Terror charge against Kneecap band member thrown out by court

The terrorism case against Kneecap rapper Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh has been thrown out following a technical error in the way the charge against him was brought.

The 27-year-old Belfast musician, who performs as Mo Chara, was charged in May under the name Liam O’Hanna for allegedly displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah, a proscribed organisation, at a gig in London’s Kentish Town in November 2024.

He denied the offence, labelling it “political policing” and a “carnival of distraction” from the war in Gaza, which Kneecap has been vocal about opposing.

“We are not the story, genocide is,” a statement posted by the group on social media said.

In August, Ó hAnnaidh’s lawyer Brenda Campbell KC told a court that the Attorney General had not given permission for the case to be brought against the defendant when police informed him he was to face a terror charge on 21 May.

She said consent was given the following day, which meant the charge fell outside the six-month timeframe in which criminal charges against a defendant can be brought.

At Woolwich Crown Court on Friday, chief magistrate Paul Goldspring agreed with Ms Campbell.

In his judgment, Mr Goldspring said: “These proceedings were instituted unlawfully and are null.”

Concluding the reasons for his decision, he said: “I find that these proceedings were not instituted in the correct form, lacking the necessary DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) and AG (Attorney General) consent within the six-month statutory time limit.

“The time limit requires consent to have been granted at the time or before the issue of the requisition.

“Consequently the charge is unlawful and null and this court has no jurisdiction to try the charge.”

Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill welcomed the development.

“All charges have been dropped against Kneecap’s Mo Chara. I strongly welcome this decision,” she posted on the social media network X.

“These charges were part of a calculated attempt to silence those who stand up and speak out against the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

“Kneecap have used their platform on stages across the world to expose this genocide, and it is the responsibility of all of us to continue speaking out and standing against injustice in Palestine.”

More follows…

Tony Blair ‘puts forward plans to lead interim government in Gaza’

The White House is supporting a plan to have Sir Tony Blair lead a temporary administration to govern the Gaza Strip, according to reports.

The former prime minister would lead a supervisory body called the Gaza International Transitional Authority (Gita), which would serve as the “supreme political and legal authority” for up to five years, and is understood to exclude the Palestinian Authority.

Gita could be based in Arish, the capital of an Egyptian province near the southern border of Gaza, according to the proposal. The board would then enter the strip, supported by an Arab multinational force endorsed by the United Nations.

The plan, modelled on strategies employed in the transitions to statehood of Timor-Leste and Kosovo, would envision “the eventual unifying of all the Palestinian territory under the PA”.

Palestinians would not be made to leave the region as feared by human rights groups, according to the report.

The seven-person board, if approved, would oversee an executive board running the territory with Sir Tony leading a secretariat of up to 25 people.

According to Israeli media, an international force would be stationed across Gaza’s borders to prevent the regrouping of Hamas. A source told Haaretz, that the plan is “taking shape” and has the full support of US President Donald Trump, with Israeli officials not rejecting it yet.

The source said that a timetable for the PA’s return to governance had not been specified, sparking concerns.

“There is concern that [Israeli prime minister] Netanyahu will take advantage of this ambiguity to sabotage the PA’s involvement in Gaza,” the source continued. Diplomats have said his role is being considered but is “not a done deal”, according to the BBC.

Sir Tony’s involvement will be controversial, and his rumoured role in recent talks has sparked backlash due to his legacy with the widely criticised British and American invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Last month, he was part of a meeting with President Trump to discuss Israel’s war in Gaza and post-war plans for the Palestinian territory.

In July, reports said that the Tony Blair Institute participated in a project to develop the plan. The think tank said its talks with different groups on post-war reconstruction of Gaza had not included the idea of the forcible relocation of people from the area.

The Blair plan is said to be anchored on the dismantling of Hamas and a diminished role for the PA. This was roundly rejected by Hamas officials, who previously told The Independent they had not seen the proposal.

“No party has the right to dismantle any Palestinian faction. The one that needs to be dismantled is the occupation,” the official said anonymously, adding that Palestinians would not accept a deal they had not voted on or been consulted on.

“We will not allow the Palestinians to have anything dictated to them against their will,” he said.

The plan may also be unpopular with far-right ministers, including finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who previously said that he was in talks with the US about dividing the territory up, promising a “real-estate bonanza”.

