Swiss star forward Breel Embolo reacts after missing a chance on goal during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, November 24, 2022.Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty
The FIFA Men’s World Cup starts next week—and some players still don’t know whether they’ll be able to travel to their matches.
On Wednesday, Switzerland’s main goalscorer, Breel Embolo, applied for a visa at the US embassy in the country’s capital after US officials blocked him from boarding a flight with his teammates to their World Cup training camp in San Diego the day before.
The Swiss soccer federation stated that the US has been reviewing Embolo’s criminal conviction after a 2018 altercation in Basel, Switzerland. The verdict was finalized in April.
“The embassy’s inquiries focused specifically on whether any physical violence had been involved. This was not the case,” the Swiss soccer body said in a statement. According to Swiss outlets, Embolo was sentenced to a fine of roughly $165,000, conditional on two years of probation, for making multiple threats during an argument.
Meanwhile, the men’s national team of South Africa, a frequent target of the Trump administration over “white genocide” claims, had to delay their Saturday flight from Johannesburg to Mexico City because at least 20 people in their traveling group—mainly players—were still trying to get the US embassy in that country to process their visas.
On Sunday, Gayton McKenzie, South Africa’s sports, arts and culture minister, announced that all of the national team players had received their visas to travel to the US, but that an assistant coach, team doctor, the head of security, and one team analyst were still waiting. McKenzie criticized the situation earlier that day, calling it “embarrassing & grossly unfair towards the players & coaching staff.”
“Action must be taken against those responsible for this mess,” he continued. “We are being made to look like fools.”
News24, a South African news platform, reported that the team arrived on Tuesday morning but that the assistant coach and head of security arrived late after their visas were finally approved. On Monday, McKenzie notably apologized for his criticisms, posting on X that “the fault is entirely on our side,” and that US embassy workers in South Africa were “only too helpful” and “even worked on a Sunday for the first time ever.” McKenzie did not elaborate on what mistakes South Africa made.
The Trump administration has a record of denying international athletes visas, including members of an Ethiopian delegation to the World Athletics Cross Country Championships, whose 44-year medal streak was broken by a mass visa denial in January. Multiple Cuban sports delegations have also been locked out of sports competitions since 2025 by the US’ refusal to grant them visas—including Olympic qualification events. And according to Television Jamaica, Javontae Smith, a shotput and discus thrower from Munro College in Jamaica, was denied a US nonimmigrant visa last month to compete in the Penn Relays in Philadelphia.
Iran’s national team is set to leave for Mexico on Saturday. The team’s initial three matches will take place in the US, but the country’s soccer federation won FIFA approval in May to move its training base from Tuscon, Arizona, to Tijuana, Mexico, due to security concerns amid the US and Israel’s ongoing war in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East.
According to Al Jazeera, the federation has not yet said whether the players had received all necessary visas for both Mexico and the US, though Mehdi Taj, Iran’s football federation chief, said on Monday that they expected to receive visas for Mexico on Tuesday or Wednesday “and then a US visa will be issued quickly.”
The delays have created unprecedented uncertainty for many national team players and sparked outrage among their fans, who now have to worry about whether they can even get to the tournament—let alone whether their team will play well in it.
