Fans from several countries participating in this summer’s World Cup must deposit up to $15,000 in bond payments to be granted a tourist visa to enter the United States, while organiser FIFA is privately pressing the Donald Trump administration to make exemptions for players.

The revelation came, as FIFA has confirmed that all global sponsorship packages for World Cup have now been sold, marking a major milestone for the tournament’s commercial programme.

This includes both FIFA Partners – the organisation’s top-tier partners – and FIFA World Cup 2026 Sponsors.

Speaking at The Business of Soccer Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, FIFA Chief Business Officer Romy Gai highlighted the fact that the last of the 16 global sponsorship positions has been allocated, with the organisation involved to be announced soon.

As contracting progresses and negotiations advance across the commercial programme, only two sponsorship positions remain for the FIFA World Cup 2026 – both within the regional Tournament Supporter tier, representing the final opportunities for brands to sponsor the biggest sporting event ever.

“This is already the most successful commercial programme in FIFA’s history, and we are still building momentum,” Gai said. “We have seen unprecedented interest from brands across the globe, and with only two regional opportunities remaining, we expect these final positions to be filled very soon.”

The FIFA World Cup 2026 will comprise 48 teams and 104 matches across 16 Host Cities in Canada, Mexico and the United States, bringing together billions of fans worldwide.

More than six million spectators are expected to attend matches, while it is anticipated that approximately six billion people will engage with the tournament across platforms.

Since FIFA is a not-for-profit organisation, the revenue that it generates from the FIFA World Cup is reinvested to fuel the growth of the game – across men’s, women’s and youth football – throughut FIFA’s 211 Member Associations gloobally.

Meanwhile, fans from several countries participating in this summer’s World Cup must deposit up to $15,000 in bond payments to be granted a tourist visa to enter the United States.

The difficulties have emerged as nationals from certain countries travelling to the U.S. on a business or tourist visa — known as B-1 and B-2 visas — have been subject to bond payments after policy changes by President Donald Trump’s administration.

The “Visa Bond Pilot Programme” relates to 50 countries, five of which have qualified for the World Cup.

The policy has impacted nationals from Algeria, Cape Verde, Senegal and the Ivory Coast since January 21, this year.

Last week, World Cup participants, Tunisia, were among the countries added to the list, which comes into effect from April 2.

Cape Verde — an archipelago of only 525,000 people — has qualified for the men’s World Cup for the first time in its history.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson told The Athletic that all applicants, regardless of age, are subject to the same legal standards and must demonstrate they qualify for and intend to comply with the terms of a visa.

They added that those who depart the U.S. in a timely fashion before their visa expires will recover their money, while they also said the visa bond requirement is not retroactive and does not apply to holders of existing valid visas.

However, there is no wording outlined in the Visa Bond Pilot Program that grants immunity to athletes competing in major sporting events such as the World Cup.

Athletes who do not already have U.S. visas will largely apply for the B-1 or B-2 visas during the tournament, meaning they, too, could be asked to deposit bonds.

The State Department said that all visa applications will be adjudicated on a case-by-case basis by officers.

The policy states that there is “no procedure” for applicants to apply for a waiver of the bond, but consular officers can determine whether a waiver “would advance a significant national interest or humanitarian interest based on the applicant’s purpose of travel and employment.”

When contacted by The Athletic this week, neither the State Department nor FIFA took the opportunity to rule out that players from the designated countries would be required to pay the bonds. FIFA declined to comment on all aspects of this report.

The situation is causing concern among the soccer federations of designated nations.