More than 65,000 have been killed in Gaza, including over 20,000 children, according to local officials. A recent UN investigation concluded that Israel is committing genocide. Israel has called the claims “false” and “distorted”.

Trump seen wagging finger at Melania aboard Marine One

Donald and Melania Trump were caught having a frank discussion on board Marine One as they arrived back at the White House following the president’s controversial address at the United Nations General Assembly.

Video shows Trump, 79, waving his finger at Melania, 55, who can be seen shaking her head at him.

At another point in the footage, the first lady was seen leaning forward, appearing serious as she stared at her husband.

Eventually, the couple disembarked from the aircraft, which was returning to Washington, D.C. While leaving the helicopter, the pair held hands, with Trump glancing at the ground before offering a slight wave to reporters.

Trump has claimed that he and his wife were the victims of “triple sabotage” while in New York after an escalator broke down.

“A REAL DISGRACE took place at the United Nations yesterday – Not one, not two, but three very sinister events!” he wrote on Truth Social, referencing a broken teleprompter and an escalator that stalled.

The president said that it is “amazing that Melania and I didn’t fall forward onto the sharp edges of these steel steps, face first.”

He has since called for U.N. staff to be fired or “arrested” over the incident, as White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has claimed that it was deliberately switched off.

Trump is also reportedly furious that the sound was switched off during speeches made at the United Nations, a practice that a U.N. official says has existed for “decades.”

The practice is designed to make it easier for speeches to be translated and transmitted to guests’ earpieces.

The video of Trump and Melania’s post-U.N. clash comes just months after a clip of French president Emmanuel Macron being pushed in the face by his wife, Brigitte, went viral.

At the time, Trump offered his French counterpart some advice.

“Make sure the door remains closed.

“That was not good,” he told reporters.

Later, Trump claimed to have spoken with Macron and said that the couple were “fine” and “really good people.”

Macron told reporters that the couple were “joking around, as we do quite often” with an Elysée source telling Le Parisien that the couple were “decompressing” and “larking about.”

The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.

Booze and body issues: Wayne Rooney is a man at sea without his wife

Wayne Rooney has a drink problem. This week he told his old teammate Rio Ferdinand on the latter’s podcast that his relationship with booze had got so bad, it was close to killing him. In fact, he added, he reckoned he was only around to do the recording thanks to the intervention of his wife.

“I’d be dead if it wasn’t for Coleen,” he said.

The news that the most talented English football player in a generation was in danger of drinking himself into an early grave will have come as little surprise to those that have watched his deterioration since he retired as a professional footballer in 2021. Seeing him on the touchline as manager of Plymouth Argyle last season, his eyes bleary, his stomach ballooning, his complexion blotched, was to be confronted by stark evidence of the damage the bottle was inflicting. Nor will the fact that he remains even more dependent on his strong, sparky wife raise too many eyebrows.

“She keeps me on the path and has done it for 20-odd years,” he told Ferdinand.

And the way things are going, he will need her for at least the next 20. The truth is, theirs is one of the most intriguingly symbiotic relationships in modern public life.

The pair met when Rooney was the most explosively talented teenage footballer around. In an era when wealthy players have long been easy prey for gold-diggers on the lookout for an extended payday, theirs was a relationship based on shared experience. The same sense of humour too. They came from the same Liverpool neighbourhood, knew each other’s families, shared the same tastes and sense of humour. This was a proper partnership. Rooney could entirely trust her. He needed to.

Tales about his ilk were tabloid catnip. But, despite the myriad distractions available to a wealthy young athlete in his prime, give or take the odd, much-publicised, straying from her side during his rise to fame, they were solid. And while she clearly benefited from his wealth – the laughable Wags Tour during the 2006 World Cup the pinnacle of her pursuit of celebrity – her affection was clear and constant. With their four sons, they looked like a family united.

But Rooney had always liked a drink. For such a bullish player on the pitch, he is a surprisingly sensitive bloke. As he told Ferdinand, he still baulks at Jonathan Ross’s rude quip about a photograph of him and his parents emerging from the sea in Mexico made more than 20 years ago.

He told his ex-team mate: “I’m actually very insecure on quite a lot of things and I have been my whole career over my weight, being insecure now over how you look. Only Coleen knows this. If you ever see me on the beach next week, I’ve got my T-shirt on, I’ve got a cap on.” The cap, of course, might explain his endless trips to expensive hair consultants in order to stem the rapid retreat of his fringe.

