The plan looked set. Reports had Las Vegas, and possibly The Sphere, as the front-runner to host the 2026 World Cup final draw on December 5. Then Gianni Infantino walked into the Oval Office, the World Cup trophy in tow, and the venue changed with a presidential flourish. The draw is now booked for the Kennedy Center in Washington.
For weeks, Vegas had the buzz. Entertainment reporters and soccer outlets pointed to The Sphere’s immersive screen as the natural backdrop. The catch became impossible to ignore, a previously scheduled Zac Brown Band residency opens there on December 5. Sphere and resort materials confirm the conflict, which helped push FIFA toward a different stage entirely.
Infantino and President Donald Trump made the new plan public at the White House. Trump called the World Cup draw “the biggest, probably the biggest event in sports, I guess.” Infantino, selling scale as he often does, said there will be “104 matches in one month,” a line that Trump rode into his own comparison, “It’s like having many Super Bowls in a short period of time.” He added that Washington would be “very safe” by December.
What the move says about FIFA’s priorities
You can read this as logistics. D.C. is simpler to secure, and the Kennedy Center can stage a global TV show with government muscle nearby. But it also reads as optics. Washington is not a host city for 2026, yet it now gets the draw. The Oval Office reveal, complete with the trophy and a keepsake final ticket for the president, underscored who sits at the heart of the show.
The moment turned viral because of the lines and images. Infantino repeated the familiar superstition that the trophy is “for winners only,” then added, “since you are a winner, of course you can as well.” Trump obliged. “It’s pretty heavy,” he said, then admired it as “a beautiful piece of gold,” and joked about where it might hang in the office. Those beats fed the memes, and they sharpened the impression that this draw will be as much about stage-managed politics as the ceremony itself.
Context helps here. Final draws have landed in capitals before, but the presence and prominence of a head of state varies. Russia staged its 2018 draw inside the Kremlin, a show of national power. The United States took the opposite route in 1993, putting its draw in Las Vegas with Stevie Wonder among the performers. D.C. in 2025 splits the difference, culture hall meets power corridor, with an American president eager to appear on stage.
There are practical upsides. FIFA plans a noon Eastern start and has indicated a ticket allocation process that includes fans from host cities. The Kennedy Center’s production pedigree will deliver the sheen. Yet the choice also locks in a narrative through December. If the World Cup’s opening act is supposed to feel like a communal kickoff, Washington’s version will arrive with baggage, earned in an Oval Office reveal that made politics part of the script.
Las Vegas offered spectacle. Washington offers symbolism. FIFA chose the latter, with Infantino and Trump aligned on a show that places the world’s biggest tournament beside American political power. The sport will still own the night once the pots open. Getting there, though, required a U-turn that says a lot about who gets to hold the stage.
