President Donald Trump on Friday, signed an executive order establishing a White House task force for the 2026 World Cup that will oversee preparations for the high-profile tournament.
The task force, will be chaired by Trump, while Vice President JD Vance will serve as vice chairman.
The executive director will be named later who will run the day-to-day operations.
“We’re going to be establishing a task force, a very important task force … and that’s on the FIFA World Cup of 2026, which is, you know, is a big event,” Trump said. “It’s going to be the biggest event, I think.”
The task force will coordinate with federal agencies, to plan and execute the massive job of hosting both the 2025 Club World Cup, and the World Cup a year later, the draft fact sheet outlines.
More than 8 million international visitors are expected to come to the US for the month long tournament that kicks off in June 2026.
Trump said he does plan to attend some matches.
The United States President in 2018 when the US won the bid to co-host the tournament with Canada and Mexico, Trump views bringing the expanded 48 team soccer showcase to the US as a significant accomplishment.
He sometimes had a replica of the World Cup trophy displayed behind his desk in the Oval Office.
He said the current tensions with Mexico and Canada will “make it more exciting.”
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“It’s a great honour for our country to have it. Actually, it’s a big deal. It’s, I don’t know which is bigger, the Olympics of the World Cup,” Trump said, alluding to the Summer Games coming to Los Angeles in 2028
The president signed the executive order on Friday, a day after CNN’s reported that travel executives were concerned, over the nation’s preparedness to host the quadrennial tournament.
US Travel Association President and CEO, Geoff Freeman, and MGM Resorts International President and CEO, William Hornbuckle, previously told CNN Sport they questioned whether the US travel system is prepared to handle the influx of foreign travelers expected in next summer’s soccer extravaganza.
A vital advice by they said which the US should kick-start for successful hosting was forming an interagency task force inside the Trump White House, to streamline the preparation process among federal agencies.
