When the 2026 FIFA World Cup begins in June 2026, the action won’t just be on the field. Behind the scenes, a massive medical and emergency management network will be working tirelessly to ensure the safety of athletes, team and stadium staff, officials, and spectators at more than 600 sites across 16 cities in three countries.

To dig into this complex and unprecedented activation, ACEP hosted “World Cup Medical Preparations,” a webinar led by Jeffrey Luk, MD, FACEP, Chair of the ACEP Event Medicine Section last February.

Dr. Luk was joined by a panel of experts, including G.B. Jones, chief safety and security officer for the FIFA World Cup 2026 and former unit chief of the FBI Special Events Management Unit; Eric Ossmann, MD, director of medical administration for the FIFA World Cup 2026 and emergency physician with nearly two decades of experience in disaster medicine; and Ed Klima, director of safety and emergency preparedness for the FIFA World Cup 2026 and certified emergency manager with more than 25 years of experience in special events like the Super Bowl.

Securing the Biggest World Cup in History

Mr. Jones

The 2026 World Cup will be the biggest in history, with 48 teams playing 104 matches. “This is the opportunity of a lifetime for those of us that are in major special event planning,” said Jones, “and we’re having just a great time doing it.”

With more than three billion viewers anticipated to tune in, the team at FIFA knows the world will be watching.

“To ensure that everyone was consistently applying the protocols and doing the work that needed to be done, we created several different working groups,” Jones explained.

Each of the participating countries has a FIFA executive director for Safety and Security, with four additional regional directors in the United States. Jones and his team conducted interviews with each host city to identify key focus areas with aligned strategic objectives. 

“That became our foundational safety and security concept that will help us deliver the World Cup: 18 areas of planning focus, times 16 host cities, all following a consistent framework to create this model that will lead to consistent delivery of tournament operations across the entire safety and security enterprise,” said Jones.

The FIFA World Cup Medical Program

FIFA’s vision for the World Cup Medical Program is three-fold: to make it a medically safe environment for all FIFA constituents, provide world-class medical services, and be ready for any potential risks. This requires the medical team to work closely with medical professionals in each host city.

Dr. Ossman

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a player or a coach, a high-ranking FIFA official, or a spectator, or a member of the press. You should receive world-class, internationally benchmarked medical services at every tournament site,” Dr. Ossmann said.

For more than a year, his team has been working to develop a network with local hospitals, identifying local health care resources and building relationships with local specialists to ensure they know exactly who to call in the event of a medical emergency.

The FIFA Medical Program adopted a “centrally governed but locally implemented” governance philosophy, since every tournament site is unique. “You come across all these super interesting approaches and dynamic solutions that various cities have come up with to solve problems,” said Ossmann. Rather than disregard existing plans, Ossmann leveraged both central and local expertise, combining them to develop best practices that could be applied practically.

Emergency Physicians at Every Match

The medical team also developed tactical objectives for tournament sites to implement. One critical objective: having emergency physicians present at all 104 matches.

One will join the team required onsite, along with seven prehospital professionals and one doctor with experience working at professional soccer matches. Each site must also have a Player Medical Center staffed with an emergency physician and nurse, as well as several Medical Aid Stations where spectators can access physician-led care.

Practice Makes Perfect

The athletes aren’t the only people training for the big event. Every medical staff member who will be on site takes part in venue-specific simulations and drills. They are required to complete innovative training modules, which prepare them to locate and utilize equipment that is commonly needed in life-threatening emergencies, such as cardiac arrest, head injury, or spinal trauma.

Predicting Medical Emergencies

A major part of preparedness is predicting and planning for the many risks ahead.

Mr. Klima

“Approximately two years ago, we started looking at risks from an all-hazards perspective across 16 cities,” Klima shared. “You can imagine; 16 cities in three countries evaluate their risks differently.”

Klima noted that beyond the typical medical scenarios at a large sporting event, there must be considerations that span fan culture, geopolitics, language barriers, and more.

Specialized crowd management approaches include the use of pyrotechnics and potentially severe weather patterns. These preparations make it possible for participants to receive the care they need immediately, without straining local services. Klima said, “We should be treating as many people onsite as possible and really minimize transports to local health care facilities.”

Making it Count

In previous years, the available medical data was highly variable across the tournament. FIFA will be undertaking a first-of-its-kind data collection so that the professionals have information at their fingertips that could save lives.

“We’ll have consistent data across sites, and I think we will be able to make some reasonable inferences from the data set. That piece is incredibly exciting,” said Dr. Ossmann.

The opportunity to collaborate with emergency medical professionals from so many different places for a major sporting event is the opportunity of a lifetime.

“We’re learning as much as we’re teaching,” Dr. Ossmann said. “I think one of the greatest joys that I’ve had in the medical role for the tournament is the ability to be able to connect all these smart people together.”

Ms. Torres is a communications and marketing specialist at ACEP.