Massachusetts has received more than $46 million in federal money for World Cup preparations, a long awaited windfall that will ease money woes plaguing the effort.
The state confirmed receiving the money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency late Wednesday. The infusion is part of a tranche of $625 million to support the 11 cities hosting World Cup matches this summer. It will help pay for security measures, including police and emergency response, operational exercises, background checks, and cybersecurity, FEMA said in a statment.
“This grant program provides valuable funding to host cities, helping them strengthen security operations and protect their communities,” Andrew Giuliani, Executive Director of the White House Task Force on the FIFA World Cup 2026, said in the FEMA statement.
Massachusetts officials were reviewing the grant and did not yet have specifics on how the money would be allocated, a spokesperson for Governor Maura Healey said Thursday morning.
World Cup games are scheduled across the United States, Canada, and Mexico over nearly five weeks this summer and are expected to draw about two million people to New England. Local preparations have involved both Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Massachusetts is scheduled to host seven games at Gillette Stadium, and preparations are already being hindered by money woes. Last week, Boston Soccer 26 — the local host committee with members close to Patriots owner Robert Kraft — appeared to not have the $170 million needed to host the event, according to reporting from the Boston Globe. The group announced earlier this month that it had just $2 million in the bank, though another $30 million was expected.
Foxborough held off on granting FIFA and the Kraft Group an entertainment license for months because they hadn’t paid $8 million up front. The delay threatened Massachusetts’ ability to host matches until it was resolved Tuesday.
The ongoing partial shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security delayed distribution of the funds, federal officials have said, but one Democrat in Congress, New Jersey’s Nellie Pou, has said the federal funds were already overdue when the shutdown began.
“DHS’s own notice of funding opportunity for this grant program listed the anticipated award date as ‘no later than January 30, 2026.’ Well before the funding impasse,” Pou wrote on the social media site X. “It’s time for DHS to do its job.”
Jason Laughlin can be reached at jason.laughlin@globe.com. Follow him @jasmlaughlin.
