European soccer giant cancels US tour citing Minnesota ICE shootings as World Cup boycott fears continue to rise

German football giants Werder Bremen have pulled out of their planned tour of the United States this coming summer, citing the recent actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minnesota.

The club was set to spend a week in Minneapolis and Detroit in May to play a pair of friendly matches against unspecified opponents.

But now, Werder Bremen believes such a tour is ‘not fitting the values’ of the club and will no longer plan the trip stateside, according to The Athletic.

‘In Minnesota, two people were shot dead by state authorities,’ a club spokesperson told the outlet in a statement.

‘Playing in a city where there is unrest and people are being shot does not fit our values. That will not happen with us.

‘It is no longer known with which players you can still enter the USA due to the tightened entry conditions, which demand, among other things, for a review of the social media profiles of the past five years.’

The club was planning a tour stop in Minneapolis, where ICE agents killed two civilians

Werder Bremen is among the more left-wing clubs in the German football diaspora

Werder Bremen sporting director Clemens Fritz previously suggested the club was re-considering its preseason tour.

‘There would have been the possibility of a trip to the USA, but we decided against it in principle,’ Fritz said last month.

‘It is unclear whether we will even go on a tour abroad in the end. Not least because some players will be at the World Cup and our under-19 national players will also be on a training course at that time.’ 

The club culture around Werder Bremen leans to the left-wing, with the Ostkurve at the Weserstadion long linking themselves with anti-racist, anti-sexist and anti-homophobic values.

The Trump Administration has been increasing its deployment of ICE agents throughout the country under the guise of deporting illegal immigrants.

However, ICE drew widespread condemnation for the killing of protestors and observers in Minneapolis – including Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

This weekend, Werder Bremen face FC St. Pauli, another notoriously left-wing club. Earlier this month, St. Pauli president Oke Göttlich became the first global football executive to call for a boycott of the World Cup to be considered.

‘What were the justifications for the boycotts of the Olympic Games in the 1980s?’ Göttlich said. ‘By my reckoning the potential threat is greater now than it was then. We need to have this discussion.’