San Diego: Four years ago, on the eve of the last World Cup, 16 Socceroos players recorded a joint video statement voicing their concerns about host nation Qatar’s record of human rights violations – the strongest action taken by any of the teams competing.
Times have changed. In Donald Trump’s America, they are choosing their words carefully.
Another video is coming ahead of this World Cup, which kicks off on Friday (AEST) in the United States, Canada and Mexico – but the sequel will rely on subtext and implication to make its point rather than direct criticism, amid concerns voiced by former Australia captain Craig Foster that players are now reluctant to speak up because they fear the consequences.
Politics have cast a heavy shadow over the tournament. For the first time, a World Cup co-host is involved in active military combat against a qualified team, with Iran shifting its tournament base camp from Tucson, Arizona to Tijuana, Mexico due to visa complications and security concerns.
Four qualified countries – Iran, Haiti, the Ivory Coast and Senegal – are on Trump’s travel ban list, with fans from those countries facing either a full ban on entry or partial restrictions, while the extra layer of scrutiny at the border has dissuaded plenty of others from visiting.
It has also been nearly a year since raids in Los Angeles by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers targeting undocumented workers sparked protests that would soon spread around the country – and then, after the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in early 2026, across the world. The fear of reprisals is ever-present.
In California, at least, where the Socceroos are based, signs of visible resistance to Trump and ICE are everywhere in shopfronts, billboards and car bumper stickers.
But speaking at a media briefing for the Sports & Rights Alliance and Human Rights Watch earlier this week, Foster said there had been a “chilling effect” on players speaking publicly about their concerns because of the risk of backlash, including from the US government.
Australian star Jackson Irvine has already made his general position known, telling Reuters in an interview last month that FIFA’s decision to award its inaugural FIFA Peace Prize to the US president made a “mockery” of their own human rights policies.
Now that he is in World Cup mode, Irvine can feel people looking to him, wondering what he’s got to say for himself. But he is biting his tongue.
“It’s a complicated one,” Irvine said.
“Well, it’s complicated and it’s not. I think everybody knows who I am and what I believe. But when I sit here in this polo as part of this group, I don’t sit here as an individual.
“People saw things that I’ve said in the past, and in recent weeks that have been more publicised, and there’ll be a time for me to express individual opinions. But that’s probably not now. I don’t want to cause anything that can take away from the collective.”
Irvine has just come through a bruising season at FC St. Pauli, physically and emotionally. The club was relegated from the German Bundesliga, and Irvine suffered a mid-season foot injury which Socceroos coach Tony Popovic initially feared would rule him out of World Cup contention.
He also endured significant criticism from St. Pauli fans and even some high-ranking club figures for his public advocacy for Palestine.
Until Australia’s pre-World Cup training camp, the 33-year-old had not been involved with the Socceroos since November, making it difficult for him to understand the positions of all members of Popovic’s 26-man squad – or if some players had positions – or help facilitate the same level of education and research on matters in the USA as players undertook before arriving at their stance on Qatar.
Instead, Socceroos players are planning a video, to be released next week, which is about themselves, what they represent, and how the team’s multicultural make-up reflects modern Australia.
The rest of the world can read between the lines as they wish.
“I think that, in a way, is a statement in itself,” Irvine said.
“And that’s going to be the message that comes through over the next few weeks: we are probably the most diverse sports team in Australia, we are the most representative of what a modern Australia can look like. We celebrate how those stories took place and how those ended up.
“Those are the values that we uphold and want to put forward, I guess, without having to explicitly talk about this topic, this guy, this thing.
“And that’s definitely the way we’re approaching it, especially now with we’re at the point where we want to now focus on the football.”
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