Link: https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/world-cup-prices-visa-trump-20260416.html

From price gouging to travel bans, the U.S.-centered World Cup is becoming obscene. What should soccer fans do?

The author struck the balance that they'll attend matches but not USMNT matches, but I just can't get there. I've never attended a World Cup, and that'll be the same at the end of this year. I do feel this conflict deeply, though -- not buying tickets is about being able to sleep at night for me, not some illusion that it's going to make any kind of meaningful difference:

In a just and moral world, there would be a sweeping World Cup boycott — not just by fans but by nations wanting to punish America’s rising fascism at home and deadly imperialism overseas. But sports boycotts don’t really work. Jimmy Carter’s 1980 ban on U.S. Olympic participation in Moscow in 1980 punished American athletes with little impact on the USSR, and if you elect to stay home this summer, some rich jerk from Silicon Valley is just going to be in your seats instead.

True soccer fans have never felt more conflicted. Especially me.

Total boycott. Not even watching in tv. Massive soccer fan, American. Too many actually important things going on that need focus more than sport for entertainment right now. Especially when Fifa gave fucking trump a peace prize because he begged for it 6 months ago.