Press Briefing with Andrew Giuliani, Executive Director for the White House Task Force on the FIFA World Cup 2026

MODERATOR: Welcome, everyone, to the Miami Media Hub. This is a Media Hub that is part of the U.S. Department of State. This is part of our international media engagement efforts, and we are so privileged to welcome Mr. Andrew Giuliani, the Executive Director of the White House Task Force on the World Cup FIFA 2026, and we are here in Miami, one of the host cities. So we are so excited to welcome you all today, taking advantage of this amazing opportunity to speak about this exciting event. So with that, the floor is all yours. When you're done with remarks, I'll go ahead and help moderate Q and A. But, yeah, welcome.

MR GIULIANI: Well, thank you so much. Thank you so much for the hospitality. I appreciate it. Wonderful to see everybody here today. Now, seven days until the largest sporting event not just in American history but in world history kicks off, when you think that we are just a week away from the 2026 World Cup with 48 teams from around the world coming to the United States of America, to Canada, to Mexico, for what will be the most viewed sporting event ever.

What I tell my fellow Americans who may be getting more and more into soccer over the last 32 years, since we hosted the '94 World Cup and the '99 Women's World Cup, is about 130 million people watched our Superbowl, and we consider that to be a national holiday. You have 1.6 billion people that watched the last World Cup final, and we are projecting over 2 billion to watch this World Cup final. This will be as viewed as anything ever, over America's 250th birthday. And what an amazing time it is to be able to show off American exceptionalism and invite the world to come celebrate our 250th birthday with us.

Obviously, we have 11 host cities here in the United States of America where we'll have 78 games, going from Boston, New York/New Jersey - as a New Yorker I'd say New York first; there's a little debate between New York and New Jersey, but, I mean, I say New York/New Jersey - Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami - here, of course, which will host I think the most in-demand group stage game between Colombia and Portugal on June 27th - Dallas and Houston, Texas; Kansas City, Los Angeles - where the U.S. will be kicking off their opening game on day two of the tournament on June 12th against Paraguay - San Francisco, and Seattle. And then obviously in Mexico, we'll see Mexico City, where they'll be opening up the tournament one week from today, Guadalajara and Monterrey. And then be in Canda - we'll be in Toronto and in Vancouver.

So 16 incredible North American cities for 104 matches, 11 cities here in the United States of America with 78 matches, all with very different cultures and feels here. I think that's one the things that the world will get to see as well over this 39-day stretch, is just how, I think, diverse the United States of America is, the different backgrounds that you'll see, whether you come to Miami, Florida, or maybe to Boston, Massachusetts, or Kansas City. That'll be a new destination for, I think, a lot of the international crew. I know how excited they were to draw Argentina for their opening match and for the base camp. I know Argentina's arrived; I know Brazil has arrived. I actually got a very good friend whose hometown is Morristown, New Jersey, and they're giving me on-the-ground updates what feels like every hour in terms of the Brazilian team coming in. Very, very exciting.

But look, I think we have an amazing story to tell of preparedness here for the World Cup. What people will see is you'll see 78 games, 11 sites that will be set up similar, from a safety and security perspective, to the Super Bowl, which means you'll see multiple perimeter checks for tickets. We want to make sure that anybody who is getting into and certainly near the stadium as well, that they have a ticket. That way we can prevent any security issues.

You'll also see that from a counter-UAS, a counter-done perspective as well. One of the things that we've really pushed forward on the task force in the last year is making sure that World Cup games and fan festivals were able to mitigate against drones - against both idiots and evildoers as we like to say there. So you think last year alone, in 2025, putting aside the few national special security events that we had - think the inauguration, last year would have been the joint address, not the State of the Union, UN General Assembly - those are the national special security events. For the SEAR-rated events, the special event, rated events - that's the Super Bowl, Boston Marathon, Indy 500, events like that - five throughout the course of 2025 had counter-UAS protection. Five.

This year alone, for the World Cup, all 78 matches will have counter-UAS mitigation protection and one of the fan fests in each of the 11 cities - so that's Bayfront Park here in Miami - will have counter-UAS protection for the duration of the tournament, which means 23 days here in Miami. Really, really amazing story to tell when you think that there will be over 150 sites protected against drones when we think last year there were only five. So incredible, incredible progress there on a front that truly is an emerging threat to us.

