Security planners brace for threats as millions head to 11 US World Cup cities

Andrew Giuliani, head of the The White House Task Force on the FIFA World Cup 2026, speaks to the press during a briefing, Thursday, June 4, 2026, in Miami, about security for the World Cup soccer tournament. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Millions of soccer fans are expected to gather in 11 U.S. cities for the World Cup , and security planners have been coordinating with state, local and federal law enforcement agencies to monitor unprecedented security threats.

“This is not just one national or one continental event,” said Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the White House Task Force on the World Cup. “For us in the United States, these are 11 regional events. And so we rely on the expertise of law enforcement in these areas to also understand the intricacies of this and come in with federal resources.”

The expanded tournament kicking off next week will include 48 teams, 104 matches and three host nations. Giuliani spoke Thursday at a World Cup kickoff event about the security challenges of preparing for an event of this magnitude, from monitoring trends across states to heat mitigation.

“We also want to make sure that we’re not siloing off Miami from Seattle,” Giuliani said, “because if a beat cop is seeing something in Miami Beach, let’s say, or in Miami downtown, that somebody in Seattle is also seeing, we need to make sure that we are deconflicting that information if there’s more of a trend that could be threatening to our other host cities. So that’s where the complexity of this lies.”