Expect the 2026 World Cup schedule to be announced by the end of the year, FIFA says

“Since Day 1, we were super impressed by the level of buy-in and in the collective enthusiasm that the city had to offer,” one of FIFA's executives said during a stop at the Linc on Thursday morning.

We're likely to know by the end of the year which 2026 men's World Cup games Philadelphia will host.Read moreJose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Updated Sep. 28, 2023, 6:17 p.m. ET

Published Sep. 28, 2023, 11:32 a.m. ET

FIFA’s latest caravan tour of the 2026 men’s World Cup’s host cities rolled into Philadelphia on Thursday for a day of behind-closed-doors meetings with local organizers.

As a chartered bus dropped off 35 or so visitors at one end of Lincoln Financial Field in the morning, FIFA’s executive director of commercial operations for the 2026 World Cup, Ross McCall, met briefly with the media at the other end.

“We have a number of our operational team over” for the tour, McCall said. “So we’re working with a lot of the stadium folks and going around the stadiums looking at the existing infrastructure, overlaying our operational plans. And then working with the city folk to understand their readiness to host the World Cup from a city perspective across safety and security, transportation, and those sorts of areas.”

Exactly who was on FIFA’s bus wasn’t known beyond McCall’s description. A spokesperson said neither president Gianni Infantino (who’s been in the U.S. lately) nor Concacaf president and FIFA vice president Victor Montagliani came to town.

A spokesperson for Philadelphia’s organizing committee said local representatives came from a range of places, including City Hall, the airport, SEPTA, the Eagles, Aramark, and the Wells Fargo Center. There also were invitees from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.

Though most of the meetings were to be about long-term subjects, there was some short-term focus too.

“The match schedule, we’ll be due to announce before the end of the year,” McCall said, in what was probably the biggest highlight of a session that lasted just over three minutes.

FIFA had been quiet about that for a long time, too quiet for a lot of people’s tastes. Earlier this month, the New York Times reported that FIFA expected to announce the schedule next month or in November, but no one from world soccer’s governing body was quoted. A few days later, right before FIFA’s site tour began in Miami, the tournament’s chief operating officer, Heimo Schirgi, told the Miami Herald that the announcement was expected later this year.

McCall’s remarks thus weren’t quite news, but it was at least good to hear someone say something out loud.

The expectation in Philadelphia has long been that Lincoln Financial Field’s biggest game would be a quarterfinal, hopefully featuring the United States. There are two candidates to host the final at this point, East Rutherford, N.J.’s MetLife Stadium (for its location) and Arlington, Texas’ AT&T Stadium (for its roof).

The Times’ report also was one of a few lately in which annoyance from local organizing committees has bubbled to the surface over a lack of planning details from FIFA — including how much money local groups will make from the World Cup coming here. It’s no surprise that that’s a lot of people’s first priority.

There reportedly has been particular disquiet in Los Angeles. The Athletic claimed last week that Kroenke Sports and Entertainment — the mega-wealthy owner of the NFL’s Rams and the palatial SoFi Stadium — threatened to pull out of hosting unless FIFA renegotiated its deal. KSE also owns the English Premier League’s Arsenal and many teams in Denver, including the NBA’s Nuggets, NHL’s Avalanche, and MLS’s Rapids.

Multiple entities involved quickly countered the Athletic’s claims, but none provided specifics.

McCall was asked Thursday what he’d like to say about how much World Cup revenue will go to local entities instead of FIFA. His answer might not have been what the critics wanted to hear.

“All the money that is raised [by FIFA] goes into the development of football globally, but also the development of football locally here in the U.S.,” he said. “So, collectively, that is what the purpose of this World Cup is: to reinvest in football across various different projects.”

But McCall did know a few things about his local audience.

“Since Day 1, we were super impressed by the level of buy-in and in the collective enthusiasm that the city had to offer,” he said. “We’re providing a platform for the city to showcase who they are to billions of people around the world, and we’ll have fans from all around the world descending on Philadelphia. So I’m sure they’re ready to welcome the world to the city.”

We just won’t know exactly when for a little while longer.