But when you think about the excitement - and I'll open it up to questions here in a moment - but in my conversations with the 45th and 47th President of the United States, President Trump, about this - I just had a conversation with him over the weekend about the World Cup as it's approaching. The way that he views it, I think the way that so much of the administration views it, is it is an unbelievable opportunity to be able to show off American exceptionalism - true American greatness, the freedoms that America can bring not only to the United States but also to the rest of the world - over our first 250 years and also the great and incredible hope and promise that America has to offer over our next 250 years to the world, that we hope to continue to bring to all different corners of the world.

And so he's very excited to host these games. We know there's no larger platform that America will have than this. I guess you can argue maybe the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in 2028, but we'll have that discussion in a couple years.

But with that being said, how about we get into some questions?

QUESTION: The security at the sites on the ground.

MR GIULIANI: Yes.

QUESTION: The federal government, federal agencies - how limited are they in providing support on the ground?

MR GIULIANI: Well, we've provided multiple buckets of federal funding assistance, right? These are SEAR events, as I mentioned before, which means they're run by state and local authorities, right? So Miami PD with regard to the fan fest, Miami Gardens is with regard to Hard Rock Stadium, or, as it'll be known, Miami Stadium. But we've come in with multiple pots of security funding to be able to help them in that, and to be able to help fix what's going to be - not fix, I should say - to be able to overlay some of the potential gaps that exist.

A pot - I'll point to two specific pots of money. One, the $625 million security funding pot which is for law enforcement overtime; you'll see it for some equipment around there, some of the anti-scale fencing if you will, and for additional officers, additional private security. That's what that money is for for the 11 host cities. And that's why in many ways the - Miami is able to offer this fan festival at Bay Park for no money, because that money was pushed forward in the One Big Beautiful Bill and given to the 11 host cities.

Then there's a second pot, and I pointed out counter-UAS before, but there's a $500 million counter-UAS pot from the One Big Beautiful Bill, also same bill, which covered Fiscal Year '26 and '27. What we on the White House task force did as soon as that money was put through Congress last year - I think July 3rd. It was right around July 4th last year, just before July 4th last year - is we worked with the Air Sovereignty Task Force and said, well, the first $250 million for Fiscal Year '26, we recommend that it goes to the states with the highest SEAR-rated events. So that would be the National Capital Region, with all the different events that are going to be going on around our 250th birthday, and then the 11 states that are hosting World Cup games and World Cup-related games, right? I know Kansas, Missouri's hosting the games, but you'll have base camps - as we know, Argentina in Kansas. Same thing with New York - I guess we can go back to New York. It's not actually hosting games, but it's going to be hosting most of the fan fests as well.

So all of that $250 million, we were able to get host cities, work directly with host cities, so then that way the state SAAs can go and purchase anti - counter-UAS equipment. So then that way, once they purchased that, they had a federal grant that could be reimbursed. We worked through five different rounds, maybe six different rounds, depending on the state, of state calls to help break through some of that bureaucracy. We also worked to pass the Safer Skies Act, which was in the NDAA last December. What that did is that gave state and local law enforcement the authority to be able to mitigate against drones. That's strictly been a federal authority.

What you'd see at the 11 sites that are hosting games, that will still be the feds. What this will be at Bayfront Park, for example, is that's going to be a task force model there where you will see one fed, FBI, along with Miami PD. Now, what they did in order to do that once the Safer Skies Act got passed is the FBI created a training school in Huntsville, Alabama, where they just had the last graduation a couple weeks ago there. State and local authorities were able to go there, get trained up for a three-week course, then the Department of Justice were able to deputize those individuals, those officers that got trained up. And at that point, once FBI is able to embed with them, you now have the ability to be able to do that.

Once the World Cup ends, we look forward to actually the guidance coming out, the rulemaking coming out, so then that way as we look at other major events that come to Miami - let's say another college football national championship, as we had in January, or who knows when the Super Bowl will be coming back; other events, even games like your typical Dolphins game, let's say - they in the future will have the ability to be able to mitigate against drones.

