July 30 – Las Vegas will not be hosting World Cup matches next year, but it is set to roll the dice on football’s biggest lottery later this year, with the 2026 World Cup draw reportedly heading back to Sin City on December 5, because where else could you host the draw to the world’s ultimate sporting competition.
July 29 – Fears over US travel visas for the 2026 World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada have been heightened after a Little League baseball team from Venezuela was denied visas to travel to the U.S. for a major tournament.
Venezuela is one of seven countries that face a partial travel suspension under the ban.
July 25 – Morocco has unveiled a $4.2 billion investment plan to expand and modernise its airports as the country ramps up preparations to co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup alongside Spain and Portugal.
July 24 – The Albanian Football Federation (FSHF) has been fined by FIFA and ordered to close part of the stands for the next national team home game over fan misconduct at a match against Serbia.
July 16 – FIFA has announced that ticket applications for the 2026 World Cup in North America will open on 10 September 2025, marking the start of what is expected to be a complex and heavily commercialised sales process for the expanded 48-team tournament.
July 15 – FIFA has expanded its official hospitality offering for the 2026 World Cup, rolling out a wider range of premium packages through its partner On Location, with new options now available for matches in Canada and Mexico as well as the United States.
July 3 – The 11 US host city committees for the FIFA men’s World Cup moved one step closer to securing their requested $625million in federal security funding after the US Senate passed an amended version of President Donald Trump’s domestic policy bill on Tuesday.
July 3 – With 11 months until FIFA’s circus rolls into town, Vancouver’s bean counters have finally crunched the numbers. The verdict? Seven World Cup matches will cost British Columbia between $85-145 million – but the economic payoff could be colossal.
June 1 – Canadian province British Columbia has written to FIFA offering to take on more games at the 2026 FIFA World Cup next summer if a number of US cities currently scheduled to host are deemed inappropriate and dangerous to player and spectator health following the extreme heat conditions that have plagued the current Club World Cup.
June 30 – Major cuts to Philadelphia’s transit system have prompted concerns over the city’s readiness to host matches during the 2026 World Cup.
June 21 – US president Donald Trump has added a potential 36 additional countries to his travel ban list unless they improve their citizens travel documentation and act to address the status of their nationals who are in the US illegally.
Trump has already imposed a travel ban on citizens from 12 countries and imposed restrictions on seven others.
June 12 – Los Angeles finds itself at the centre of a brewing crisis that could fundamentally alter how international football operates in America. With the Concacaf Gold Cup and FIFA Club World Cup set to kick off this weekend, the city’s fifth consecutive day of immigration protests has created an unprecedented challenge.
January 12 – El Salvador, with a 1-1 draw against Suriname, were the last of the 12 Concacaf nations to secure a slot in the third round of Group qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.
June 11 – Australia secured the last automatic qualification slot for the World Cup 2026 with a 2-1 win over Saudi Arabia, sending the 2034 World Cup hosts to October’s playoffs where six nations will battle for the two remaining guaranteed slots at the finals.
June 11 – Palestine’s football team are doing a remarkable job of keeping their country’s name alive and until the 97thminute of the Round 3 World Cup qualifying, it looked as though they had made it into the final round of Asian World Cup qualifying.