FIFA President Gianni Infantino congratulated Donald Trump ahead of his return as president of the United States.
Trump has declared victory and appears on track to defeat his Democratic rival Kamala Harris.
The 2026 World Cup will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and the Jules Rimet trophy will return to North America for the first time since 1994.
Infantino met with Trump several times during his first presidency to talk about the World Cup, as well as talking about opening the FIFA headquarters in the United States, which they did in 2023.
‘Congratulations Mr. President!’ Infantino wrote on Instagram on Wednesday morning.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino congratulated Donald Trump, who appears on track to win the US elections.
They met several times during Trump’s first presidency to discuss the 2026 World Cup.
‘We will have a great FIFA World Cup and a great FIFA Club World Cup in the United States of America! ‘Football unites the world!’
The 2026 World Cup will be groundbreaking for a new format that has sparked much discussion.
There will be a huge expansion and revamp of the tournament, with 48 teams (up from 32) – the three host nations and 45 qualifiers – playing 104 matches (up from 64), significant increases of around 50 per cent.
That growth means a longer tournament and more matches earlier or later every day in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Between 13 and 16 countries participated in the first four tournaments of 1930, 1934, 1938 and 1950, increasing to 16 since 1954, 24 in Spain 1982 and 32 in France 1998, where it has remained since then.
FIFA President Infantino was elected on a promise to create a 40-team World Cup.
He insisted the extra £825m in revenue and £530m in extra profits this move is expected to generate will trickle down to grassroots football, rather than lining the pockets of the bigwigs at the top.
“Increasing the size of the teams that can participate will increase investment in football development, to ensure that teams can qualify,” he stated.
The Trump administration promised in 2018 that there would be no discrimination against fans from any country who wanted to visit the World Cup.
The United States, Canada and Mexico will host the 48-team World Cup in 2026 with many more games
The Central American trio formed by Canada, Mexico and the United States will host it in the summer of 2026
His own level of commitment to football or ‘soccer’ is unknown, but he helped, rather disconcertingly, in the Carabao Cup draw in 1991 on the Saint & Greavsie programme.
There will be 12 groups of four teams. That requires a lot of extra games (104), instead of the 80 there would have been with 16 groups of three.
The European Club Association did not support the move fearing the effect a significantly larger and longer tournament would have on domestic matches for clubs.
The 2026 tournament will last 39 days, a week longer than in 2010, 2014 and 2018 and 10 days longer than in Qatar, which will reduce national campaigns. In 2018, countries had 25 days between the end of the national season to prepare for the start of the tournament. By 2026, that period is just 16 days.