The drink was a way of calming the noises around him, reducing the uncertainty, flattening the nerves. Not that his drinking was public. This was not a noisy, extrovert, attention-seeking boozer. While holding a glass, he studiously avoided the close attention of mobile phone photography. When he was at his prime for Manchester United, one of his neighbours in the upmarket Cheshire redoubt of Prestbury said they had never actually caught sight of him. And they had lived next door for five years.

While Coleen was an often-seen, chatty, friendly local presence, the only evidence of Rooney was when one of his expensive cars with the blacked-out windows headed into the house’s underground car park. He would spend his non-footballing downtime locked in his man den, playing computer games, a few bottles of booze by his side. Coleen, meanwhile, did all the heavy lifting when it came to bringing up their four boys.

But it was when the pair were separated by the requirements of his work that he really began to take ever more comfort in the bottle. At first, when he went to Los Angeles at the end of his playing career in England, she and the boys went with him. But when he moved to Washington, DC, she decided to fly home. And when he shifted into management, without even the protective banter of the dressing room to sustain him, he would fill his long hours alone with drink. Friends recall him making lengthy calls in which it was clear, as he slurred his words and complained of feeling isolated and lonely, he had been drinking. Not least because the calls would arrive at nine in the morning UK time, which is 4am in Washington.

Even when he returned to England to manage, he was obliged by the distance from the family home to live alone. None of his ventures were successful. At Birmingham City, one of the club’s American co-owners, the NFL legend Tom Brady, cast public aspersion on his approach, saying on a documentary that he was “a little worried about our head coach’s work ethic”. He only lasted 15 matches in charge.

On his next stop at Plymouth, even further away from his wife’s steadying hand, things only grew worse. On the touchline, he looked like a man completely at sea. Though any player he has managed will speak warmly of the fact he never complained about the fact his charges were simply not as talented at the game as he was, he has been proven a wholly inadequate leader.

Worse for his self-esteem, wherever he went as a boss, rival fans would mock his appearance. The constant comparison was always between him and his former strike partner Cristiano Ronaldo, still svelte, still sleek, still playing, albeit in the mink-lined Saudi Pro League. Ronaldo is actually eight months older than Rooney, though he looks at least ten years younger. But then, he had always been more self-disciplined, refusing to put anything in his body that might detract from his performance. Rooney looks like a man reared on a diet of bitter and chips.

It was notable that, however far away he might have been from them as he toured the globe in pursuit of management opportunities, he always made himself available for family milestones. He was there when his son Kai signed professional terms with Manchester United. Or when Coleen was in court facing libel charges brought by Rebekah Vardy. He was by her side every day for that trial, exuding pride at her clever investigation into who had been leaking stories about the family to the press.

It is a universally acknowledged fact about former sports stars that if they remain married, their finances stay in far better shape. One ex-player, sitting in his modest semi, once told me that divorce is the biggest wealth destroyer known to man. And many a financially sound former star is grateful to their wives for looking after the money, while they got on with playing. The once-champion boxer Barry McGuigan, who these days has a property portfolio that extends across half of Canterbury, gives the credit entirely to his astute business partner: his wife.

But Rooney can be grateful to Coleen for more than simply keeping the family bank accounts in order. Since he has been obliged to stall his managerial career, he has been buffing up his media presence. He has become a regular on Match of the Day and the BBC have launched a new podcast featuring him. And the unexpected thing is, he is proving rather good at it.

His podcast is full of brilliantly timed anecdotes. More to the point, he is way more articulate than the widespread disparaging assumptions of his intelligence would have you imagine.

Plus these days, while by no means challenging Ronaldo in the lean and mean physique department, he also looks much better than he did stalking the touchline at Plymouth. The application of eyedrops, which he admits he once used to cover the telltale signs of excess, is no longer necessary.

It may be the fact that he is not, these days, faced with the inordinate pressure of football management that he appears so much healthier. Or maybe it is that he is back home living full-time once more with Coleen, the woman who keeps him on the straight and narrow. The wife, he insists, to whom he owes his life.

Fans call for law change after former Arsenal striker dies

Football fans are calling for a change in the law after former Arsenal academy player Billy Vigar died at the age of 21 following a collision with a concrete wall during a match.

