US World Cup bid postponed over Trump guarantees: Host cities hit back

Martin Macdonald

• 27 Mar 2026 12:01 CDT
• 3 min read

News

There are doubts over the United States bid to host the 2031 Women's World Cup due to ongoing financing problems with the upcoming 2026 World Cup as well as a lack of guarantees provided to FIFA.

The USA is bidding jointly with Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica to host the 2031 edition of the tournament while England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have a joint bid for 2035, with no bids for either World Cup currently being opposed.

Bids for the 2021 World Cup were meant to be finalised by the end of April, but this has been postponed to some point towards the end of 2026. FIFA said this was to provide “a stand-alone event dedicated to the presentation of the bids, which will highlight the growing power and influence of women’s football and FIFA’s flagship women’s tournament.”

The reason for the delay is that host cities want guarantees from the US government over funding. This is despite U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow claiming that “more than 30 U.S. cities have expressed interest in hosting matches.”

FIFA also require a number of guarantees before confirming World Cup bids and these include tax exemptions, security guarantees and commitments on Visas.

The Athletic reports that the United States president Donald Trump is yet to sign off on these guarantees, hence the delay.

In order to deal with hosting 2026 World Cup matches, host cities were promised hundreds of millions of dollars worth of funding for planning, infrastructure, security and event management.

A $900 million kitty was promised to the host cities but that has yet to be received, which is raising major concerns, particularly over security.

Ray Martinez, chief operating officer of the Miami World Cup Host Committee, previously insisted that events will have to be cancelled if funding is not received.

"We have to start making some really tough decisions and it starts with our fan festival," he said.

"Without receiving this money, it could be catastrophic for our planning and co-ordination.

"The matches up at the stadium will take place, but preparing for all the impromptu events and watch parties that we are expecting to see will be in jeopardy."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) launched a grant programme in November

to allow host cities to "carry out the extensive security activities required to protect players, staff, attendees, venues and critical infrastructure across the host cities, strengthening them against potential terrorist attacks".

Up until very recently, officials in Foxborough, Boston refused to give FIFA an entertainment license to hold matches at the Gillette Stadium until they received funding. Eventually, venue owner Robert Kraft paid the expenses in the expectation that he will be reimbursed.

During the Sports Business Journal Business of Soccer Conference in Atlanta this week, U.S. Soccer president Parlow Cone said: “When I think about ’31 and the operating model, we have some time to figure it out. There’s gonna be a ton of learnings from the ’26 men’s World Cup. And while we may not want to copy and paste what happened, we definitely want to learn from this tournament to see what maybe could change, maybe could be adjusted, or maybe be added.

“FIFA has been a great partner, and we’ll continue those conversations.”

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