ShareWASHINGTON/EAST RUTHERFORD: US President Donald Trump will attend Sunday’s Club World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey, he said at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, as world soccer’s ruling body FIFA announced it had opened an office in New York’s Trump Tower. The expanded tournament featuring many of the world’s best club teams has been widely seen as a dry run for the 2026 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Sunday’s Club World Cup final at MetLife Stadium will be a preview of next year’s championship match, with the home of the NFL’s New York Jets and Giants also hosting the 2026 finale. “I’ll be going to the game,” Trump told reporters. The news came a day after FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced the opening of a representative office at Trump Tower, where the Club World Cup trophy will be on display until the final. “FIFA is a global organization and to be global, you have to be local, you have to be everywhere, so we have to be in New York,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said at an event in Manhattan. “So today, we are opening an office of FIFA here in Trump Tower.”
FIFA already has offices in Miami and the move deepens ties between Infantino and US President Donald Trump. Infantino attended Trump’s inauguration earlier this year, has appeared alongside the US President at the Oval Office and joined him on a recent visit to Qatar and Saudi Arabia. “Thanks, of course, to President Trump as well, who is a big fan of soccer, (together with) the whole family,” added Infantino, who was speaking ahead of the semi-finals of the Club World Cup taking place at the MetLife Stadium just across the Hudson River from Manhattan.
The first 32-team Club World Cup concludes this weekend, while the World Cup in June and July next year will be the first to feature 48 teams. Eleven of the 16 venues in 2026 will be in the United States, with three in Mexico and two in Canada. The final will take place in the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. “We have received such a big support from the government and from the President with the White House Task Force for the FIFA Club World Cup and for the FIFA World Cup next year,” Infantino said before declaring the ongoing tournament “an incredible success”.
Trump has not shied away from sport’s super-sized spotlight during his second term, becoming the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl in February, and in May announcing DC as the host for the 2027 NFL Draft from the Oval Office. His immigration crackdown and travel ban on 12 countries have prompted concerns ahead of the 2026 World Cup, however, even as Infantino offered assurances that the world will be welcomed in the US for the quadrennial global showpiece event. A memo obtained by Reuters last month showed that the Trump administration was considering significantly expanding its travel restrictions by potentially banning citizens of 36 additional countries from entering the US. — Agencies