Vigar sustained a “significant brain injury” while playing for Chichester City against Wingate and Finchley after attempting to prevent the ball from crossing the touchline.

After being taken to hospital and placed in an induced coma, Vigar underwent surgery aimed at helping his recovery but he died on Thursday morning.

His death comes almost three years after the Professional Footballers’ Association [PFA] demanded that safety rules around advertising boards be “fully reviewed”.

The PFA’s call followed a similar injury suffered by Bath City striker Alex Fletcher, who collided with a concrete-backed advertising hoarding, leading his retirement at the age of 25.

Following Vigar’s death, a petition calling for the “removal of brick walls and other hard, immovable structures surrounding pitches” has received thousands of signatures.

The petition, titled Vigar’s Law, states: “Billy’s passing is not an isolated incident—countless players at all levels have suffered serious injuries, including broken bones, concussions, and life-altering trauma, as a result of these dangerous barriers.

“Football is meant to be a sport of passion, skill, and community—not a place where a simple fall or a mistimed run can result in permanent injury or death.

“Yet many pitches, especially at grassroots and community level, remain bordered by solid brick walls placed only a few feet from the touchline. These walls serve no essential sporting purpose, yet they create an undeniable and avoidable hazard.”

It adds: “Billy Vigar’s death must be the last. We owe it to his memory—and to every player who steps onto a football pitch—to ensure that no one else suffers such a needless tragedy. Football should be a game of joy and community, not a place where preventable hazards claim young lives.”

The Football Association has been contacted for comment, but a statement on Thursday said: “We are devastated to hear that Billy Vigar has passed away. We send our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends, loved ones, and everyone at Chichester City FC at this incredibly difficult time.”

Vigar joined Arsenal’s academy on schoolboy terms aged 14 and the young forward went on to earn a full-time scholarship for the 2020/21 season.

Although he appeared for the Gunners in the EFL Trophy, Vigar, who also had a loan spell with Derby Under-21s and at Eastbourne Borough, left the club in the summer of 2024, signing for Hastings before a move to Chichester last month.

A statement from Vigar’s family, posted by Chichester, read: “After sustaining a significant brain injury last Saturday, Billy Vigar was put in an induced coma.

“On Tuesday, he needed an operation to aid any chances of recovery. Although this helped, the injury proved too much for him and he passed away on Thursday (25th) morning.

“The responses to the original update show how much Billy was thought of and loved within the sport. His family are devastated that this has happened whilst he was playing the sport that he loved.”

“Everyone at Arsenal is devastated by the shocking news that former academy graduate Billy Vigar has passed away,” the Premier League club said in a statement.

“All our thoughts are with his family and loved ones at this time. Rest in peace, Billy.”

Includes reporting from PA

‘They saw my fear and understood’: Nick Robinson on why Macmillan nurses are vital

Who can you talk to? Who will understand? Who will know what to say?

Your wife or husband, maybe. Your friends. Your doctor. Perhaps all of the above.

And yet when I had cancer I found there were some things I couldn’t or didn’t want to say to them. They were too painful. My emotions were too confused. I didn’t want to burden them with information which might overwhelm them and leave them unsure how to respond.

It was my Macmillan nurse who filled the gap. Knowledgeable and empathetic. Caring, but with a degree of separation. Able to be my champion when I needed one.

The operation meant to remove the tumour in my lung was a triumphant success. The cancer was all removed. Yet, so too was my voice. The laryngeal nerve – which carries the electrical pulses which make your vocal cord vibrate and open and close – had been hit or cut or stunned during the op. The crucial nerve isn’t, I soon discovered, tucked away neatly safe from intruding surgical instruments. It hangs about awkwardly – like a bit of dodgy DIY wiring. Accidents do happen.

When mine happened – when ‘that guy off the telly’ (as I then was) had to be told his vocal cords were damaged and might take many months to recover, if they recovered – it was my Macmillan nurse who saw my fear and watched as I wiped away my tears. It was he who I felt able to tell that I was more scared of losing my voice than my cancer. He listened when I said I needed an explanation from the hospital but I didn’t want to blame anyone or hold them to account.

