A million dollars a city, and nobody wants to talk about it
The final whistle blew on July 19. Weeks later, the money still hasn’t landed. According to The Athletic, several American cities that hosted the 2026 World Cup are still waiting on FIFA to pay up.
Four host city officials put a figure on it, speaking anonymously: a million dollars each. It was sold to them as a “legacy” fund, cash for mini-pitches and community projects, the kind of thing meant to outlast a tournament.
Gianni Infantino had promised exactly that sum, out loud, to host cities for the 2025 Club World Cup. That earlier pledge is now the ghost hanging over the whole standoff.
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Eleven cities, a handshake, nothing on paper
No press release this time. No signed document either. City representatives say they asked for the same contribution and kept getting reassured by people near the top of FIFA. Reassurance was all they walked away with.
The eleven cities run coast to coast: Seattle, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York/New Jersey, Boston and Miami.
Spain lifted the trophy after 39 days of football spread across the United States, Mexico and Canada, from June 11 to July 19. Asked about the unpaid money, FIFA declined to comment. That silence is doing a lot of the talking.
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