President Donald Trump's Wednesday proclamationrestricting travel to the United States by people from a dozen countries will not apply to athletes competing at soccer's2026 World Cupor the 2028 Olympics, but could impact fans, friends and extended family of those athletes hoping to come to the U.S. for the hugely popular sporting events. Trump's travel ban, which will take effect Monday, applies to citizens of Iran, whose men's national soccer team has already qualified for the upcoming World Cup, which will be held in the U.S., Canada and Mexico next summer. But Section 4, subsection (b), paragraph (iv) of Wednesday's proclamation grants "exceptions" to "any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives, traveling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting event as determined by the Secretary of State." The big unknown, sports immigration experts told Yahoo Sports, is how broad the State Department's definitions of "major sporting event," "necessary support role" and "immediate relatives" will be. Experts expect that soccer's2025 Club World Cup— which does not feature a team from one of the 12 countries, but will feature a few players from those countries — will also qualify as a "major sporting event," especially given theTrump administration's strong relations with FIFA, soccer's global governing body and the tournament's organizer. It is less clear whether the 2025 Gold Cup, a regional tournament that also begins in the U.S. the same day (June 14), will qualify for the exemption. If it doesn't, the national team of Haiti — another of the 12 countries on Trump's list — would be impacted. It is scheduled to face the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Trinidad and Tobago in Group D. Spokespeople for the State Department, FIFA and CONCACAF — the North, Central American and Caribbean soccer confederation in charge of the Gold Cup — either did not immediately respond to questions or could not confirm whether their events were exempted. The wording of the proclamation, experts pointed out, gives the State Department broad discretion to exempt certain events but apply the ban to others, based on any number of criteria or factors. Some athletes looking to travel stateside for minor events — especially pre-professional tournaments or competitions — will likely be affected. And fans will almost certainly be affected, the experts said. FIFA and its president, Gianni Infantino, have repeatedly claimed that "America will welcome the world — everyone who wants to come here to enjoy [the World Cup], to have fun, to celebrate the game, will be able to do that." But there areno indications or expectations that fans will get special treatmentfrom the consular officers responsible for issuing visitor visas. With the ban in place, thousands of Iranian fans could be denied entry and prevented from following their team at the tournament. The other 11 countries on the banned list — Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen — have either been eliminated from World Cup qualification or are unlikely to qualify, though Sudan and Haiti are in contention. Regardless of their teams' qualification status, though, people from those countries could still be interested in visiting for the tournament.From October 2022 to September 2023— the last fiscal year for which data is available — the U.S. admitted more than 100,000 non-immigrants who were visiting for business or pleasure and were citizens of the 12 countries, according to government data. A majority of those visitors were Haitian citizens. Some Haitians who are dual citizens will still be able to travel to the U.S. on their non-Haitian passport. But those without dual citizenship, and who do not meet the criteria forother exemptions, will be barred. (The ban, generally, applies to both immigrants and non-immigrants.) Among the seven countries subject to partial travel restrictions — Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela — Venezuela is in contention to qualify for the 2026 World Cup. Cuba could also contend for a place at the 48-team tournament. Many, if not all, of the 19 countries targeted will send athletes to the 2028 Olympics, which will be held in and around Los Angeles two summers later. It's unclear to what extent their support staff and extended family members might be impacted by the ban — which could, of course, be challenged or changed between now and 2026 or 2028.