Boston’s World Cup Stakeholders Are Squabbling Over Money

A little over three months from today, on June 13, the Boston metropolitan area is set to host the first of its seven 2026 World Cup matches, a group-stage clash between Scotland and Haiti. Despite kickoff being that close, local officials face an alarming number of unanswered logistics and funding questions, the sort no city should still be dealing with this close to such a big event. The case of Boston—well, Boston and Foxborough—is extreme, though not unique, making it a useful window into the busted logistics of the 2026 World Cup.

The trouble first came to light last week after a meeting of the Foxborough Select Board, the city council representing the town where the games will be played. At the heart of the issue is a missing $7.8 million needed to cover security, and the town's withholding of permits for hosting the games over that money. Foxborough heard out a proposal from lawyers representing the Boston 2026 host committee, Boston Soccer 26, asking the town to cover the bill in exchange for a promise that it would be reimbursed by the host committee later. The committee lawyers also said that the Kraft Sports Group, which owns the stadium slated to host Boston's World Cup matches, would backstop any extra costs. Yet Foxborough officials were not happy: They want the issue sorted now, without having to either front the cost or wait forever for things to be resolved. Local cops and firefighters were annoyed with a June 1 procurement deadline—less than two weeks from that first match—which they said was way too late.

"We do not wait 'til the week before and then force the board and public safety to cancel an event because we can't settle the matters … when we should be settling now," Foxborough PD chief Michael Grace told the Boston Globe. "We are 99 or 100 days away from hosting the largest sporting event in the world, and we're deciding, or can't seem to find, necessary funding for necessary equipment that's been identified in over a year-and-a-half of planning with thousands of hours in 14 working groups throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The solution is very simple: Fund what we need funded and this issue is over tomorrow."