Home-based fans for Senegal and Ivory Coast have been denied visas to the United States, preventing them from attending the World Cup.

The president of the Ivory Coast national supporters’ committee and an official from the Senegalese sports ministry shared the news with AFP.

“The supporters have cancelled the trip because the US government does not want to see supporters from certain countries, including Ivory Coast, on its soil. The United States has been clear with us, saying they do not want to see our supporters,” said Julien Kouadio Adonis, president of Ivory Coast’s National Committee of Elephants Supporters (CNSE), according to the outlet.

“This situation hurts us deeply because it prevents us from fulfilling our sacred duty, which is to support our team,” Adonis added.

AFP has more:

The Ivory Coast supporters’ group operates under the country’s sports ministry to organise trips for the country’s small number of travelling fans to follow the team abroad.

ADVERTISEMENT

Ivory Coast play two of their three group matches in Philadelphia, against Ecuador on June 14 and Curacao on June 25 either side of a trip to Toronto to face Germany.

In March, Kouadio told AFP he hoped 500 fans would travel across the Atlantic.

He said a handful of CNSE officials had been authorised to travel to the World Cup where they will be “look after the Ivorian supporters based in the United States”, he said.

The CNSE estimates there will be more than 1,000 at matches.

The run-up to the World Cup, which kicks off in Mexico City later Thursday, has been dogged by the visa policies of the main host nation, the United States.

Senegal fans have faced similar difficulties obtaining visas, the report said.

It’s the first time home-based fans of Senegal will not be attending a World Cup the country has qualified for.

Senegal made the World Cup in 2002, 2018, and 2022.

“It is the first time we will not be sending a delegation because of restrictions linked to the granting of visas by the United States,” Ndeye Dome Thiouf, the communications advisor to the sports ministry, told AFP.

ADVERTISEMENT

Senegal plays two of its group stage matches at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, while it plays the other contest in Toronto.

BBC shared further:

Seneglese fan Aliou Ngom has been to the last two World Cups in Qatar and Russia. For him, one of the highlights of the tournament is seeing “cultures coming together from all over the world”.

A training camp in the US for Senegal’s women’s basketball team was cancelled last year when several players were denied a visa, and like Adonis, Ngom thought there was little point him applying for a visa as fan.

BBC analysis of US State Department data found that the visa rejection rate for citizens of 11 of the 48 countries that have qualified for the World Cup was higher than 40%. This includes applicants of all kinds, not just World Cup hopefuls.

That compares to an average rejection rate for B1 business and B2 tourist visa applications – the type recommended for fans going to the tournament – from all countries of 34%.

The data covers the year from October 2024 to the end of September 2025, so does not take in football fans who applied in the last eight months. The 11 countries are Ecuador, Egypt, Haiti, Algeria, Uzbekistan, Cape Verde, Jordan, Iran, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana and Senegal.

With a high rejection rate, it is hard for fans from these countries to know whether to risk spending a lot of money on match tickets before applying for a visa, which they might not get.

If they do buy tickets directly from Fifa, they can resell them on the Fifa website for a fee if they need and can use the Fifa Pass system to speed up the visa application process.

 

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.