The contracts impact billions of dollars in public spending, affecting everything from policing and transit to infrastructure and tax exemptions for one of the world’s richest sporting organizations. Yet most cities have gone out of their way to keep them hidden from view.
The Host City Agreements generated by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), contracts that all 2026 World Cup host cities have been required to sign, regulate almost every aspect of the marquee soccer tournament being played on Canadian soil for the first time next month. These agreements, written by FIFA’s lawyers and often signed with minimal public debate by municipal, provincial and federal governments, help explain how this lucrative sporting tournament manages to be fabulously profitable and remarkably low‑risk – at least for FIFA.
We are going to be ripped off as usual.
