2026 FIFA World Cup Threat Landscape Briefing

With 16 host cities across three countries, millions of fans, and large-scale public gatherings, the 2026 FIFA World Cup presents a highly distributed and complex security environment.

Protests, crowd movement, infrastructure strain, and cross-border travel create consistent pressure points that can be exploited by both opportunistic and more sophisticated threat actors.

While risk will concentrate in predictable areas such as transit hubs, fan zones, and surrounding districts, additional threat vectors are emerging across the broader event footprint.

This session breaks down where those gaps are emerging and what security teams should be tracking now to avoid being reactive during the event.

We’ll cover:

• Where to expect pressure on operations: How protests, crime, and crowd dynamics are likely to materialize across host cities.
• How localized issues turn into wider disruptions: What to watch for when incidents in transit, public spaces, or surrounding infrastructure begin to impact broader operations.
• Which environments carry the most exposure: Where physical security teams should focus outside the perimeter, including fan zones, hospitality areas, and transit corridors.