Why Switzerland's Breel Embolo has been denied entry to North America the World Cup

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Martin Macdonald | Writer

Content writer covering football, formula 1 and movies

The Switzerland squad were forced to travel to North America for the World Cup on Tuesday without one of their star players, Breel Embolo.

The Swiss contingent has travelled to their base in San Diego without the centre-forward, who was ordered to stay behind after issues with his ESTA arose prior to him boarding the flight.

"Unfortunately, Breel Embolo is currently unable to travel to the United States with the team," the Swiss federation said in a statement.

"His Esta authorisation had been approved until this morning. However, at 10:30am, we were informed that his Esta application had been placed under further review.

"We are currently in contact with the relevant authorities and expect that Breel will either join the team later today or travel tomorrow and join the squad then."

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The travel complication is tied directly to a Swiss court case that was finalised earlier this year. The situation traces back to an incident in 2018, in Basel, where a 21-year-old Embolo got into a heated dispute with a group of people following a disagreement over a selfie request and threatened to have the group beaten up.

The confrontation escalated when a close friend accompanying him threw a punch, fracturing a man's nose.

Although Embolo admitted to losing his temper and apologised for his misconduct, he vehemently denied making illegal threats in a legal sense.

The Swiss judiciary did not accept his defence; he was convicted of multiple counts of making unlawful threats, and after his appeal was rejected, he chose not to take the case to the Swiss Federal Court, making the judgment final.

He was ultimately handed a 45-day suspended fine totalling 3,000 Swiss francs.

The player was allowed to enter the United States in June of 2025 for friendly matches against Mexico and the USMNT, so this a recent flag from US immigration.

The Swiss national team Instagram account published a photo of the players on the plane with the caption: "One seat empty, but not for long. See you soon Breel Embolo."

At the 2026 World Cup, Switzerland face Qatar in Santa Clara, before facing Bosnia and Herzegovina in Inglewood and co-hosts Canada in Vancouver.