There was room for football in the almost three-hour meeting between the presidents of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), and the president of the United States, Donald Trump, on Thursday afternoon (7). After the meeting at the White House in Washington, the Brazilian said he had joked about allowing the team’s athletes to enter North America for the World Cup.
“He asked about the World Cup, if the Brazilian team was good. And I said: ‘I hope you don’t come and cancel the visas of the Brazilian players on the team. Please don’t do that because we’re going to come here to win the World Cup'”, reported Lula. According to him, Trump was amused by the joke. “He laughed, because now he will always laugh. He learned that laughing is very good.”
The United States’ restrictive immigration policy is one of the multiple sources of tension on the eve of the World Cup. The 2026 edition of the competition will take place from June 11th to July 19th, with matches in the United States, Mexico and Canada. Most of the matches, including the decision, will take place on American soil.
Top seed in Group C, Brazil will play its first matches in East Rutherford (on the outskirts of New Jersey), Philadelphia and Miami Gardens (on the outskirts of Miami). If you advance in the lead, you will have a path to the possible final, in order, Houston, East Rutherford, Miami Gardens, Atlanta and East Rutherford.
There is no expectation of difficulty for athletes from the Brazilian team in entering the United States, however problems arising from the visa process would not be unprecedented. Argentine defender Ayrton Costa was denied a visa due to a criminal record and was unable to play for Boca Juniors in the Club World Cup last year in the United States.
There was also the case of Brazilian table tennis player Hugo Calderano, also last year, who was prevented from entering the country for a tournament in Las Vegas. As the athlete has a Portuguese passport and European Union countries are part of a visa exemption program, he understood that he would only need to inform his entry.
Given the longer than usual delay in confirming the authorization, the Rio native contacted the authorities and was informed that he was no longer eligible for a visa exemption due to a trip to Cuba, where he competed in championships in 2023. Even with the support of the US Olympic Committee, attempts to obtain an emergency visa were unsuccessful.
In January of this year, the North American government announced the suspension of issuing migrant visas to citizens of 75 countries, including Brazil. Tourist visas continued to be granted, however. Based on input from the ticketing system, the expectation is that there will be 5,000 to 6,000 Brazilians in North America for the World Cup.
