New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will ask President Donald Trump to lift his travel ban ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup that starts June 11, reported The New York Times.
"It's something that I hope will change," Mamdani told the news outlet on Sunday ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations final between Morocco and Senegal.
Mamdani hosted a watch party for the match at Manhattan's Surrogate's Court.
"And I will always make the case not only for our city as the world's city, but also a city that the world can visit.
"I think that for this tournament to be the experience that we want it to be for so many, we have to think about the previous World Cups that came before it.
"One of them, I was lucky enough to go to (in 2010), South Africa. We have to allow the world to be here in order to fully experience the world. We also appreciate the fact that we have such incredibly strong diaspora communities in the city as well."
President Donald Trump's administration has issued immigration and travel bans as well as other visa restrictions as part of efforts to tighten security. At the same time, the administration has been looking to ensure that athletes, coaches, and fans can attend major sporting events in the U.S.
Trump's Dec. 16 proclamation banning the issuance of visas to 39 countries and the Palestinian Authority carved out an exception for athletes and staff competing in the World Cup, the Olympics, and other major sporting events.
It delegated a decision on which other sporting events would be covered to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
A full travel ban applies to Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, Niger, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen, and people with Palestinian Authority-issued passports.
A partial ban is in place for citizens of Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burundi, Cuba, Dominica, Gabon, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Mauritania, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Togo, Venezuela, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Mamdani told the Times that the World Cup "is a chance to not only look at the incredible Senegalese community, the Moroccan community, and the larger African community we have in the city, but also as a chance to say that this is the city of the world, and this is the world's game."
"It's time for those two things to be linked. And just five months away from bringing the World Cup to New York City, this is a chance for us to show what it can look like to repurpose the spaces of the city into ones where we celebrate the game," he added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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