It’s a problem for Houston, too.
Experts are now raising questions about America’s ability to receive such an influx of people, however, as some tourists wait months to obtain a visa, and the Trump administration strains relations with international allies and adversaries alike.
New immigration policies and downsizing in the federal government could make it harder to obtain visas and travel safely between the United States, Canada and Mexico, which are co-hosting the tournament.
Houston’s top World Cup planners say they are doing what they can at a local level to ensure a safe and smooth experience for all who visit next summer, and are confident the tournament will carry on as planned.
“I’m only focused on what I can control here, and I remain optimistic that when this World Cup comes next year, with 104 matches played across three countries, that it’s going to be epic,” said Chris Canetti, president of Houston’s 2026 World Cup Committee.
“I have a lot of faith in soccer as a unifier, and these events unite people and pull people together through geopolitical issues and other things that otherwise might dominate the headlines,” Canetti said.
The quadrennial men’s World Cup routinely draws millions of international tourists to its host country over the course of the monthlong tournament. Next year’s World Cup, with an expanded field of 48 teams, will be the biggest in the sport’s history. A recent report from the U.S. Travel Association said that six million people could travel from outside the country to attend.
But unlike in the two most recent host countries, Qatar and Russia, where tickets to a match essentially doubled as visas to enter the country, the U.S. is still requiring some visitors to obtain approval to enter the country.
Fans from countries that are included in America’s Visa Waiver Program — almost all of which are European and Asian — should be largely unaffected. Travelers from most South American and African countries, however, will have to apply for tourist visas separately from their tickets.
That’s a problem for fans of countries that won’t know if their team has even made it to the World Cup or where they will be playing until the matchups are drawn in December. State Department data shows that wait times for visa interviews at consulates in many countries can stretch for months.
In Colombia, a soccer powerhouse that can be reasonably expected to qualify for the World Cup, the current wait time to obtain a visa is 18 months. The tournament would long be over by the time a Colombian who applied now would be able to receive their travel permit.
As the Trump Administration moves to cut down on federal staff and strengthen the vetting process of people who are allowed into the country, industry leaders worry that hits to the State Department could exacerbate difficulties in processing visas.
“The wait times will absolutely see the impact of staff reductions. … Wait times are only going to go up, not down,” said Travis Murphy, the founder of Jetr Global Sports + Entertainment and a former American diplomat, to the Athletic.
The U.S. Travel Association released a report in February that detailed how unprepared America is to host the millions of people expected to travel to the country over the next several years, not just for the World Cup but for the 2025 Ryder Cup, 2028 Olympics and more.
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David Goldblatt, a British journalist, academic and soccer historian, said that while he ultimately expects stadiums to be full, he wouldn’t be surprised if some fans feel trepidation about traveling for the tournament.
“Who around the world isn’t thinking that the American border is quite a tricky place right now?” Goldblatt said. “It’s a whole new territory, no one has had to think about this in living memory about going to the United States, so yeah, I think it’s an issue.”
Goldblatt, however, also said that the Trump administration seems genuine in its intentions to host a great World Cup, and might make strides to rectify any widespread travel difficulties that arise.
“My impression is that the White House really loves the World Cup. They don’t understand the game but they know that it’s great television, and that’s really important in this White House,” Goldblatt said. “If systematic difficulties were to start emerging, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some action.”
See here for the background. There is a task force set up to deal with the problems, as was recommended by the U.S. Travel Association, and I appreciate David Goldblatt’s optimism about things. I do think, all things being equal, that the Trump administration would like for this to be a big success and bask in the reflected glory of it. I also think that they’ve fired most if not all of the competent people who would be best positioned to achieve that success, that they’ve made this task vastly harder for themselves because of their insane and inhumane immigration policies, and that Trump himself and the slavering troglodytes that enable him are the wildest wild cards in existence, able to deal a huge blow to the efforts at any minute. If we had a normal administration, this would be an entirely manageable issue. But we don’t, and until I see reporting to suggest that the biggest problems have been fully solved, I’m not betting on any grand successes. Avoiding disaster might be the best case scenario.
Houston’s World Cup was a bad idea that looks even worse now.
Houston’s World Cup: Untransparent spending, unaccountable leadership, discrimination against minorities, delusional projections of returns, and now bans on most foreign tourists.
Its not too late to shut it down and tell FIFA….”no thanks”.