QUESTION: Will they be able to - they're keeping the equipment from the -

MR GIULIANI: Yeah. Oh, it's a federal grant. It's an opportunity to keep it. Now, one thing you see in this space is the technology is evolving very fast. And that's how we've really leaned in on this. We've wanted to make sure that there is a full chain so then that way we can mitigate. And what we're telling people is there's a three - there's a three-mile temporary flight restriction around the stadium; there's a one-mile temporary flight restriction around Bayfront Park. There's a zero-tolerance policy. Do not - this is not the - this is not the time to go and put your drone up there to go take a video of what's going on in the area. They will be confiscated and there will be consequences. So it's a no-drone zone; leave your drone at home.

QUESTION: As you probably know, we had a snafu last year, I think it was, with the Venezuela and - I mean Argentina-Colombia game.

MR GIULIANI: Two years ago, 2024.

QUESTION: Right, two years. And they got bum-rushed. I guess you guys are obviously thinking this out, there's going to be a certain different way of going in, and that's all (inaudible).

MR GIULIANI: Yeah, no, it's a very different perimeter too. So that was back in 2024. You know that President Trump was still a candidate at that point again. But there's different leadership now also with Sheriff Rosie, who's been fantastic. I've really loved working with her. And I think we could see - we saw the difference between Copa America in 2024 and the Club World Cup in 2025. I think some of the complaints we heard from the Club World Cup was the taxi and Uber drop-off was too far away. That's a much better complaint to hear than 30,000 unticketed fans rush the stadium and people were worried about getting trampled. And frankly, we're very lucky that there were no casualties.

So there will be multiple layers of security. It's going to be a very different setup. Like I said, it will feel like a Super Bowl. There'll be more security around there than there was even for the college national championship. So if you do not have a ticket, you do not go to the stadium. It will be checked. It'll be checked on public transportation if you take public transportation there. It will be checked before there will actually be a scan, then there'll be a scan, then there will actually be the hard ticket scan. You'll get turned away before you get there. That's why you have a great event like what's at Bayfront Park or some of the other activations that we know that are going on in the city.

So it's extremely different, and I think people learned a lot from that nearly tragic experience.

QUESTION: How does the administration going to balance its hardline immigration policies with its obligations to welcome the world and helps to unify the world - the globe as one of the World Cup hosts?

MR GIULIANI: Yeah. Well, I think what we've done to create legal pathways to be able to come here to the United States for this World Cup is nothing short of incredible, especially in light of the fact that there was one government-wide shutdown, there were two Department of Homeland Security shutdowns. I can point to the fact that in the first half of this fiscal year, from October 1, 2025, to March 31st, 2026, there were over 5 million ESTAs that were processed.

We can take a look at Argentina and Brazil, for example, as two countries that a few years ago had wait times - for Brazil was 700 days in Rio or Brasilia. It was 700 days two years ago. Now that number in Brazil is down to less than a month, and that's because of all the work the State Department has done. And the Consular Affairs team there is absolutely fantastic. They've done an amazing job. But, I mean, taking the wait time down from 700 days to a month - we know how passionate and how much the Brazilian fans are traveling. We see it right now.

Argentina is another fantastic example. The wait time - the wait times in Buenos Aires a couple years ago were 300 days. They are now down to less than two weeks. And in talking to the ambassador there - I spoke to him last week - he promises me they're actually a day. He said, "I've got a long line but I actually am able to get people their B-1/B-2 visa adjudicated, their appointment, within a day." And I want to be clear, we're not going around the safety and security procedures. You still - we want to make sure that you get your B-1/B-2 appointment, but we still have to make sure that you're not a terrorist threat or any kind of an issue to the country right there. So that's really, really key there.

The other thing that we did was create the FIFA Pass for ticketholders. If you have a ticket to this World Cup, it gets you to the front of the queue. So if any countries are still, in light of all the TDY staff that the State Department has done and Consular Affairs has done, if you still cannot get your visa appointment and you have a ticket, then that gets you to the front of the queue. Again, you're not going around the safety and security procedures.

So that's what we've done to create legal pathways to come here to the United States for this World Cup.

QUESTION: But inside the country?

MR GIULIANI: Yeah, and what I would say is if you are inside the country legally, then you have nothing to worry about. This is something that should be really, really a great enjoyment for everybody who has come to the country legally, whether it's as a resident or as a citizen or as a visitor.

QUESTION: As for fraud (inaudible) outside the stadium, people taking advantage of the situation, obviously taking advantage of somebody that might not know about tickets, and/or other frauds related to that timeframe, is there any kind of task force or something that you guys are looking into prior to that?