I knew that he understood. Just as he would have understood if I was struggling to cope with pain or was terrified of the side-effects of the chemo. Luckily I had very little hair to lose. Macmillan nurses are specialists who can offer physical and emotional support, coordinate care and offer information on how to understand your diagnosis, the treatment you face and the ways to manage your symptoms. They can help those who love you and are caring for you. They can act as a point of contact connecting patients with local support groups and services; give advice on practical issues like dealing with your employer, claiming benefits or accessing social care. Their expertise helps people navigate the hazards that can be thrown up on what’s now called your cancer journey.

Why? Well, because they’ve seen it all before. My Macmillan nurse had dealt with people far sicker and much less lucky than me. I could speak to him without worrying what impact my words would have on him or how it made me look.

So it is then, whenever a friend or a colleague tells me they’ve joined the club no one wants to be a member of, I tell them ‘Get yourself a Macmillan nurse if you possibly can’.

It is ten years now since my cancer was treated. Happily it’s not shown any sign of returning. My voice has though – slowly at first but eventually so that I barely need to think about those days when I feared I might never be able to use it to broadcast again.

I asked about my Macmillan nurse a while ago. Oh, I was told, he ended up getting cancer so he had to give up the job. I dearly hope that he had someone as good as I had to look after him.

The Independent is proud to partner with Macmillan Cancer Support for their iconic Coffee Morning fundraiser. For every person who signs up to host a Coffee Morning through this article, The Independent will donate £10, up to £20,000, helping people affected by cancer access the vital support they need. Sign up to host a Coffee Morning for a chance to get creative, bring people together, and make a real difference for people living with cancer, no matter who they are or where they live.

Has Emma Watson taken her final form as the new people’s princess?

Somewhere far from the extended Hogwarts cinematic universe, Emma Watson has been living. Or perhaps more accurately: pausing; “self-partnering”; the kind of abstracted living that only the extremely famous – and extremely observed – can pull off well. Since that curious 2012–2014 transition period when she began edging out from under the shadow of Hermione Granger, Watson has been engaged in a slow, studious becoming. For a while, it seemed she was trying to prove she could be what everyone wanted: perfect. An idealised woman – earnest, intentional, and soothing, all of which seem to come naturally to her – but an activist too.

Being a woman in the public eye trying to do the right thing has meant that her appearances and statements have often been received with a friction that she herself seldom gives off. As she transitioned from child star to adult celebrity activist, she faced accusations of “white feminism,” questions about her name appearing in the Panama Papers, and demands that her activism be more pointed, more radical, more active. None of it ever entirely stuck. This may be because she comes across as poised, elegant, and relatively well-informed. Or it may be, perhaps, out of a collective sympathy for a woman who had such an unconventional childhood (or rather lacked one altogether, having spent it making and promoting the Harry Potter film franchise). Simultaneously, there was a public feeling that maybe she was just too nice, somehow too perfect. Watson, though, is – like all of us – imperfect, as an activist and as a human. What matters is that she seems to be owning that.

Now, it appears she’s found an equilibrium: she’s returned as a fully-formed Emma Watson, on a single-podcast press tour to promote nothing but herself. A self that is, as one response to her exhaustive new interview on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast notes, a grown-up version of Hermione: “warm, kind and considerate.” Over the course of nearly three hours, she opens up on everything from acting, to trans rights, to Palestine. It’s an interview of pragmatism and contemplation – about as explosive as a wet firework.

The interview may be the crowning moment for Watson as the “People’s Princess” for millennials. She is, in some ways, distinctly royal (it even occurs to me, watching the interview, how much she now resembles Kate Middleton) – carefully eloquent, slowly working her way through her answers, exactingly aware of how they will appear once transcribed and dissected. And yet she’s more human than the royals, more – could it be? – relatable.

It’s hard not to feel some kinship when Watson tells Shetty about not being able to find the work “family” she craved after growing up in a close-knit film cast. “I came to work looking for friendship and that was a very painful experience for me outside of Harry Potter and in Hollywood – like, bone-creakingly painful,” says the actor, who hasn’t appeared in a film since 2019’s Little Women. In a tearful moment, she adds: “The shattering of those expectations broke me. In a way, I’m proud that it did because I guess that means I have something left to break.” Her comments about not being married too felt refreshing and un-performative, particularly for a podcast guest in 2025. (“I’m just so happy not to be divorced yet… I think that we’re being pressured and forced into this thing that I believe is a kind of miracle. I might never be worthy of it.”) That vulnerability continued when discussing her struggles with ADHD, her driving ban (unfortunately quite funny, when the quote “my shame is everywhere” is paired with her crime – driving at 38mph in a 30mph zone), and her reasons for stepping back from acting.

