US President Donald Trump has threatened to move the 2026 FIFA World Cup matches to be played in the Boston suburbs next year after suggesting parts of the city had been «taken over» by unrest.
Foxborough, Massachusetts, home of the NFL’s New England Patriots and about 30 miles from Boston, will host games while the U.S. joins Mexico and Canada to host the tournament. Trump was asked about Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, a Democrat he called «intelligent» but «radical left.»
«We could take them away. I love the people of Boston, and I know the games are sold out. But your mayor is no good,» Trump said.
On Wednesday he repeated these threats.
Trump has previously suggested he could declare cities «not safe» for the 104-match soccer tournament and change a detailed hosting plan that FIFA confirmed in 2022. It includes games at NFL stadiums near New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Can Donald Trump move the games out of Boston?
The host locations for the World Cup are not up to Trump. The 11 U.S. cities — plus three in Mexico and two in Canada — have signed a contract with FIFA, which would face significant logistical and legal challenges if changes were made in the eight months before the June 11 kickoff.
«It’s FIFA’s tournament, FIFA’s jurisdiction, FIFA makes those decisions,» the football body’s vice-president Victor Montagliani said at a sports conference in London earlier this month.
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Trump nevertheless said: “If someone is doing a bad job, and if I feel like there are unsafe conditions, I would call Gianni – the phenomenal head of FIFA – and I would say, ‘Let’s move to another location’ and they would do that.”
The president was referring to FIFA head Gianni Infantino, a close ally. Trump said Infantino “wouldn’t like to do it, but he would do it very easily.”
During a local podcast Wednesday, Wu wondered how Trump could take away the Games with less than a year to go. She said almost everything is already “contractually committed” so that no person “even if they currently live in the White House can undo this.”
«There is no way to take away the World Cup matches. There is no real threat in terms of saying that cities are so unsafe that they cannot host the matches,» Wu said.
Among the seven matches to be played at Gillette Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough are five group stage matches, one round of 16 match and a quarter-final match on July 9, 2026.
Published on October 16, 2025
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