Football ‘would not exist without immigrants,’ New York mayor says ahead of World Cup

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Monday that football “would not exist without immigrants,” ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026, scheduled to kick off on Thursday.

“Soccer would not exist without immigrants. Immigrants play and coach the game, work in the stadiums, fill the stands, and make celebrations like the World Cup possible,” Mamdani wrote on US social media company X.

Mamdani stressed that six of the players on the US men's national team are immigrants.

His remarks came as FIFA confirmed Monday that Somali referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan was denied entry to the US over the weekend and will no longer be able to participate in the tournament.

Bloomberg reported that the administration of US President Donald Trump has drawn up a plan to surge US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel to New York City over the president’s migrant crackdown.

“We will not allow ICE or anyone else to sow fear in our communities — especially at this moment,” Mamdani wrote on X. “As the world comes to our city, we will stand proudly with our immigrant neighbors and reject these attacks for what they are: an attempt to divide us.”