FBI director says World Cup security deployment protected fans, cites "no significant criminal attacks"

The FBI director said the agency mounted what he called the largest single personnel deployment in its history to secure the 2026 World Cup in the United States, and he credited extensive rehearsals and interagency coordination for preventing major criminal incidents. "Thank God, and thankfully to the men and women of the FBI and our partners, we had no significant criminal attacks during this World Cup," he said.

The director said roughly 5,000 FBI personnel were committed to the operation: about 4,000 in the field and roughly 800 at headquarters, along with 59 Homeland Security Task Forces the speaker identified as part of the federal footprint. "We had been running reps and sets and practices and rehearsals leading up to the World Cup for the last 16, 17 months with our partners," he said, describing sustained preparations in the joint operations center.

He emphasized two domains the FBI monitored closely: cyberspace and airspace. The director told the audience the agency had conducted simulations for mass-casualty and violent-incident scenarios and planned which assets would respond, listing evidence-response teams, fixed-wing and rotary aircraft, and hostage-rescue or SWAT teams as capabilities that were considered during exercises.

On airspace enforcement, the director said the FBI "took down over 700" people or devices for FAA airspace violations and for failing to register drones; he described some as nuisances and others as criminal violators of aviation rules. He also said police from every participating country were co-located at a facility he called the IPCC, about 45 minutes west of Washington, D.C., to provide live threat reporting and local expertise.

The director credited coordination through a White House Task Force he said President Trump established and named Andrew Giuliani as part of that effort, saying the task force helped bring federal, state and local partners together under one roof to plan security operations. He said staffing decisions were made with "mathematical precision" based on venue profiles, attendance and the high-profile nature of particular matches.

Closing on a lighter note, the director pointed to social-media reports of fans enjoying venues and fan zones and cited an anecdote that some U.S. foods proved unexpectedly popular overseas. He thanked public- and private-sector partners and said the operation's outcome reflected the months of planning and interagency work.

The remarks were delivered as an account of the FBI's posture and actions during the tournament; the assertions above are drawn from the director's remarks and are presented as his statements rather than independently verified facts.