The New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, said he intends to raise the impact of travel bans on this summer’s FIFA World Cup with U.S. President Donald Trump, saying it is “something (he) hopes will change” ahead of the tournament.
On Sunday, Mamdani hosted a Manhattan watch party for the Africa Cup of Nations final between Morocco and Senegal, taking over New York City Surrogate’s Court for fans to congregate and watch the game, which was eventually won in controversial circumstances by Senegal.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani hosted an AFCON final watch party at Surrogate’s Court (Kara McCurdy / Mayor’s Office of Photography)
Since Trump returned to power last January, the U.S. has imposed a string of travel bans on nationals from designated countries, including four countries (Senegal, Ivory Coast, Iran, and Haiti) that have qualified for the 48-team World Cup. The tournament will take place across the U.S., Canada and Mexico this summer.
A December proclamation by Trump suspended entry into the U.S. for nationals of Ivory Coast and Senegal, both as immigrants and non-immigrants, including in the visitor category for business and tourism, with the administration citing overstay rates from nationals from the two countries. Exemptions are carved out for players, coaching teams, federation officials, and immediate relatives of players, but not for fans.
In June, Trump signed off on another travel ban in which Haiti and Iran were among 12 countries impacted, a step Trump described as essential to “protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people.”
In November, the Trump administration took a step towards facilitating global access for fans when it announced the creation of the FIFA PASS. However, the FIFA PASS is not a visa in itself; it merely provides a prioritized visa appointment system for those who have purchased tickets to attend the tournament. Applicants will still face the same rigorous security and screening processes, and there has been no indication that nationals of countries facing travel bans will be able to enter by buying a FIFA ticket.
On Sunday, members of New York City’s Senegalese diaspora were brought together by Mamdani in one of the city’s most iconic courthouses, which was built 119 years ago.
In an interview with The Athletic, Mamdani said: “For a long time, a love of this game, of these countries, of this tournament, is one that New Yorkers only got to experience in their own homes or in specific neighborhoods. It hasn’t been one that’s been recognized by the city at large. And this is a chance to not only look at the incredible Senegalese community, the Moroccan community, and the larger African community we have in the city, but also as a chance to say that this is the city of the world and this is the world’s game.
“It’s time for those two things to be linked. And just five months away from bringing the World Cup to New York City, this is a chance for us to show what it can look like to repurpose the spaces of the city into ones where we celebrate the game.”
Eight World Cup matches will take place at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, including the final, but FIFA’s host-city agreement is with both New York City and New Jersey, lending Mamdani a seat at the table.
While the Senegalese diaspora brought the noise to a Manhattan courthouse, those in their home country may be unable to travel to the tournament.
Fans enjoying the AFCON final watch party (Kara McCurdy / Mayor’s Office of Photography)
“It’s something that I hope will change,” Mamdani told The Athletic, in an interview which took place just as the final began. “And I will always make the case not only for our city as the world’s city, but also a city that the world can visit.
“I think that for this tournament to be the experience that we want it to be for so many, we have to think about the previous World Cups that came before it. One of them, I was lucky enough to go to (in 2010), South Africa. We have to allow the world to be here in order to fully experience the world. We also appreciate the fact that we have such incredibly strong diaspora communities in the city as well.”
Asked if it is something he can raise with Trump, Mamdani said: “I think it’s part of a number of things that I will make clear about what the city is hopeful for.”
Mamdani, who describes himself as a democratic socialist, came under significant fire from Trump during his campaign to win the New York City mayoralty, but the pair had an unexpectedly warm first public meeting in the Oval Office in November, in which Trump described Mamdani as a “rational person” and added that he would be “cheering” for him.
During his campaign to become mayor, Mamdani also turned his ire on the World Cup organizers, FIFA, over its ticketing strategy. Mamdani launched a “Game Over Greed” petition that called on FIFA to abandon its plan to use dynamic pricing for the 2026 World Cup, impose a cap on ticket resales, and set aside 15 percent of tickets for local residents at a discount.
Last September, Mamdani launched the ‘Game Against Greed’ petition against dynamic ticket pricing at the World Cup (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Mamdani previously told The Athletic he had received complaints from New Yorkers over the cost of World Cup tickets and the “mess” of a ticketing system, as well as “absurd” resale prices. Since then, FIFA has rolled out prices for the World Cup that brought condemnation from supporter groups and some federations, but the governing body also claims it has received 500 million ticket requests for the competition.
On Sunday afternoon, Mamdani reiterated his concerns about FIFA’s approach, saying: “I continue to think that the right approach here is to end dynamic pricing, cap resale prices, and to have 15 per cent of tickets set aside at a discount for local residents. This is in keeping with prior World Cups. We are only asking for what we have seen (before), and I will continue to make that case now as the mayor of New York City, as opposed to just a candidate.”
Mamdani said he has started to hold conversations on the matter with the New York/New Jersey host committee, but he has not yet met directly with the FIFA officials who are overseeing the ticketing process.
Mamdani is also in the process of hiring a World Cup czar to streamline local services ahead of the competition, with a focus on promoting tourism, encouraging access and affordability, and ensuring that public services scale capacity to accommodate the games and the arrival of tourists.
Mamdani said: “There are a number of different factors that would make the person who holds that position successful. They need to obviously have a passion for the game, a fluency in the different government agencies that you have to engage with and interact with to make events like this possible. What we want to do is to ensure that this is a seamless experience that is sensational, and that requires logistics, passion, ambition, imagination, all in equal parts.”