After months of back-and-forth over cost concerns, the Select Board in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on Tuesday officially granted the license for seven FIFA World Cup games to be held at Gillette Stadium.
The board voted unanimously to approve the license after Boston's host committee guaranteed the town would not be stuck paying nearly $8 million for the global tournament’s expensive security requirements.
The federal government was supposed to grant funds by the end of January, but the Department of Homeland Security said the current lapse in its funding has delayed its ability to disperse the grants.
The board members indicated at a meeting this month that they were not satisfied with the host committee's assurances that it would provide equipment and staffing required by the public safety plan by June 1, less than two weeks before the first World Cup game is set to be played.
“For us to do what the [Foxborough police and fire] chiefs need takes time, first of all for installation, for programming, for training,” Bill Yukna, the board’s chair, said at the time. “It takes time to get the materials.”
But the town of Foxborough said in a joint statement last week with host committee Boston Soccer 2026 and Kraft Sports + Entertainment that it had come to an understanding to grant the license.
It said that as part of the arrangement, the town "will not incur any cost or financial burden related to the FIFA World Cup." The host committee would provide advance funding with the backing of Kraft Sports + Entertainment.
Kraft Sports + Entertainment is part of the Kraft Group, which is the holding company led by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. The Kraft Group also owns and operates Gillette Stadium.
Attorneys representing the host committee assured the town's board Tuesday that the Kraft Group pledged to pay for any security costs if the government funding fell through.
Gary Ronan, an attorney for the host committee, said at the town's board meeting that it now has access to $1.5 million in an escrow account for police equipment and that staffing costs will be covered later through invoicing.
He said the town will also benefit from its share of ticket fees for the seven games.
"Those arrangements should take care of any financial considerations," Ronan said. "We're not cutting any corners here."
Yukna earlier thanked Kraft for helping resolve the standoff in a statement of his own last week.
Boston's first World Cup game will be June 13 between Scotland and Haiti, a highly anticipated event for both the Scots, whose team has not qualified for the tournament since 1998, and the Haitians, whose last appearance came in 1974.
Gillette Stadium's final World Cup game is a quarterfinal scheduled for July 9.
