Why Washington, D.C., the U.S. capital, won’t host 2026 World Cup matches

On a mid-September afternoon in 2021, on a bus from downtown Washington, D.C., out to the area’s would-be World Cup stadium, the proverbial alarms began blaring.

Two dozen officials from FIFA and U.S. Soccer made the trip that day from meetings in D.C. to the stadium then known as FedEx Field in Landover, Md. And it was on that tour, amid a wave of visits to potential host cities for the 2026 World Cup, that Washington’s candidacy tumbled.

On the bus, officials grew wary of the stadium’s inconvenient location. “How are we not there yet?” one asked — perhaps with an expletive mixed in — according to another person present.

And then, after they examined the stadium’s suites, its technological capabilities and other amenities, they privately questioned whether it was fit for the World Cup.

In the tournament’s 96-year history, host countries have almost always staged games in their capitals. The only two previous hosts that didn’t, West Germany in 1974 (Bonn) and Japan in 2002 (Tokyo), had matches less than an hour away via car. Washington, D.C., therefore, seemed like an obvious choice for the 2026 World Cup when the U.S., Canada and Mexico bid for hosting rights back in 2018. It was one of five suggested semifinal sites. Years later, it was one of 17 finalists to host the 78 stateside matches. And earlier this year, it was selected to stage Friday’s World Cup draw. (Ottawa, the Canadian capital, had its hosting pitch rejected early in the bidding process.)

But D.C. was not among the 11 metro areas chosen in 2022 by FIFA to host matches. The primary reason, people close to the selection process explained to The Athletic, is that FedEx Field, now called Northwest Stadium, the rundown home of the NFL’s Washington Commanders, was among the least attractive of the 17 proposed stadiums — and its then-owner was unwilling to upgrade it.

FIFA’s unfavorable reviews led D.C. and Baltimore, 40 miles northeast, to combine their bids and pitch an awkward arrangement: D.C. would headline the bid and host fan events, while Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium would host games. On the eve of FIFA’s selection show in June of 2022, the joint bid, despite inherent flaws, was still considered a strong contender.

But it seemingly lost out to a Boston bid backed by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, a longtime soccer supporter who was quietly influential in bringing the 2026 World Cup to North America, and who’d built a personal relationship with FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

Infantino and FIFA never fully explained the decision. When asked in 2022 why D.C. hadn’t been selected, then-World Cup chief Colin Smith said that the process had been “incredibly competitive.”

“This was a very, very difficult choice,” Smith added. Then he acknowledged: “It’s hard to imagine — in fact, you can’t imagine a World Cup coming to the U.S. and the capital city not taking a major role.” He floated the possibility of “a fan fest on the National Mall,” and Infantino interjected moments later to say there would be one.

But three-and-a-half years later, no such plans have been announced; the bid’s official web domain, DC2026.org, has been overtaken by bland World Cup info that directs readers to a British sportsbetting site; and after the draw, beyond one potential base camp, D.C., the so-called “Capital of the Free World,” won’t have a part to play in the tournament.

Gianni Infantino and the World Cup trophy have spent plenty of time in Washington, D.C., but 2026 World Cup games are nowhere to be found in the U.S. capital. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP / Getty Images)

A natural host with an imperfect stadium situation

With over 6 million residents, encompassing wealthy suburbs and culturally rich immigrant communities, the Washington region would have been a natural choice for the World Cup.

The DMV, as the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia region is known, also boasts a deep connection with soccer. It hosted games at the 1994 World Cup and the 1999 and 2003 Women’s World Cups. It’s been home to D.C. United since Major League Soccer’s inception, and to multiple women’s professional soccer clubs. It regularly ranks at or near the top of market-by-market TV ratings for English Premier League matches on NBC networks. It supports a franchise in every major U.S. pro sports league.

All of that, plus tourist attractions and D.C.’s status as the nation’s capital and a geopolitical hub, left the city “in very good stead,” Smith indicated on the Sept. 19, 2021, visit to the region. On that Sunday morning, he and the FIFA delegation, which included FIFA’s Canadian vice president Victor Montagliani, met with city officials and bid leaders. Most of the presentation, The Washington Post reported, was well-received.

But there was one elephant in the room. Neither Audi Field, a 20,000-seat MLS venue; nor RFK Stadium, the 1960s NFL stadium that lost its last tenant in 2017; nor any other stadium in D.C. proper was capable of staging World Cup matches.

Spain players celebrate a win over Switzerland at RFK Stadium in the 1994 World Cup. (Shaun Botterill / Getty Images)

The only realistic option, then, was FedEx Field. Built in the 1990s, it was the third-oldest of the 17 stateside World Cup candidates. And in 2021, perhaps more so than ever before, it was riddled with problems.

