While the “expectation of many involved in next summer’s World Cup plans had been that the competition’s draw would take place in Las Vegas,” but FIFA President Gianni Infantino “wanted to ensure it would be easy for [President Donald] Trump to participate in the draw, if he wished,” according to Adam Crafton of THE ATHLETIC. Trump announced on Friday that the World Cup draw will take place at the Kennedy Center. The venue was “suggested by Trump’s administration, and Infantino fell into line, despite numerous FIFA officials preferring Las Vegas.” Over the last few months, negotiations with venues in Las Vegas “advanced, and the direction of travel was such that the U.S. Soccer Federation even reserved an events space and hotel rooms as they sought to host a soccer-specific conference around the draw, when many key stakeholders were expected to be in the city.” The plans “were so advanced that save-the-date messages were sent to key personnel.” FIFA “held extensive negotiations with the 17,000-seat MGM Grand Garden Arena, and a deal was close in May, only for FIFA to stall for several months while weighing up its options.” On Friday morning, MGM was “thanked by FIFA for its part in the process, and they were disappointed, to put it mildly, at the outcome.” There are “multiple host city committees in the U.S.” that are “exasperated by FIFA’s decision.” Earlier this summer, FIFA also “opened an office in Trump Tower” in N.Y., “choosing it instead of other office space it had considered in the Empire State Building” (THE ATHLETIC, 8/23).
