Swedish police have launched an investigation after 20 people linked to an Ethiopian youth football team disappeared from the Gothia Cup in Gothenburg on the day of the tournament final.
The Gothia Cup, billed as the world’s largest and most international youth football tournament, hosted 1,956 teams from 78 countries this year, including four teams from Ethiopia.
According to Ellinor Halldi of the Swedish Police’s Western Region Missing Persons Unit, staff at the school where the Ethiopian team was staying discovered that the players and several accompanying adults were missing on the final day of competition.
Ten days after the tournament ended, the group has still not returned to Ethiopia.
In a statement to _The Local Sweden_, Halldi said authorities believe the disappearance was voluntary and may be linked to illegal migration.
“We have no idea if they’re trying to stay in Sweden. That would just be speculation,” Halldi said. “In the past, we’ve had disappearances before in the Gothia Cup but never so many as this.”
She added that there is currently “no indication that anything illegal lies behind this, such as people smuggling or something similar.”
The police unit is now working with the Swedish Migration Agency, border police, and international authorities. Halldi said they expect to be notified if any of the missing individuals attempt to cross a border or come into contact with authorities.
Fredrik Beckman, press spokesperson for the Gothia Cup, described the situation as “strange” given the tournament’s “good relationship” with the Ethiopian team.
As a precaution, tournament management filed a report with police. Beckman said the last correspondence from the team’s contact person cited a “communication problem” but gave no details on the group’s whereabouts or whether they had returned home.
This is not the first time players have gone missing during the Gothia Cup, but police say the scale of this case is unprecedented for the event.
The 2026 Gothia Cup concluded with winners from 13 countries including Sweden, France, Japan, Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya.
The investigation rem
Is ongoing.