{"id":250203,"date":"2026-01-21T16:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T16:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/250203\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T16:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T16:50:11","slug":"should-scotland-fans-boycott-the-world-cup-over-greenland-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/250203\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Scotland fans boycott the World Cup over Greenland row?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PAPA Media<\/p>\n

There was jubilation when the Scottish men’s team qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time in 28 years.<\/p>\n

Fans have spent months making plans to travel to the US for the matches, despite the costs and controversy over ticket prices.<\/p>\n

But following President Donald Trump’s threats to take control of Greenland, there have been calls for Scotland and England to boycott this summer’s tournament.<\/p>\n

Given how long the nation has waited to appear in the sport’s showpiece competition, what has the reaction been in Scotland?<\/p>\n

Former SNP MP Hannah Kennedy-Bardell has suggested that “radical action” may be necessary – and said this could potentially involve a boycott.<\/p>\n

The head of the Scottish Football Union supporters group has also warned a “plan B” may be required ahead of June’s matches. <\/p>\n

But the SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, who is planning to attend the tournament, said a boycott was “low down the priority list” in terms of a potential response.<\/p>\n

The diplomatic crisis was triggered by the US president saying that he wanted to acquire Greenland – which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark – for security reasons.<\/p>\n

Last week Trump said he would add a 10% tariff to goods imported from eight European countries that oppose his plan.<\/p>\n

He is currently in Switzerland, where he is holding talks with other world leaders<\/a> at a summit in Davos.<\/p>\n

Ahead of that visit, Conservative MP Simon Hoare and Labour MP Kate Osborne have called for a boycott of the World Cup<\/a> in protest at the US president’s threats.<\/p>\n

When and where are Scotland’s World Cup games? <\/p>\n

\"Map<\/p>\n

Speaking on STV’s Scotland Tonight<\/a> programme, former Livingston MP Kennedy-Bardell said it was interesting to see MPs calling for a boycott.<\/p>\n

“We have to think about what other tools do we have in our armoury?” she said.<\/p>\n

“What’s our approach going to be?<\/p>\n

“I think we need to think about radical action.”<\/p>\n

She said this could “potentially” involve boycotting the competition.<\/p>\n

Stories you may have missed<\/p>\n

Andy Smith from the Scottish Football Union (SFU) said it was a “deeply worrying” situation for fans.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the BBC’s Radio Scotland Breakfast<\/a> programme, he said he was angry that football’s governing body Fifa had been “very, very quick in inventing a peace prize<\/a>” for Trump.<\/p>\n

He said the SFU was calling on the Scottish Football Association (SFA) to put pressure on Fifa to come up with a “plan B”.<\/p>\n

Smith added: “One of my kids is \u00a35,000 into commitments to go to the World Cup, lots of other Tartan Army members are the same.<\/p>\n

“Do I deep down want to go there? Well, not if they are being aggressive.”<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

However, SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, who is a member of the Tartan Army, dismissed the prospect of a boycott.<\/p>\n

Speaking on BBC’s Radio Scotland Breakfast<\/a>, he said: “This is an incredibly serious situation, and a World Cup feels somewhat small fry in that context.”<\/p>\n

Flynn joked that Scotland had been boycotting the tournament since 1998 and said it was not something fans should do again.<\/p>\n

“I’m not entirely sure that is a route we want to go down,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Instead I think we need serious and committed dialogue with our allies on the European continent, and indeed with Canada.”<\/p>\n

The Aberdeenshire South MP said the Greenland situation was “unprecedented”, adding: “What we can’t do is simply let the strong man win.”<\/p>\n

\"Text<\/p>\n

A World Cup boycott would be a symbolic way to register opposition to US foreign policy. Whether it would be effective is far less clear.<\/p>\n

It may be worth noting that the president of football’s world governing body Fifa – Gianni Infantino – is a close associate of Donald Trump and may have some influence.<\/p>\n

Other options are available to those who oppose the US President’s plan to takeover Greenland and his threats to impose new import taxes on countries like the UK who have taken a stand against him.<\/p>\n

President Macron of France has suggested European countries consider using a “trade bazooka” to hit back against the US.<\/p>\n

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has spoken against “hurtling into a trade war” with the US while stressing that “Britain will not yield” in its support for Greenland under the threat of tariffs.<\/p>\n

Starmer has invested a huge amount of diplomatic time and effort in trying to keep President Trump sweet.<\/p>\n

Now that relations have soured, he seems to believe that “engaging constructively” remains the best way to protect the UK’s economic and security interests which are so dependent on the US.<\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

Trump insists his country must acquire Greenland for national security reasons.<\/p>\n

His demands have been rejected by Greenland’s leaders, and by Nato member Denmark, of which the island is a semi-autonomous territory.<\/p>\n

This has led to a wider diplomatic row, with Trump threatening additional trade tariffs against a number of European allies if they oppose his plan.<\/p>\n

European leaders, including UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, have remained firm that the future of the semi-autonomous Danish territory is a matter for Greenlanders and Danes alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PA Media There was jubilation when the Scottish men’s team qualified for the World Cup finals for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-250203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}