California Lawmaker Proposes $5 Los Angeles ‘Metro Tax' on World Cup, Olympics Tickets
A California lawmaker wants those attending the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2028 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles to take the city's mass transit in an effort to curb road traffic.
California Assemblymember Tina McKinnor introduced a bill on Friday that would impose a $5 fee on official ticket purchases for these games. The fee — equal to the cost of an LA Metro day pass — would be transferred to the transit agency, and ticket purchasers would be able to use their event admission to access the system's buses and rail lines.
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Politico
15 hours ago
- Politico
Andrew Giuliani has a new job. It's a high stakes position in a global arena.
Mounting the world's largest sporting event is never easy. But the task of planning the FIFA World Cup in the United States next summer has grown more complicated by President Donald Trump's border crackdown and contentious relationship with co-hosts Canada and Mexico. The job of coordinating the federal government's role has fallen to Andrew Giuliani, the son of former New York City Mayor and one-time Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. As a special assistant to the president, Andrew Giuliani served as a sports liaison during the first Trump administration and helped facilitate the reopening of U.S. professional sports leagues following the COVID-19 shutdown. But as head of the White House's FIFA World Cup 2026 Task Force, Andrew Giuliani — who returned to the Trump administration after a failed bid to be New York's governor in 2022 — now has a much larger challenge. Immediately ahead of him is the Club World Cup, another FIFA-run tournament that will kick off next weekend and which soccer's international governing body is using as a test run for the much larger, more logistically complicated World Cup. It will be followed by other high-profile sporting competitions on American soil, including the summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028 and the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2031, which Mexico will also co-host. 'If these are safe and secure games,' the 39-year-old former pro golfer said in an interview this week, 'then they're going to be successful games.' But even straightforward logistical questions that Giuliani faces, like how to expedite visa applications for players, fans and media, are fraught with geopolitical complexity: the first non-host country to qualify a team for next summer's tournament is Iran. (The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.) What do you say to those abroad wondering if they can or should travel to the United States given what they see from the administration's border policy? I would simply say: You're welcome here. If you apply early for your visa, if you qualify, then we want to have you here for the World Cup. President Trump has made it very clear that if you're going to come here to celebrate a great event like the World Cup, or America 250, we want you to come. If you're going to come here to cause trouble, then you're not welcome here. What I can tell you is we're going to be working hard on the back end to make sure that you have the opportunity to enjoy these games in person. What does that entail? The State Department has already seen a major reduction in times at some of these countries that were considered problem countries at the end of the Biden presidency. So I think you're going to see a real reduction in visa times. While we're not going to sacrifice our national security, we're going to make sure that the State Department has the resources that they need to process the visas to make the World Cup truly great from an American perspective — an America welcoming-the-world perspective. That language seems hard to reconcile with what this administration is actually doing immigration and trade. In my understanding of it, the President's America First mentality has never been America Only. So what exactly is the role of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Task Force? First and foremost, we're not recreating any federal agency. You look at our task force members, and whether it's the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, Treasury, Commerce, FBI, DOJ, whoever it may be, we're not recreating their department here. What we're doing — to use a different football reference — is we're going to be lead blockers for them to make sure that we end up allowing them to coordinate to the point where we can maximize their strengths and to make sure we're efficient in getting through many of the roadblocks that exist in government. This task force should have been started three years ago, and we're playing catch-up. And that's right, there's a whole lot of work between now and really the Club World Cup, which was written into the executive order as a responsibility, but certainly with the World Cup in 2026, as well. Why do you think you were picked to run it? In 2020 a couple weeks into the shutdown — as we were getting into the great reopening of America — the President wanted to make sure that we could get our sports leagues open. And he tasked me, along with White House counsel and the State Department, to create a system to get our athletes and personnel in. And we were able to get nearly 15,000 athletes and support staff in at a time when it was very difficult. This will be more like 350,000 credentialed personnel — and you have ticket holders, and then we have potential fans here. But I can tell you already, we've set up a working group between FIFA, the State Department and the White House task force that works daily on recent issues for this Club World Cup. Soccer is known for its notoriously rowdy and sometimes violent fans. The last European final, in 2021, was marred by hundreds of ticketless fans storming Wembley Stadium in London. What can you do to prepare for that scenario? I'll give you a more recent example — 2024 in Copa América in Miami. This was a week after [the attempted assassination of Trump in] Butler. It was right at the end of the Republican convention. You had ticketless fans that basically stormed the gates at Hard Rock Stadium, and it took everything to get them off the field. So there have been security breakdowns as recently as last year. That's why for us, the focus is on making these games as safe and secure as humanly possible. That's where we've been focusing our energy. We've put together working groups with DHS, DOD, with our state and local partners. Already, we've done security briefs with nine of the 11 host cities for the Club World Cup games — we're going to be scheduling those other two — to look at their external security posture, their pitch protection, where we're looking at the pyrotechnics, and trying to make sure that the laws are enforced here. Are you