'The World Cup is not for us': fans who withdrew after being blocked or without visas for host countries

Iraqi fan Abdulla Adnan was unable to get a visa to travel to the US to see his country play
Abdulla Adnan
When the Iraqi football team qualified for the World Cup at the end of March, Abdulla Adnan bought tickets for his country's games against Norway and France, which will be played in the American cities of Boston and Philadelphia this month.
"Going to a game, to a stadium, to a crowd, to support and see my team - that's all for me," he says. "It's an incomparable feeling."
This is only the second time Iraq has qualified for the World Cup - the first was in 1986.
But it's proving difficult to get a visa.
And Adnan is not alone. Fans from more than a quarter of World Cup participating countries are facing travel bans, tighter restrictions or high visa rejection rates, a BBC analysis of travel data shows.
Iraq is not on Donald Trump's administration's travel ban list. Therefore, in Adnan's case, the obstacle was unexpected.
After the start of the war between the US and Israel against Iran, the US suspended routine consular services in Iraq due to security concerns in the region. This means that there is no place in the country where Adnan and other Iraqi fans can obtain visas, as they need to attend an in-person interview.
So Adnan traveled to the neighboring country, Jordan, to try to obtain a visa at the US embassy. But when he arrived for his interview, officials told him that, because he was not a Jordanian citizen, that embassy could not give him a visa.
Tickets for the game and the trip to Jordan cost around US$1,800 (R$9,400).
Adnan considered applying for a visa in Turkey, but as the process could take up to two weeks, he decided he could not stay away from home for that long. He has given up trying to get a visa.
Fans from several countries told the BBC that other obstacles are also causing outrage and frustration.
Julien Kouadio Adonis, with Ivory Coast fans, says travel restrictions are "a form of segregation"
Julien Kouadio Adonis
One of the barriers is the Trump administration's list of visa bans and restrictions for certain countries, including four competing in the World Cup - Haiti, Iran, Senegal and Ivory Coast. This means its citizens are barred from receiving the type of visitor visas that US authorities recommend for fans.
Tough immigration policies and crackdown on undocumented migrants were a central part of Trump's 2024 re-election campaign. US officials say their system needs to be strict due to the challenges they face in managing the huge flow of people crossing the country's borders.
Julien Kouadio Adonis of the Ivory Coast fans' association says: "It's a form of veiled segregation, but the proof is there. No European country has faced this kind of restrictions. Why Africa?" a show and a show needs people watching," he says.
Forty-two countries, generally wealthier, benefit from a visa waiver program, in which applications are made online through the US Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). This costs around US$40 (R$200). There are no African countries on this list.
The visa that the USA recommends for World Cup fans costs US$185 (R$930) and applicants must attend a face-to-face interview. The State Department states that they must demonstrate "their intention to leave the US after the trip and/or their ability to pay all travel costs."
Senegalese fan Aliou Ngom felt there was no point in even applying for a visa to see his team play in the US
Aliou Ngom
However, in May, the US announced that it would remove the requirement for deposits of up to US$15,000 (R$77,000) for people from countries qualifying for the World Cup. World - Algeria, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Tunisia - as long as they have valid tickets for the tournament. Fans from Senegal and Ivory Coast had to secure visas until December, before the new restrictions began.
Senegalese fan Aliou Ngom was at the last two World Cups in Qatar and Russia. For him, one of the highlights of the tournament is seeing "cultures coming together from all over the world."
A training session for the Senegal women's basketball team in the US was canceled last year when several players were denied visas. Like Adonis, Ngom decided it made little sense to apply for a visa as a fan.
BBC analysis of US State Department data showed that the visa rejection rate for citizens of 11 of the 48 countries that qualified for the World Cup was over 40%. This includes applicants of all types, not just fans.
This compares to an average rejection rate of 34% for B1 business and B2 tourist visa applications - the type recommended for fans attending the tournament - from all countries.
The data covers the period from October 2024 to the end of September 2025, so does not include fans who have applied for visas in the last eight months. The 11 countries are Ecuador, Egypt, Haiti, Algeria, Uzbekistan, Cape Verde, Jordan, Iran, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and Senegal.
Rejections
With a high rejection rate, it is difficult for fans from these countries to know whether they should risk spending money on expensive tickets before applying for a visa, which they may not even get.
If they buy tickets directly from FIFA, they can resell them on the organization's website for a fee and also can use the FIFA Pass system to speed up the visa application process.
"FIFA Pass is a positive step because it tries to get ticket holders into priority visa interviews," says Celine Atallah of an immigration law firm in Massachusetts.
But she adds that while it makes the process faster, it doesn't increase the likelihood of visa approval.
"The visa system is the invisible gatekeeper of the World Cup," says Atallah. "FIFA can sell a ticket, but the US government decides who gets a visa, and CBP [Customs and Border Protection] decides who actually gets in."
Even with a visa, anyone traveling to the US is not guaranteed entry upon arrival, as border authorities can still refuse entry.
Abu Kass is president of the Football Supporters Association of Jordan, a country where 57% of US visa applications were refused in the year to the end of September 2025.
"They've been turning people away for the last three to four months," he says, adding that he doesn't know a single fan who has received a visa. The Jordanian fans' association in the US told the BBC it knew of only one Jordanian fan who had received a visa.
Kass claims he took more than 42 documents to his visa interview in the Jordanian capital, Amman, where his application was refused. The US doesn't say why when it denies a visa.
"This World Cup isn't ours," says Kass. "This World Cup is not for Arabs, it is for them. If the president of the supporters' association has been turned down, who will be accepted?"
Jordan qualified for the World Cup for the first time by beating Oman in June 2025
Ameen Ahmed/NurPhoto via Getty Images
A State Department spokesperson told the BBC that the government was "prepared to welcome visitors from around the world to the biggest and best FIFA World Cup in history" and that "the majority of foreign fans did not need to use FIFA Pass because are nationals of Canada or one of the 42 countries that qualify for visa-free travel" or already held a visa.
He stated that in all cases, "we will take the time necessary to ensure that an applicant does not pose a risk to the security of the U.S." and that "we review each visa application on a case-by-case basis, after rigorous review and thorough vetting, to determine whether the individual is eligible under U.S. law."
The Department of Homeland Security is concerned about people who remain in the country after their visa expires and says that there were more than 538,000 "overstays" between October 2023 and September 2024. The Pew Research Center estimates that in 2023, before the Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented migrants, there were 14 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. co-hosts the tournament, but 78 of the 104 matches, including the final, will be played in US cities.
Canada and Mexico's own immigration and visa systems are different from the US. Neither has issued travel bans for specific countries, although Canada, like the US, has recently imposed entry restrictions on countries affected by the recent Ebola outbreak in Africa, which includes the World Cup-qualified Democratic Republic of Congo. people provide biometric data for visa applications and there are two countries qualified for the World Cup - Iran and Cape Verde - where Canada does not have facilities for collecting this data.
Canada does not break down visa refusal rates by type or country, but its overall rate in 2025 was 54%.
Mexico does not publish visa refusal data The country requires applicants to apply in person at an embassy or consulate. Among the countries qualified for the World Cup, there are eight. - Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tunisia and Iraq - where Mexico does not have a diplomatic presence to assist.
Additional reporting by BBC News Afrique
We used artificial intelligence to translate this report, originally written in English. The text was reviewed by a BBC journalist before publication. English).
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Source: G1