Donald Trump Shapes 2026 Fifa World Cup Schedule As Kickoff Nears

The fifa world cup schedule starts Thursday with a 48-nation field spread across 104 matches in 16 cities. It will be played across three countries and one continent, but the scale comes with a harder path for ordinary fans trying to follow it.

That is the tension around the 2026 men's World Cup: the biggest tournament in history is also described as the least accessible. Price pressure is part of it, and so are visa uncertainty and safety concerns for supporters trying to travel to the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Trump and the World Cup draw

Donald Trump is already tied to the tournament’s off-field logistics. FIFA moved the World Cup group stage draw from Las Vegas to Washington last December so he could attend more easily, a sign of how political the event has become before the opening match is even played.

The move matters because the World Cup was sold in 2018 as United 2026, with the U.S., Canada and Mexico presenting the bid as a North American project. Eight years later, the event is arriving in a volatile geopolitical environment, with the United States serving as a contentious co-host.

United 2026 and fan access

The practical problem for supporters is not just cost. The source says many potential visitors may face obstacles beyond price gouging, including arriving without incident and feeling safe.

That leaves fans planning trips to the tournament with a narrower set of choices than the record numbers suggest. A 48-team, 104-match schedule sounds expansive on paper, but the experience for visiting supporters may be shaped as much by border checks, travel risk and ticket inflation as by the games themselves.

Thursday’s kickoff opens the largest World Cup ever, but the real test begins for the people trying to get there. For many of them, the schedule is not the hard part; the trip is.