FIFA President Gianni Infantino has met with several key members of the House of Representatives in the United States federal government on Capitol Hill, Washington DC, to outline plans for the upcoming FIFA events to be staged in the United States. Starting with the new 32-team Mundial de Clubes FIFA 25™ in the summer of 2025 and followed by the biggest-ever FIFA World Cup™ in 2026 (also co-hosted by Canada and Mexico) featuring 48 national teams, the United States will stage major global football tournaments in back-to-back years.

“We are in Washington DC to ensure that we have in place the best possible means for the new FIFA Club World Cup in 2025 and the biggest-ever FIFA World Cup in 2026 to be successful, and that can only happen by having a close collaboration with the United States federal government,” the FIFA President said. “It was great to meet many dignitaries and to discuss how we can make sure, together, that these tournaments will be a fantastic success because, overall, there will be five million people coming to follow these two global events. We need to be ready and we need to be prepared.” Kicking off the two-day visit, the FIFA President’s first engagement involved a round table meeting with Soccer Caucus and Host City Representatives for the meeting hosted by Co-Chairs Reps. Darin LaHood, Kathy Castor, and Rick Larsen together with Reps. Pete Aguilar, Jake Auchincloss, Andy Barr, Ron Estes, Randy Feenstra, Drew Ferguson, Brian Fitzpatrick, Carlos Gimenez, Lance Gooden, Josh Gottheimer, Garret Graves, Pramila Jayapal, Nick LaLota, Morgan Luttrell, Blake Moore, Seth Moulton, Jimmy Panetta, María Salazar, Beth Van Duyne, and David Valadao.

After the round table meeting, separate discussions were also held on Capitol Hill with the House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, the House of Representatives Majority Whip Tom Emmer at the Speaker’s Office, and Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. The exchanges addressed a wide range of topics related to the planning of both tournaments, especially given their global scale and the need to maintain a constant collaboration on issues related to transportation, safety and security, visas and immigration, as well as other operational and commercial matters to ensure the smooth delivery of the event for all fans, teams and officials - both for those in the United States and for those travelling to the country from abroad.