Germany rejects calls for World Cup boycott

BERLIN - Germany’s government on Feb 4 rejected calls for a boycott of the football World Cup co-hosted by the United States, after President Donald Trump retreated from his threats to seize Greenland.

A boycott of the tournament would not be “the right approach”, government spokesman Steffen Meyer told a press conference in Berlin.

“Political disputes should be settled at the political level, and sport should be left to be sport.”

This year’s World Cup is to be held between June 11 and July 19 in the US, Canada and Mexico.

Some German politicians had questioned whether the country should still participate after Trump in January stepped up his longstanding threats to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.

He targeted eight European countries, including Germany, with tariffs for their opposition to his ambitions.

But the US leader later withdrew his tariff threats and vowed not to take the Arctic island by force, after saying he had struck a “framework” deal with NATO chief Mark Rutte to ensure greater American influence.

At the height of the crisis, Berlin had avoided taking a clear stance on a boycott, saying only it was up to the country’s football association to decide.

Germany’s minister for sports, Christiane Schenderlein, also said on Feb 4 the government had decided that it did not support a boycott.

“Sport must not be exploited like this,” she told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily. AFP