Pam Bondi, Kash Patel meet with FIFA Prez to talk World Cup security in Miami

Just over two months before Miami-Dade hosts the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup’s kickoff match, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel met with the association’s top official to discuss security matters.

Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens will host 14 World Cup matches over the next two years. Half of them are FIFA Club World Cup matches pitting 32 of the top pro teams across the globe against one another, and half are FIFA World Cup games featuring national teams.

All invested parties are determined to ensure that the chaos erupted at the stadium during last year’s Copa América Final doesn’t happen again there or in any other U.S. state hosting games through 2026.

On Wednesday, FIFA posted online that Bondi and Patel met with FIFA President Gianni Infantino as preparations for the games continued.

Infantino thanked them, their respective teams and the World Cup organizing committee members for their “great collaborative spirit.”

“We are all looking forward to working together to ensure that the United States welcomes the world in 2025 and 2026 for a global celebration of football in peace and happiness!” he said.

While efforts are ongoing at the federal level to shore up any potential safety deficiencies across the country, there’s also work at the state level to do so in Florida. Last month, the House released its proposed budget for 2025, which contained a relatively small earmark — $500,000 — for Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz’s Office to cover extra security costs.

It was half the sum freshman Miami Republican Rep. Omar Blanco sought in a Feb. 13 appropriations request, which showed that Miami-Dade was planning to spend an extra $1 million on security measures.

Viral footage of the July 15, 2024, Copa América Final showed fans scaling the stadium’s walls, climbing into windows and the structure’s ventilation system to gain access, and getting arrested. A police officer told USA Today that at least 10-15 people were taken into custody.

Many others, including journalists, were detained or forcibly removed from the stadium, which fans significantly damaged.

International criticism of the event’s insufficient security swiftly followed. The Argentine newspaper, Ole, called the event a “party (that) almost became a tragedy.” Radio New Zealand described it as “a stunning scene from the home of the National Football League’s Miami Dolphins, which is used to welcoming massive crowds at sport’s biggest events, including the Super Bowl four years ago.”

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s Office said the Miami-Dade Police Department, since replaced by the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office (MDSO), assigned “over 500 officers” to handle the sellout crowd of more than 65,000 ticket holders and others who amassed outside the stadium. However, the Mayor’s Office also noted that security responsibilities for the event also fell to the Copa América organization CONMEBOL and “other law enforcement agencies.”

Blanco, a career first responder, believed more must be done. His request said the funding would “bolster law enforcement prevention and response while enforcing trespass into mass ticketed events” at Hard Rock Stadium and several other large-scale venues across the county, including LoanDepot Park, where the Miami Marlins play.

“MDSO expects increased costs for global events with enhanced safety/anti-terrorism needs,” the request said, noting that since the Copa América event, multiple lawsuits have been filed “regarding public safety concerns.”