US Vice President JD Vance has outraged football fans with a deeply inappropriate joke about his country's controversial hosting of the 2026 World Cup.
Vance was addressing the world's media alongside leader of the free world and terrific golfer Donald Trump when he made the heartless quip about deporting visitors.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has made no attempt to disguise the organisation's willing alignment with an administration that ticks lots of boxes that should bring its hosting of the World Cup into question.
"America will welcome the world," he said in the first public meeting of America's so-called FIFA World Cup Taskforce at the White House. "Everyone who wants to come here to enjoy, to have fun, to celebrate the game, will be able to do that."
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Trump revealed his stunning sporting knowledge by not knowing that Russia has been banned from international competition but it was right-hand man Vance who courted criticism with a comment that was bound to go down beautifully with opponents of the White House deporting people to a mega prison in El Salvador that Human Rights Watch claims is in contravention of UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.
"Of course, everybody is welcome to come and see this incredible event," said the Vice President.
"I know we'll have visitors probably from close to 100 countries. We want them to come, we want them to celebrate, we want them to watch the game.
"But when the time is up they'll have to go home, otherwise they'll have to talk to Secretary [Kristi] Noem."
Military veteran Noem is Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security and was the Governor of South Dakota before joining Trump's cabinet.
Vance's comment, followed with a smile, was picked up by social media users who don't think the issues of immigration and deportation are especially funny at the moment.
"Evil and dumb," posted one user on X, formerly Twitter.
"Some other country needs to host the World Cup," admitted another.
"Quite possibly the worst thing you could say when this country is preparing to see the most beneficial economic impact from tourism in generations," said one commenter, acknowledging Vance's loose grasp on the word 'welcome'.
"People should boycott the the FIFA World Cup or demand it be changed to another country," according to a poster.
Another user predicted: "The US might see the lowest World Cup attendance since the 1980s."
Topics: FIFA World Cup, Football World Cup
Chris Nee