Politics
Why FIFA is putting down roots in Miami
When the men’s World Cup winds down next week, FIFA isn’t packing it all up and heading back to Zurich.
Instead, the global soccer governing body will keep open the Miami office that it has used as an American political headquarters as it looks to expand its presence in the western hemisphere.
The strategy marks a significant shift in how FIFA has approached major tournaments. Rather than relying on a local organizing structure that dissolves after the final whistle, officials say the organization intends to retain the institutional knowledge assembled in South Florida and deploy it for the next wave of competitions.
“The whole idea was to bring 50 people from Zurich, who have the necessary experience and breadth who’ve done other World Cups and they became the nucleus of Miami and they hired people,” a senior FIFA adviser, granted anonymity to describe internal strategy, said earlier this year. “That’s a model that we intend to use for future World Cups.”
FIFA first opened its Miami office in 2023, but the operation has since ballooned into 700-plus full-time staff. During the tournament, it has functioned as organization’s nerve center and base for senior officials, including FIFA Secretary General Heimo Schirgi.
The Miami team will soon pivot toward FIFA’s next slate of marquee events. Brazil will host the Women’s World Cup next year, and FIFA will help to manage the soccer portion of the LA28 Olympics, which will include qualifying matches across the United States. And while Spain, Portugal and Morocco will serve as the primary hosts of the 2030 men’s World Cup, Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay will each stage one opening match to commemorate the tournament’s centennial.
Just a year later, the United States is expected to host the 2031 women’s World Cup, giving FIFA another major event on American soil.
The organization hopes the staff, relationships and expertise developed during the largest World Cup in history can become a lasting asset as North America increasingly becomes one of the sport’s most important markets.
For all theFIFA promotion of the World Cup’s arrival in Miami — think downtown skylines, Latin music and speedboats on Biscayne Bay — today’s quarterfinal match between Norway and England this afternoon will not, in fact, take place along the azure waters of Miami proper.
Instead, star strikers Erling Haaland and Harry Kane will duel this evening in an inland, now-suburban stadium that was once a sandy tract of land where locals would take weekend dirtbike joyrides and come to dump their trash.
The city of Miami Gardens, a predominantly Black community of 114,000 about 15 miles northeast of downtown Miami, is the true host of Florida’s World Cup experience. Since the tournament began, the city has hosted five matches at what has temporarily been rebranded Miami Stadium, with a third-place match next Saturday still to come.
As with many sporting venues in the United States, Miami Stadium was never built to be accessible to a central, walkable, downtown urban core. Instead, the site was chosen by Miami Dolphins owner Joe Robbie in 1984 as a low-income, rural and then-unincorporated alternative to the city of Miami, which wanted to raise rent on the NFL team’s stadium. Instead, Robbie signed a 99-year lease with Dade County for the stadium site, paying $1 a year.
At the time, the local populace was little enthused about the prospect of welcoming a $100 million pro sports stadium in its backyard. Despite a civil rights lawsuit from local homeowners, many of whom were Black, by 1987 the stadium opened to the public.
Nearly 40 years later, that stadium is now a major economic engine for Miami Gardens, which incorporated in 2003. The city, never a glamour destination in the region, is now host to one of the world’s largest sporting events. The Oxford Economics Company’s Tourism Economics Event Impact Calculator predicted that the World Cup would generate about $650 million in economic activity, spread across South Florida, a number that may have been optimistic.
But local leaders are hoping there are intangible benefits for a city too easily confused with its much bigger neighbor.
“It will give us an opportunity to sell our story and the city of Miami Gardens,” Mayor Rodney Harris said in a promotional video for the World Cup. “We want them to come back and visit us after FIFA is all gone … open up a business here in Miami Gardens.”
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