Barcelona game is postponed after a member of their medical staff dies

NEW YORK: President Donald Trump created a task force Friday to prepare for the 2026 World Cup, which will bring the globe’s premier soccer tournament to North America at a time when his on-again, off-again tariffs have ratcheted up tensions across the continent.

“I think it’s going to make it more exciting,” Trump said of playing the World Cup amid sharp rhetoric between leaders of the host nations. “Tension’s a good thing.”

The task force, which Trump will chair, will coordinate the federal government’s security and planning for the tournament, which is expected to draw millions of tourists to the US, Canada and Mexico.

“It’s a great honor for our country to have it,” Trump said of the World Cup after meeting with officials from FIFA, the international soccer governing body. He said he’d like to attend multiple games.

Preparations are ramping up across the continent alongside tensions between the US and its neighbors as Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose tariffs before backing off, spooking markets and leading to fears of a trade war and economic downturn. He also speaks pejoratively of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and muses about Canada becoming a US state, which has boosted national pride north of the border.

For 2026, the World Cup will expand to 48 teams playing 104 matches across three nations, the first time the tournament will be split between countries. Seventy-eight of 104 matches will be played in the US, with 13 games each in Mexico and Canada, and as many as six matches a day. The final will be played July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino said the task force will ensure that each of the visitors who will travel from around the world “feels safe, feels happy and feels that we are doing something special.”

“So we’re here to create and to make the best show on the planet ever,” Infantino said. He gave Trump a personalized game ball and unveiled an elaborate trophy that will go to the winner of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, which will pit top soccer clubs against each other this summer ahead of next year’s matchup of national teams.

Trump later brought Infantino to show off the trophy at the start of a White House cryptocurrency summit. The US, where soccer has grown in popularity but remains a niche sport, represents a major growth area for soccer, he said.

Infantino likened producing the World Cup to holding three Super Bowls daily for a month, a dizzying security and logistical challenge for the host governments.

The Trump administration will face a second test on the global sports stage in 2028, when the summer Olympics will be held in California, the first time the Games will have been in the US since Salt Lake City hosted in 2002.