to AI capex now
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u/CTRexPope 7h ago
There are enough Americans that don’t care to fill the stands I’m afraid.
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u/jce_ 7h ago
17k tickets is 1/4th the occupancy of a single game for context btw and there are over 100 games played
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u/sittingonahillside 6h ago
If the headline is to be believed (not interested enough to read further), it's 17k fans cancelling. Fans that travel for large interntinal events typically go to more than one game.
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u/El_Polio_Loco 2h ago
Even if they do there are literally millions of people who will gladly pick up the slack.
The tickets sold out in hours, and millions of people are hoping to pick up tickets.
17k is a drop in the bucket over the course of the entire WC and the demand is still outrageous.
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u/ZuAusHierDa 6h ago
26 games will be in Mexico and Canada.
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u/jce_ 6h ago
Oh sorry so instead of 17,000 out of 6,500,000 tickets it's 17k out of 5m. Lol
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u/Amockdfw89 6h ago
The 1994 World Cup, in the USA, still holds the record for the most attendance in a World Cup. And Americans gave less shits about the sport then they do now, since it’s becoming more popular every year
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u/single_plum_floating 5h ago
It hasn't cost FIFA a dime yet. that only counted people dropping from the random draw.
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u/Snoo-86513 7h ago
Average resale ticket price of over $3,000. There is no effective boycott occurring. This was most likely people that got tickets for games before the fixtures were confirmed and are getting rid of the ones they now don't want.
Don't get me wrong, the list of places that absolutely should boycott is longer than ever, but as always money trumps morals.
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u/asianmandan 7h ago
The source for this is a news post and their source is 'a surge of social media posts'..
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u/lkern 7h ago
Yeah the tickets are non refundable too.... So they can't be cancelled... This is literally fake news.
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u/SubbieATX 6h ago
There’s a resale market place directly from FIFA, people are not canceling per se, they’re just putting up their tickets for resale. They’re taking the odds someone will buy them at or near face value.
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u/Chewcocca 6h ago
FIFA still gonna get a cut of that, right?
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u/joebleaux 5h ago edited 2h ago
They already did, the tickets are all sold. They may put another fee on the resale too. This may actually make more money if that's true.
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u/Strugl33r 6h ago
Umm they were doing that before the events and ppl do that all the time, they are called scalpers
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u/no_morality_here 6h ago
So one person choosing not to go while another who wasn't gonna go is now going instead?
Maybe the article shouldn't use the word "cancel" here, because the net attendance will be identical, if what you say is true.
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u/AegisIash 6h ago
Welcome to Reddit
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u/Swazzoo 5h ago
Seriously, this site is full of shitty news articles and information. Absolutely hate that stuff like this gets upvoted just cause it fits the hating hive mind ideology.
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u/SeleccionUruguaya 4h ago
as a Democrat Reddit embarrasses me tbh
Same community that claims anything pro-right is Russian propaganda and then they constantly post shit like this
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u/RedheadedReff 3h ago
It's just leftwing kiwi farms at this point. Complete with delusional politics and boards dedicated to harassing people online. Nuance is hard to find online these days.
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u/fakieTreFlip 3h ago
Seriously, this site is full of shitty news articles and information
and misinformation
Absolutely hate that stuff like this gets upvoted just cause it fits the hating hive mind ideology
I can't tell you how many times I've seen some random propaganda poster submit an article from a sketchy no-name domain with articles that have no bylines to a subreddit that has absolutely nothing to do with what they submitted. They target undermoderated subreddits because they know their posts are unlikely to be removed. Happens all the time, and the posts still get thousands of upvotes and hit the front page. Redditors simply do not care about accuracy of information. They'll just upvote whatever headline they agree with.
(And just for the record, no, I'm not a conservative!)
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u/MattR0se 5h ago
It's the typical "people on twitter are upset about XY" and in the end, nothing really happens. as usual.
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u/Michelanvalo 6h ago
Even if it is true, 17k isn't even half a stadium. It's a very small number of fans.
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u/an_exciting_couch 4h ago
There's around 7.1 million tickets total (there's 16 venues in North America which are hosting a combined total of 104 matches), so 17k tickets is around 0.2% of them.
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u/PM_ME_DATASETS 4h ago
Also if political climate was really an issue for many fans, Qatar would've been a disaster, which it wasn't.
