I think the U. S., Mexico and Canada will be able to look back on this day and say " Boy, did we deliver a cracking tournament."
INTERNATIONAL SOCCER
would have had a chance to see us up close as an organization. It couldn ' t happen because of a number of reasons. But I ' m a lot happier than what I thought I would be at this stage, because a lot of things that we did at the Club World Cup, like the shallow pitch profile and the work of the sod farmers. We only had five to six days to install pitches in stadiums [ for Club World Cup ]. Normally for a FIFA tournament, we have maybe 12 to 14 months. and that didn ' t happen. So you had to transfer that first part out to the farm. Seeing all that working and seeing that coming through as well as it did was really pleasing. We ' ve been able to tell each stadium what they need to do. There ' s a broad agreement across the whole tournament footprint, which is unusual.
I don ' t think there ' s another event anywhere in the world that carries the commercial pressure on things like pitches to actually be there when they ' re needed. You know, we have marquee sponsors who want to make TV adverts halfway through the World Cup. We know that ' s going to come— that ' s normal in our life. But I think everybody ' s on the same page. So I ' m sitting here reasonably relaxed. I never take everything for granted. I won ' t get complacent. I won ' t allow the team to get complacent because we ' re still working with nature. But I think we ' re ready. We ' ve seen how diverse the climate here can be over the three countries. I think we know what we ' ve got to do. We had super feedback from the teams in the Club World Cup about everything from playing in adverse heat to dry grass. So I ' m quietly confident.
I think the U. S., Mexico and Canada will be able to look back on this day and say " Boy, did we deliver a cracking tournament."
I think it will be the spectacle that our president and council want it to be, that we want it to be. I think the U. S., Mexico and Canada will be able to look back on this and say,“ Boy, did we deliver a cracking tournament.”
A lot of people around the world that watch football, the millions that watch the game, will never know what ' s come out of these two research centers. The research has been the game changer, without a doubt. If we hadn ' t had that, I wouldn ' t be sitting here talking to you today as relaxed as what I am.
SFM: Looking even further ahead, 2030 World Cup is going to be yet another historic effort. You prepare for a tournament across multiple continents. Can you share a little bit about what the planning for 2030 looks like at this point and how the lessons learned from World Cup 26 are going to impact your approach for 2030?
Ferguson: The 26 tournament is already benefitting 2030 and 2034. For our third field day at Knoxville in February we put together a futures group for hosts Morocco, Portugal, Spain, and Saudi to come to Knoxville to see the lighthouse building and speak to the research team. Work is underway in all of these countries on stadiums with an eye on the tournaments, but we need to have a consistency. I ' ve seen some very futuristic things coming out of Saudi, which is great, but will they work in the cold light of day? So, we ' ve already seen a transfer of knowledge from this tournament going to future tournament hosts. That ' s how it should be. When I look at the 2030 footprint, I ' ve just come from Morocco toward the end of last year where we put the under-17 Women ' s World Cup. It ' s five years we ' ve put it in Morocco for to allow the Moroccans to catch up and learn tournament football. They ' ve built some fantastic stadiums, and they ' ve already incorporated things like vacuum systems and hybrid stitching. They just need to understand now how to maintain that to the same high level that we ' re seeing over here. And that ' s the bit of knowledge transfer that ' s already started.
So already this tournament is hugely benefiting our future tournaments. and that will help FIFA to bring the consistency around our pitch requirements. Spain and Portugal are traditional soccer playing countries. In Argentina, we go down to River Plate for the 2030 tournament; it’ s one game, but the whole stadium has just been reconstructed. There is a little bit more to do in Uruguay and Paraguay for the single games, but we ' ll be able to deliver that. Then we drop back to Europe. So, already there ' s a really strong foundation being laid, but based on 2026. That passing of the baton is already well underway. I think it puts us— especially on the pitch management side— in a really strong position.
Listen to the full interview, and other great conversations, on the SportsField Management Podcast, available via sportsfieldmanagementonline. com or on your favorite podcast platforms.
36 SportsField Management | June 2026 sportsfieldmanagementonline. com