prepared for the Club World Cup this year from a security standpoint? There is a different security posture with the Club World Cup versus the World Cup. For the Club World Cup — SEAR (Special Event Assessment Rating) level three and four events — there is no federal coordination team, the responsibility is on the state and locals and on the security of the stadiums for that. With that being said, we still are looking at the security posture, trying to see if there are holes that we can plug, of which we've done a few already and which we're continuing to do. Next year, that is when you will have the SEAR level one and level two events where you'll have federal coordination teams. Perimeters will be pushed out. You'll see some of that being tested already, which FIFA and some of the stadiums have agreed to for the Club World Cup. There will likely be fans crossing the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada to see matches. Are you coordinating with law enforcement in those countries? We're going to get to that with Canada and Mexico. We had some engagement with them, as well. I think right now my five meter target, if you will, is the Club World Cup, making sure those go off safely and securely. Then I think we start to look kind of more at our engagements with Canada and Mexico after the Club World Cup ends in the middle of July, The 11 American cities that will host matches are counting on federal money to support their security needs around next year's tournament. There's $600 million for that in the reconciliation bill. Are you concerned about whether that money will reach host cities in time? Look, anybody who has a fiscal ask wants their money yesterday, right? I certainly think it works fine. The only other time the United States hosted the men's tournament was in 1994. Do you have any memory of that? I remember going with my father and mother. I think it was my father's first year in office. I remember how hot it was. America is my team, but being part Italian, my second team is Italy, and I got the opportunity to go to an Italy-Ireland game in which Ireland upset Italy. It was a big thing in New York, as you can imagine, with so many Italian and Irish Americans that live in the greater New York area. So that was an incredible moment. And I remember going to the semifinal game where Italy ended up winning and advancing to the final. Obviously the U.S. had an amazing run to get to the knockout stage, which really put U.S. soccer on the map and was the start of the creation of Major League Soccer. And then obviously the women winning in 1999 — the first opportunity here for U.S. soccer to take off. And that's how I kind of look at 2026 and 2031 here — as that next opportunity to launch U.S. soccer even further globally.
Business Upturn
a day ago
- Business Upturn
Is Lionel Messi coming to India in 2025? Everything you need to know
By Aman Shukla Published on June 8, 2025, 09:40 IST Lionel Messi, the global football icon and captain of the Argentina national team, has been the subject of intense speculation regarding a potential visit to India in 2025. Fans across the country are buzzing with excitement, but conflicting reports have left many wondering whether the dream of seeing the FIFA World Cup champion play on Indian soil will become a reality. This article dives into the latest updates and everything you need to know about Messi's possible visit to India in 2025. The Buzz Around Messi's India Visit In November 2024, Kerala Sports Minister V. Abdurahiman announced that Lionel Messi and the Argentina national football team would visit Kerala in 2025 to play two international friendly matches, with at least one fixture expected in Kochi. This news sent waves of excitement through India's football community, with fans eagerly anticipating the chance to see the legendary player in action. The announcement was further fueled by posts on X, with users like @CricCrazyJohns and @breathMessi21 sharing the news in March 2025, confirming an exhibition match scheduled for October 2025. However, doubts emerged in May 2025 when reports surfaced that the visit might be canceled due to funding issues. Organizers reportedly struggled to raise the ₹100 crore needed to host the reigning FIFA World Cup champions. Despite these setbacks, recent developments have reignited hope, with the Kerala Sports Minister providing fresh updates on the status of the visit. Latest Updates on Messi's Kerala Visit On June 7, 2025, Kerala Sports Minister V. Abdurahiman reaffirmed that the Argentina national team, led by Lionel Messi, is set to visit Kerala for a friendly match in October or November 2025. The minister's announcement came after resolving earlier financial hurdles, with the match fee payment now cleared and the government prepared to host the team as state guests. Aman Shukla is a post-graduate in mass communication . A media enthusiast who has a strong hold on communication ,content writing and copy writing. Aman is currently working as journalist at
Fox Sports
a day ago
- Fox Sports
Could Mauricio Pochettino leave USMNT for Tottenham?: 'It's not realistic'
EAST HARTFORD, Conn. — Since Europa League winners Tottenham Hotspur made the decision to sack their manager, Ange Postecoglou, earlier this week, United States men's national team coach Mauricio Pochettino has been linked to a return to North London, where he managed from 2014 to 2019. But the Argentine manager made it clear on Saturday that he's committed to the United States, while acknowledging the rumors surrounding his future. "After I left in 2019, every time that I was free, and the place of the position of the manager or head coach in Tottenham Hotspur, my name is appearing on the list," Pochettino said following the United States' 2-1 loss to Turkey at Rentschler Field. "If you have seen the rumors, I think there are 100 coaches in the list. I think, don't be worried about that. "If something happened, you for sure you will see, but we cannot talk about this type of thing, because I think today, it's not real. It's not realistic. And look at where I am, where we are. And the thing is, the answer is so clear, no? But we're talking about it because it's my club, like Newells or Espanyol." Pochettino signed a two-year contract with the United States men's national team in September. He's expected to lead the USMNT at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The USMNT have lost their last three matches under Pochettino. He's the first manager to drop three straight matches since Jürgen Klinsmann in 2015. The United States will play its final pre-Gold Cup exhibition match on Tuesday against Switzerland. Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports who has covered United States men's and women's national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him @ ByDougMcIntyre . recommended Get more from United States Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