Then, she veers into more contentious territory, namely the two lightning rods of her public image: trans rights and Israel. When the conversation turns to J. K. Rowling – the author whose strident anti-transgender rhetoric has led many to call for boycotts of Harry Potter media – Watson, who has longstandingly voiced support for trans rights, is careful but candid. She says she still “treasures Jo and the person that I had personal experiences with.” Both Rowling’s anti-trans activism and Watson’s historically close relationship with her can exist, she says: “I will never believe that one negates the other and that my experience of that person I don’t get to keep and cherish.” While the remarks have drawn criticism from some circles, largely based on out-of-context headline quotes, there’s a much-needed diplomacy to them. What stands out most, I think, is her openness to future dialogue. “I think the thing I’m most upset about is that a conversation was never made possible,” she adds.

If that didn’t put her decades of militant media training to work, a discussion about Palestine certainly did. Shetty brings up her 2022 Instagram post expressing solidarity with Palestinians, a relatively benign act that nonetheless drew condemnation from Israeli officials. At the time, Danny Danon, the former science minister in Netanyahu’s government and Israeli ambassador to the UN, tweeted: “10 points from Gryffindor for being an antisemite.” Watson now reflects that “what concerned me at the time was the way that label [anti-semitism] was used. Even now, I see that playing out – where people don’t feel like they can talk about what’s happening safely.”

Some could argue (and have already argued) that Watson is still trying to have it both ways with her answers to difficult questions. But maybe that says as much about her as it does the state of things – that politics has become so scorched and exhausting that even a soft, balanced tone now feels like something worth clinging to.

Watson has taken her fair share of beatings online for trying to introduce nuance into conversations that reward a degree of spice; for speaking carefully to potentially appeal to centrists, to the undecided, to the disappointed and unbothered. It’s no surprise, then, that she’s leaning harder than ever into a kind of heartfelt, humanist framework.

A decade ago, the internet might have called her quotes twee, privileged, a performance of thoughtfulness rather than the real thing. But in the jagged climate of the mid-2020s, there’s something quietly resonant about a former child star still making an effort to get it right. She may have stepped away from acting, and distanced herself from the machine that raised her, but with this interview, one thing feels newly certain: Emma Watson is the most compelling figure to emerge from the Potter cast. Not because she’s perfect but because she’s trying.

Trump warns he will move World Cup games if host cities aren’t ‘safe’

Donald Trump indicated he would consider relocating 2026 World Cup matches if he deemed any US host cities unsafe.

Speaking in the Oval Office on Thursday about the tournament, co-hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico from 11 June to 19 July, Mr Trump was specifically questioned about games in Seattle and San Francisco.

“Well, that’s an interesting question … but we’re going to make sure they’re safe,” he stated.

He claimed that Seattle and San Francisco are “run by radical left lunatics who don’t know what they’re doing”.

Six matches are scheduled for Seattle’s Lumen Field, with another six at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, near San Francisco.

While Fifa oversees World Cup logistics and determines game sites, and would typically manage any changes, Trump noted his close working relationship with Fifa president Gianni Infantino.

He also cited his policies as contributing to the country’s safety ahead of the event.

He sent the national guard into Washington DC, last month to deal with what he called a “crime emergency”, and he subsequently claimed that the move resulted in the city having “no crime”.

He said Thursday, “As you probably know, we’re going into Memphis and we’re going into some other cities. Very soon we’re going into Chicago. It will be safe for the World Cup.

“If I think it isn’t safe, we’ll move into a different city, absolutely. It’s actually a very fair question.

“If I think it’s not safe, we’re going to move it out of that city. So if any city we think is going to be even a little bit dangerous for the World Cup, or for the (2028) Olympics, you know where they have Olympic overthrow right, but for the World Cup in particular, because they’re playing in so many cities, we won’t allow it.

“We’ll move it around a little bit. But I hope that’s not going to happen.”

The draw for the World Cup, which will feature 48 teams, is scheduled for 5 December in Washington DC.