President Donald Trump suggested during Friday’s World Cup draw that soccer should be the real “football” in the United States and that the NFL should find another name for its sport.
Trump was on stage at the Kennedy Center in Washington alongside FIFA president Gianni Infantino, Mexico president Claudia Sheinbaum and Prime Minister of Canada Mark Carney ahead of the group stage drawing for the 2026 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by three countries.
Trump: But when you look at what has happened to the football, soccer in the US. We never call it that because we have another conflict with a thing called football. But when you think about it, this is football, there is no question. We have to come up with another name for the… pic.twitter.com/oxHUm3nREA
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“But when you look at what has happened to football in the United States, soccer in the United States … we seem to never call it [football] because we have a little bit of a conflict with another thing that’s called football,” Trump said. “But when you think about it, shouldn’t it really be called … this is football, there’s no question about it. We have to come up with another name for the NFL. It really doesn’t make sense when you think about it.”
The three heads of state then took part in a ceremonial drawing of their respective nations into the groups. The U.S. will play out of Group D, Canada out of Group B and Mexico will be in Group A and host the opening match of the tournament June 11 in Mexico City.
Earlier in the show, Infantino awarded his “close friend” Trump the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize.
The prize was announced by FIFA in November. It did not get approval from the FIFA Council, but Infantino was focused on giving Trump the award after the U.S president missed out on the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year.