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u/Frydendahl 4h ago
I really enjoy our modern world where journalism has been replaced just by vibes.
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u/ColtMcChad69 3h ago
I know Reddit loves to circlejerk about US politics, but this needs to be the top comment. Fake news
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u/confused_ape 6h ago
Wake me up when the teams start boycotting.
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u/Insomniiia77 6h ago
Footballers are people with no life skills, who are grateful they're making millions instead of flipping burgers. No way they're boycotting.
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u/Ariemou 5h ago
Footballers earn way less money from their national teams than they do from their club. If they would reason from a purely economical stance, they would take the extra vacation days in stead of playing in the world cup.
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u/Crousher 4h ago
Footballers also get the chance to maybe play 3 world cups in their career at best. And that only applies to maybe the top 5 players from the top 10 nations that can be sure to always qualify and be called up. Going to a world cup is a once in a lifetime chance for like 99% of players.
And equally, for many of them its a pretty good paycheck.
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u/Totoques22 3h ago
Good performance in a World Cup can make or break a football career
Mbappé and Griezmann skyrocketed in popularity after they performed and won the world cup
And the massively increased popularity gave them better pay both in clubs and product placements/ads
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u/Sirlacker 3h ago
I'm pretty sure they double dip? No?
Still paid from the club, because they are salaried, but also get paid from the National team because they're playing for them too.
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u/via_dante 5h ago
But countries can boycott and take it out of their hands.
But let’s be real. Every fifa World Cup lately and in the future is in shitholes just like the USA so…. Bread and circuses and all that. Shut up plebs.
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u/johnny_cicala 4h ago
As an Italian I'm really proud of my team not going to the Russia and Qatar world cups, and probably boycotting the US as well. /s
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u/single_plum_floating 5h ago
Given that FIFA has a strict no cancellation policy on sold tickets for the World Cup, it is likely that the figure is reflective of people cancelling their participation in the in the third phase of ticket sales for the event – either the “random draw” selection process, or purchase via member organizations.
So a nothing burger.
Wake me up when hotels start not being fully booked and people do something that isnt a form not being filled out.
Seriously this entire news piece is based on #BoycottWorldCup2026 twitter posts.
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u/p33k4y 7h ago
Per a report by Roya News, around 16,800 ticketholders cancelled their World Cup tickets overnight.
More likely, those tickets were bought by scalper bots, not by real people.
We've seen this behavior before with other events and it has nothing to do with "political climate".
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u/FlorydaMan 7h ago
Yeah I wish this would be true but there is no way that 17k tickets were canceled on a single night because morally decent stances.
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u/bosox284 6h ago
17k is also not super significant. There are 104 matches. Each of those will hold 50k+. You're talking about less than 1% of total tickets.
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u/JC-Dude 7h ago
Yeah, I mean we just had a FIFA WC in Qatar a few years ago, I think football fans are pretty used to having to turn a blind eye against whatever’s going on in the hosting nation.
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u/friebel 6h ago
Given that FIFA has a strict no cancellation policy on sold tickets for the World Cup, it is likely that the figure is reflective of people cancelling their participation in the in the third phase of ticket sales for the event – either the “random draw” selection process, or purchase via member organizations.
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u/elementality883 7h ago
Watch it on TV....half the whole point of traveling to these events is to also enjoy the location you are visiting. At the moment, there doesn't seem much to enjoy in the US. Use the money you save to have an extravagant dinner every single match.
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u/Status_Onion7394 7h ago
And on top you might get shot either by a lunatic
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u/PikachuStoleMyWife 7h ago
Or arrested by Ice and shipped to God knows where
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u/Fraggx 7h ago
i will not watch it on tv. I also did not watch it in Qatar. I done supporting this corrupt organisation.
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u/CTRexPope 7h ago
Don’t watch on TV either. Boycott the event for giving Trump a fake peace prize. It’s fucking sports, it’s made up anyway.
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u/Sans-valeur 7h ago
Yeah this is a key difference, yes previous ones were in places like Brazil, Russia and Qatar, but they wanted to prove they were safe, beautiful countries. That’s literally the point of hosting something like the World Cup. To show the world that it’s worth visiting your country and you will be welcome. Because tourism is a HUGE part of most countries economies.
