June 21 – US president Donald Trump has added a potential 36 additional countries to his travel ban list unless they improve their citizens travel documentation and act to address the status of their nationals who are in the US illegally.
Trump has already imposed a travel ban on citizens from 12 countries and imposed restrictions on seven others.
Nine countries on the lists are either qualified or in pole position to qualify for the 2026 World Cup to be held in the USA, Mexico and Canada.
Most of the countries on Trump’s latest list are in Africa.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has nine automatic qualification slots for the 2026 World Cup and one inter-confederation play-off slot.
2026 qualification for the nine automatic slots is currently at its mid-point in its group stage with all nine group winners going through to the World Cup finals. Currently four countries on Trump’s list – DR Congo, Egypt, Ghana and Ivory Coast – lead their groups.
A further five countries – Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gabon, Senegal and Tanzania – are currently second in their qualifying groups and could at minimum qualify for the inter-confederation play-off spots.
This means a total of six of CAF’s automatic qualification slots could go to nations on the USA’s travel ban list, plus any African winner of the play-off.
The travel ban list already included Iran, who have qualified.
Venezuela, currently occupy the inter-confederation play-off slot in Conmebol qualifying.
At this stage of qualifying a potential nine countries at the 48-nation finals could face visa difficulties in getting full teams to the 2026 World Cup. Their fans would likely have an even more difficult task getting travel visas if they are allowed to travel at all.
Even last week Trump said the US was ready to welcome the world to the USA in 2026 and that it was going to be a wonderful and beautiful thing. This was on the same day that his administration announced the extended list.
A White House task force has been set up to address World Cup visa issues and FIFA has a representative, Carlos Cordeiro, on that task force. It can be expected that all the qualified teams will have little difficulty getting into the US but it is unlikely that their fans will be able to follow and support them unless there is a major shift in US administration policy, or their countries work harder to process their citizens’ paperwork to meet the US’s new entry requirements.
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