FIFA allowed a nation that commits genocide and runs detention gulags to host the World Cup, and the Anti-Fascist Football Coalition says staying in the tournament is no longer an option.
Originally published in Black Alliance for Peace.
On July 8, the Black Alliance for Peace called for the remaining teams in the World Cup to withdraw from the tournament to reject the lawlessness and impunity of the U.S. in its renewed active warfare against Iran, as well as the ongoing, illegal, and barbaric acts of genocide in Palestine and Lebanon. On July 9, the Anti-Fascist Football Coalition (AFFC), composed of 35 international organizations, joined the call with fervor.
The AFFC is clear: The U.S. is the greatest violator of human rights on the planet. The reignited war on Iran is one atrocity among the dozens of war crimes the U.S. is waging globally. We cannot and will not normalize genocide and state violence by allowing the World Cup to uphold “business as usual.”
“The renewal of hostilities against Iran, the persistence of Israel’s U.S.-backed bombardment of Lebanon during the so-called ceasefire, and Israel’s assassination of Mohammed Fawaz al-Wahidi moments before the Egypt-Argentina match are reasons enough for the remaining nations to withdraw from the tournament,” said Julio López Torres, of Diaspora Pa’lante Collective.
“Add to this, the violence being carried out by the Trump regime in the United States. In Houston, just three days after hosting a World Cup match, ICE agents murdered Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. In a city that hosted seven World Cup matches, including two knockout games, a man was executed for going to work. A country that still has colonial possessions, like the colonization of my country of Puerto Rico (which is used as a launching ground to wage war on the Caribbean and Latin America), was never worthy of hosting the beautiful game.”
Orlando Mateo, of Compas de la Diaspora, stated, “It is a disgrace that the imperialist, carceral-genocidal machine called the United States has been allowed to host the World Cup in the first place, given their role in the Gaza Holocaust. However, the recent aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as escalations in the domestic war against the immigrant proletariat – by way of increased deportation, inhumane conditions at detention centers, and cancellation of TPS for 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians – plus the U.S. just hosted Israel for the World Baseball Classic! - all of that should prompt any free, conscious person, federation, state or fútbol player to retire from the rest of this sham tournament. Anything less than that is complicity.”
The Anti-Fascist Football Coalition calls on organizations and individuals to collectively resist and fight back - to join in this call for concrete solidarity from the international community against the U.S. agenda for global domination at the ongoing expense of human life. The AFFC continues its commitment to Boycott the World Cup and Boycott the U.S., forcefully rejecting the ongoing devaluation of non-white life displayed by the U.S., FIFA, and its corporate ruling class partners.
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