The week before FIFA’s visit, during an NFL game, a pipe burst, and murky water flooded down on fans.

Two months later, again during a game, more water — reportedly from a malfunctioning sprinkler system — soaked a luxury suite.

Several weeks after that, a barrier collapsed, and fans tumbled to the ground, nearly crashing into Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts.

All the while, longstanding frustrations with traffic — exacerbated by the stadium’s placement in Landover, a nondescript D.C. suburb — continued to irritate fans. And Dan Snyder, then-owner of the Washington Football Team and FedEx Field, was embroiled in multiple scandals. Snyder, according to multiple people close to the World Cup bid, seemed unwilling to spend millions of dollars on improvements — some of them permanent, some of them temporary and FIFA-mandated — to a stadium that was likely near the end of its shelf life.

Over the four years since, Snyder, under immense pressure from NFL colleagues and the public, sold the team and stadium; and the team, rebranded as the Washington Commanders, struck a deal with D.C. to build a new multibillion-dollar stadium in the city.

But that stadium won’t open until 2030. And back in 2021, although the team was already exploring future stadium plans, D.C. World Cup bid officials squashed any suggestions that a new stadium could be ready for 2026, according to people familiar with the process.

Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium has hosted a number of soccer matches, including this 2012 preseason friendly between Liverpool and Tottenham. (John Powell / Liverpool FC / Getty Images)

So, in April 2022, based on feedback from FIFA, D.C. merged its bid with Baltimore’s. It essentially ditched FedEx Field, maintained its capital city cachet, and partnered with Baltimore’s near-downtown NFL stadium — which FIFA officials had visited hours after their tour of FedEx Field in September 2021. They’d attended a primetime Baltimore Ravens game — a dramatic 36-35 win over the Kansas City Chiefs — and loved it. It had been “a magical evening for the Ravens and it was a great experience for us to see the stadium live and in action,” Montagliani said the following morning.

The joint bid, of course, was somewhat unwieldy. It was politically complicated and geographically inferior — the drive from D.C.’s National Mall to Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium takes more than an hour, potentially twice as long as the trip to Landover. One person close to the bid, in retrospect, describes it as a “Hail Mary.”

But the merger never would have happened, multiple people close to the process told The Athletic, if the joint bid wasn’t appealing to FIFA.

“Feedback from FIFA and U.S. Soccer is very clear,” Greg O’Dell, the then-CEO of Events DC, told The Washington Post at the time. “They want [D.C.] to be part of the [World Cup] experience.”

Plight for old D.C.

What changed between then and June 16, 2022, when FIFA chose 16 host cities — 11 in the U.S., three in Mexico and two in Canada?

The simple answer is that there were 12 good U.S. options.

The widespread assumption, then and now, is that relationships and private conversations played a role as FIFA chose 11.

Boston, a smaller northeastern city that welcomes fewer visitors annually than D.C., also put forth an imperfect bid. There were reportedly questions surrounding public funding. More importantly, the proposed site for games, Gillette Stadium, is around 25 miles southwest of downtown Boston. On some days, at some times, the drive is longer than the one from D.C. to Baltimore.

Gillette Stadium, though, is owned by Kraft, one of the most influential billionaires in modern American sports. A native Bostonian, he bought his boyhood NFL team, the New England Patriots, in 1994, and two years later became a founding member of MLS. He was one of three owners who saved MLS from dissolution in 2001. He maintained ties with numerous leaders in American soccer, and when the U.S., Canada and Mexico set out to host the 2026 World Cup, they named Kraft honorary chairman of the bid.

Robert Kraft and Gianni Infantino walk the field at MetLife Stadium in September 2021. (Elsa / Getty Images)

In 2017 and 2018, Kraft also helped connect U.S. Soccer officials with President Donald Trump’s White House. Along the way, he built a relationship with Infantino, who in 2016 had been elected FIFA president. And on Sept. 19, 2021, the same day FIFA officials toured Washington and Baltimore, Infantino was photographed at a Patriots-New York Jets game in New Jersey; by his side, as they walked off the field at MetLife Stadium, was Kraft.

Nine months later, as FIFA’s decision neared, D.C. officials organized a watch party, and planned a celebration. When FIFA chose Boston and Philadelphia — along with New York-New Jersey, Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, San Francisco, Seattle and Kansas City — but not D.C.-Baltimore, many who’d gathered at Penn Social, a downtown bar, were stunned.

“I’m very surprised,” Mark Ein, a co-chair of D.C.’s World Cup advisory committee, said that night. “Once we got the deal with Baltimore, so we had the national fan festival on the National Mall and the stadium in Baltimore, we all thought that would carry the day. And the history of soccer in Washington is very compelling. There is just a lot of shock.”