FIFA President Gianni Infantino has reaffirmed FIFA’s obligation to ensuring stadium safety and security at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ and FIFA World Cup 2026™ in an address to participants at the first Safety and Security Information Workshop for the two tournaments.

The 32-team FIFA Club World Cup™ will take place in the United States from 14 June to 13 July 2025, with 63 matches being played in 12 Host Cities. Alongside neighbours Canada and Mexico, the United States will co-host the newly expanded 48-team FIFA World Cup™ across 16 venues the following summer with millions of fans from around the world expected to attend both events.

“It is the responsibility of FIFA, the six confederations and our 211 FIFA member associations to make sure that football stadiums are safe and welcoming for everyone and that fans are free to express themselves but without endangering those around them,” Mr Infantino told delegates at the workshop in Atlanta, US, via a recorded video message.

“As world football's governing body, FIFA has a special responsibility to not only set requirements and standards, but also to provide support and expert advice on safety and security. The history of previous incidents and the lessons learned from them highlight the need to assess these risks constantly and guard against the danger of complacency.

“To support our (FIFA) Member Associations we have launched the FIFA Safety and Security Learning Platform, which provides essential knowledge, guidance and additional resources and we have published the FIFA Stadium Guidelines. Safety and security away from the stadiums are other key components in our role and this workshop will emphasise the importance of working with you and your local authorities such as the police, fire and medical services in a coordinated manner.”

Additional topics being discussed at the two-day workshop include crowd management, emergency preparedness planning and supporter liaison engagement and support. Anti-discrimination risk assessment and monitoring for racism and homophobia, as well as intelligence information sharing, are among other themes being explored.

Furthermore, tournament best practices and lessons learned from the 2024 UEFA European Championship and UEFA Champions League final, as well as Major League Soccer games, will be shared with participants, who include a Confederations Safety and Security panel and Safety and Security professionals from the various host cities.

“As I said during the Host Cities Summit in March this year hundreds of thousands of fans will come to your cities for the FIFA World Cup 2026 with a peaceful and joyful spirit,” Mr Infantino continued. “They want to celebrate and they want to have fun and we need to welcome them in the best possible way and provide them with a safe environment where they are free to express themselves, because if we accomplish this we will have an incredibly positive return on what we do.”

“Football is about bringing people together in an atmosphere of joy and happiness. Our job is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all spectators, players, officials and staff so that they can bring us the greatest show on the planet. Thank you for your work and your support and my best wishes for a very productive workshop.”