FIFA To Announce 2026 World Cup US Sites, Paring From 17

As FIFA prepares to announce the 2026 World Cup sites on Thursday — and make high-profile cuts — Alan Rothenberg thought back to when stadiums were picked for the 1994 tournament he headed in the United States. “They gave the rights to the host country, and the host country basically ran the whole thing,” he said. “Here, everything is done in-house by FIFA. So it’s been a really long and arduous process. The terms have been incredibly difficult for cities to cope with.”