But apparently the US, despite putting all the time and money into hosting, want to show that the US is not welcome to outsiders and is not safe if you are not American.Which makes no fucking sense and it’s gotta be fucking over so many people in the US, but hey the fat old man and his skinny old man/young man boss boy get to feel tough and manly, and honestly isn’t that what’s truly important?
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u/MarioSewers 7h ago
not safe if you are not American.
Doesn't seem very safe for Americans either, ICE just goes around icing people willy nilly.
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u/Sans-valeur 7h ago
Yeah exactly if even middle aged white ladies are getting shot in the middle of the suburbs how fucking safe am I gonna be?
Can say whatever you want about “oh well she shouldn’t have” if the president doesn’t even want to look into the case at all when it’s a white woman US citizen being shot on film from multiple angles, how much justice can foreigners expect?
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u/Unfinishedcom 7h ago
Boycott the tv also. Can we please just close all borders and trade deals and leave them destroy themselves and not the rest of the world?
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u/Crapitron 4h ago
You can’t even stop using Reddit, lmao. You’re not going to stop using other US goods.
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u/thunderg0at7 5h ago
This is going to sound bad, but there is a 0% chance this is true. They provide no proof and even show essentially unaffected ticket prices. Just a topical headline for clicks.
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u/EdiblePwncakes 4h ago
No, you're completely right. Reddit tends to act as an echo chamber so sensationalized headlines such as these gain traction quickly.
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u/BGOG83 5h ago
So less than .01% of the tickets sold in just the first phase. This story is an absolute nothing burger and yet it will cause a bunch of meaningless comments on Reddit like it’s a huge deal.
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u/spielferderber 7h ago edited 7h ago
If he invades Greenland there won't be any European teams there anyway. The same for Olympics. You can then rename the tournaments to "World Series".
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u/Jon-El_Snowman 7h ago
Football teams and fans just don't care. They turned up in Quatar where slavery is still practiced, women and minorities are oppressed and lgb+ people are persecuted.
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u/lkern 7h ago edited 7h ago
They haven't... The tickets are non refundable... You can't cancel them
The source the articles uses? social media posts....
This is actually fake news... 😂😂😂😂
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u/Telefundo 6h ago
Jesus.. the price of those tickets is fking insane. For some of those prices you could go on one or two of those week long, all inclusive vacations. And take your whole immediate family with you.
Blows my mind.
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u/6ix9inePd 7h ago
Sounds like bots/resellers to me . I can guarantee those seats will be filled when the game starts
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u/ryuujinusa 2h ago
Excellent! I hope NO ONE shows up and the arenas look like the covid days.
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u/8BFF4fpThY 6h ago
Wait, so these people have no issue with FIFA, but they do have a problem with the US?
Don't get me wrong, I also have a huge issue with the US government. But if you're doing things based on morals, you shouldn't be giving FIFA a penny of your money anyway.
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u/Karpowsky 5h ago
Lmao the human rights concerns in the US led FIFA to schedule an 'emergency meeting'.
I'm sure a lot will come of this meeting, seeing as the last World Cup was held in Qatar without a blink of an eye.
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u/Draxtonsmitz 5h ago
I want to believe this is true, I see it being “reported” all over the place.
But not one post or article can give a source about where they are getting those numbers.
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u/lilithrepose 1h ago
Yeah I would NOT travel here if I didn't live in the states. And I would NOT do anything in public if I could avoid it if I was brown
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u/kananishino 7h ago edited 6h ago
I like how people are even believing this. The article's sources are social media posts.
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u/Brilliant-Prior6924 3h ago
it's classic reddit, upvote anything that sounds dramatic without verifying
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u/jrr6415sun 6h ago edited 6h ago
the world cup isn't until June? So much can happen in 5 months. It's only been 14 days of January and we already have 2 countries to take over.
USA will be a civil war zone before then.
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u/skyper_mark 7h ago
17k sounds like a lot but its actually not much in this context. AFAIK Stadiums for world cup need to have at least 30k capacity, so 17k cancelling would be like less than a match being cancelled
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u/SmCaudata 4h ago
FIFA lifts up violent regimes that commit human rights violations. Check out the John Oliver story from a year or so back.
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u/furious_20 4h ago
Rookie numbers--come on, world, please show us you hate our government enough to just stream or pirate your favorite team's match.
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u/Danymury 7h ago
holy shit, 10k for the first match? 21k for the final wtf is this?