This summer, the world’s most-watched sporting event will return. Beginning in June, the FIFA World Cup will take place across three host countries: the United States, Mexico and Canada, an unprecedented format in the tournament’s history. This year’s World Cup will also expand the number of national teams competing from the traditional 32 to 48 (FIFA). In these ways, the upcoming tournament will occur on a larger scale than any World Cup before, bringing millions of fans from around the world into some of North America’s biggest cities (FIFA). While security has become a major consideration at any mega-sporting event since Sept. 11, the sheer scale of the upcoming World Cup in combination with the United States’ ongoing war in Iran and partial government shutdown has elevated concerns over the threat of terrorism to the event and counterterrorism preparedness (The Athletic, NYT 1).
The United States will host 78 out of the 104 total matches in the tournament, compared to just 13 each for Mexico and Canada (FIFA). The challenging task ahead for the 11 American host cities has been further complicated by the lapse in funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Since February, Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Senate have been unable to reach a deal regarding DHS funding, as Democrats have pushed for reforms regarding immigration enforcement, many of which Republicans have not agreed to (The Athletic). The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), an agency that operates under DHS, is responsible for the distribution of the 625 million dollars in funding for World Cup security arrangements, which was part of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed last summer (U.S. Congress). Nellie Pou, a Democratic congresswoman representing New Jersey and the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee has emphasized that the stall in funding is undermining counterterrorism personnel and local law enforcement’s ability to prepare for the event (The Athletic).
Beyond funding deficiencies, the United States’ and Israel’s ongoing war with Iran has further complicated American intelligence and counterterrorism personnel’s preparatory task for the World Cup. Since the outbreak of hostilities in late February, several lone actors have carried out violent attacks throughout the United States, the motives of which are still being investigated (NY Times 3). Less than 24 hours after the United States carried out its preliminary strikes on Iran, Ndiaga Diagne, a naturalized American citizen originally from Senegal, killed three people near a bar in Austin, Texas. While committing the attack, Diagne was seen wearing a T-shirt with the colors of the Iranian flag and a sweatshirt that read “Property of Allah” (NY Times 1). In another incident several weeks later, a man drove his truck into a synagogue near Detroit, where he exchanged gunfire with security officers before being killed (NY Times 2). The perpetrator was 41-year-old Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, another naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Lebanon. Ghazali had lost several family members following an Israeli airstrike on the Lebanese town of Mashgharah in early March (NY Times 2).
In addition to lone-attacker violence, officials have also repeatedly referred to the threat of Iranian “sleeper cells” in both the United States and Canada (NY Times 3). According to counterterrorism expert Shannon Nash, these cells are essentially covert agents acting on behalf of the Iranian government who embed themselves within society until they are called upon to act (CBC). However, counterterrorism experts are still actively debating the degree of risk that an Iranian-directed sleeper cell attack poses to the United States. Some experts have pointed out the lack of large-scale terrorist attacks carried out against the United States since Sept. 11 and that law enforcement and counterterrorism personnel have developed the capacity to identify and foil coordinated plots (NY Times 3).
The looming concern over terrorism at the upcoming World Cup also reflects a broader relationship between political violence and mega-sporting events, as pointed out in a journal article by Jan Andre Lee Ludvigsen, which considers security arrangements for the 2018 World Cup in Russia (Soccer and Society). Ludvigsen argues that terrorism, when successfully executed, represents a symbolic and political embarrassment for a host city or nation, while event organizers, such as the United States in this case, seek to promote their image through the event. In this way, mega-sporting events such as the World Cup provide terrorists with the opportunity to exact significant cost upon the entity from whom they seek political concessions (Soccer and Society). Additionally, in regard to the 2018 World Cup, Ludvigsen referenced public perceptions of Russia as an aggressive foreign policy actor — due to their involvement in the Syrian Civil War and annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 — as a leading factor in concerns over the threat of terrorism to the event (Soccer and Society). Comparatively, the United States’ ongoing war with Iran and recent intervention in Venezuela, in conjunction with President Donald Trump’s aggressive rhetoric towards Cuba, Greenland, and Canada, has run the risk of casting the United States in a similar light and motivating terrorists to act (NY Times 4).
While experts disagree on the extent of the threat that terrorism poses to the upcoming World Cup, there is a consensus that the United States must be adequately prepared to respond to any threat (NY Times 3). However, the current lack of funding for DHS is reportedly undermining law enforcement and counterterrorism personnel’s ability to do so (The Athletic). Furthermore, the United States faces a complicated array of potential perpetrators, whether it be lone attackers or Iranian-directed actors, within an international environment that possesses hostile attitudes towards recent American foreign policy actions (NY Times 2 & 4).
References
The Athletic. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7074686/2026/02/27/world-cup-usa-government-dhs-fema-noem-trump/
CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/investigates/iran-war-sleeper-cells-risk-intelligence-experts-9.7138536
FIFA. https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026
NY Times 1. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/us/austin-shooting-investigation.html
NY Times 2. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/us/michigan-synagogue-shooting-temple-israel.html
NY Times 3. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/14/us/iran-us-attacks-terrorism-michigan-old-dominion.html
NYTimes 4. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/us/politics/trump-rubio-foreign-policy-empire.html
Soccer and Society. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14660970.2018.1487841#abstract