Will Trump’s policies affect the World Cup? This economist is unconvinced

Andrew Zimbalist, professor emeritus of economics at Smith College, discusses whether Trump’s policies will have a noticeable impact on the World Cup games.

Next year’s FIFA World Cup will host games all across Canada, the United States and Mexico, but with tensions high between countries amid the new Trump administration, some are wondering how an international celebration of sportsmanship can come to a continent showing such signs of fracture.

Beginning one year from today in Mexico City, the World Cup will welcome teams for more than 100 matches across 16 North American cities, including Toronto and Vancouver.

But the idea of a pan-North American FIFA has developed an awkward tinge since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, whose second White House term has shown renewed hostility to foreign governments.

To Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor emeritus at Massachusetts’ Smith College, it’s a question of whether public controversy will have a real, measurable impact. After all, boycotts of major sporting events are not a new concept, he notes.

In 1980, a coalition of more than 60 nations led by then-U.S. president Jimmy Carter boycotted the Moscow Olympics in protest of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. That, in turn, sparked a 1984 boycott of the Los Angeles games by eastern bloc countries.

But those political statements did not translate to major consequences, he told CTV Your Morning in an interview Wednesday.

“That had virtually no economic impact on Los Angeles whatsoever,” he said of the 1984 Soviet boycott. “In 1980, the Soviet Union did not withdraw troops from Afghanistan, so [that boycott] didn’t accomplish its purpose.”

Distaste for the Trump administration might drive some to sit out next year’s tournament, but Zimbalist says he doesn’t expect “much of an impact” in the grand scheme of things.

The U.S. tourism industry has seen notable drops in the months since Trump took office, with Canadian border crossings in particular falling off in the first half of 2025. The Conference Board of Canada has described the U.S. trade war as an “$8.8 billion potential gain for Canadian tourism.”

But on this front as well, Zimbalist is unconvinced that the World Cup will feel the pain of that trend.

“I expect that … there will be individuals who will decide not to travel to the United States, but again, as far as I can foresee, those numbers will be small in the aggregate,” he said.

When it comes to travellers choosing a more palatable option north of the border, Zimbalist says he “wish(es) Canada the best,” but that “hopefully things won’t get too out of hand in the United States.”

As protests against Trump’s policies have continued to mount, and with the global spectacle of a world cup, Zimbalist says the games could play host not just to athletes and fans, but new political demonstrations.

“Certainly, protestors who see an opportunity to voice their demands and have the world see them are more likely to engage in political protest,” he said.

“Quite independent from the motivation of being on the world stage, the political and social situation in the United States is getting very severe.”