MR GIULIANI: Yeah, we estimate that there will be a lot of different cyber - potential cyber attacks on the World Cup properties. We saw this back in Qatar in 2022. There were over 15 billion attempts - cyber attempts on the state of Qatar, on FIFA World Cup, and all the World Cup-related properties at that time. We expect that number to be at least that number. We've been preparing. We've been working with our state and local partners to make sure that their cyber hygiene is up to snuff. And certainly with the ticketing issue. Especially when you're talking about that you have many different language barriers from around the world, it's very easy to get caught up in a potential link or anything.

So what we've continually told - I've talked to all the U.S. ambassadors about this, actually met with about 20 ambassadors to the U.S. last week - not last week, two days ago; time's all kind of blending together at this point with seven days to go. But I told them very, very clearly: Make sure in your native language to tell people that are coming to the United States that if you get something and you don't recognize who it's from, check with that person. Don't click on any links. We know that that's going to be a way for either potential state actors to just people that are fraudulently trying to make a few dollars illegally off of this.

So we certainly know that's something that we've been tracking really since we got this World Cup, and we just have to tell fans to make sure your cyber hygiene is good.

QUESTION: Can you come back to immigration? Can you just clarify something? President Trump, I believe in January, made a comment about some 70-plus countries not - would not be - so presidents of those countries would not be granted visas, and then I think you spoke to my colleague in January saying that that was only for applications for permanent residency and not for the type of visas you would need to attend the World Cup. Can you just repeat or emphasize that again and explain what the difference is between who needs - who is not being granted a visa and who is eligible?

MR GIULIANI: Yeah, aside from Iran and Haiti, those two teams that qualified, 46 of the teams will have the ability to go and gain your visa to be able to come in. I think Iran for obvious reasons, and we know with Haiti the many issues that they're currently having in the country there, and the overstay rates being I think over 31 percent at this point.

QUESTION: So there's no way for a Haitian to get a visa to attend?

MR GIULIANI: I mean, until the overstay rate gets significantly lower - at 31 percent that is extremely high and unacceptable.

QUESTION: Okay. But the - but besides those two countries, every other -

MR GIULIANI: Yeah, everybody else has the opportunity for their B-1/B-2. I think we can go through the list and almost all of them have been reduced significantly in terms of the wait times there. It's really I think one of the great stories that we have to tell on this task force. I mean, the great work that we've seen from, like I said, State Department's Consular Affairs to DHS's CBP and USCIS have been amazing. We want people to be able to come here and enjoy this World Cup while also making sure that we can keep the country safe. So it's obviously making sure that there's that balance there, right? We need to make sure we have an accounting for who is coming into the United States of America - right, you can't turn a blind eye to that, otherwise you're susceptible to potential attacks - while also making sure that we can get as many people in the country as possible that are coming here truly to enjoy the festivities.

That's what will make this really an incredible World Cup. And I think while - when you get to these major events, you're a week out, everybody kind of focuses on concerns with this, concerns with that. I'm looking forward to that first goal being scored, because once that first goal gets scored, then you're going to see the emotion, the excitement, and I think you're going to see what's going to be an amazing World Cup where the message is going to - the story is going to be what happens on the field.

QUESTION: Do you by chance have approval rates for - that you could share for, say, Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia in terms of (inaudible) visa approval rates?

MR GIULIANI: I'll refer to CA on that, to Consular Affairs. I don't have them off the top of my head, but they may.

QUESTION: Okay.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) I understand that Argentinians, or Argentinian Government just sent a list of - a long list of problematic fans and hooligans, something like that. How are you managing that working with the Argentinian Government in particular?

MR GIULIANI: Yeah, there are other countries, and not just South American countries. We know England has a hooligan list, where I believe England actually revokes some of the passports of the - of those listed hooligans when there is a major international soccer tournament. I know there are some other countries as well.

So the work with the Argentinian Government has been fantastic. I met with the Argentinian ambassador to the United States probably about six weeks ago. We spoke again three weeks ago. Everything is on track. We've had no visa issues. As you can tell, the team has gotten into country. I think there has even been a story that Messi's room somehow got out there. I can't believe that. I don't know how that ended up happening. I promise I did not release it. But no, it's obviously a very exciting time for the defending champions, and it has been great working with the Argentinian Government so that they have as great a chance to defend their title until the United States beats them in the finals. (Laughter.) I can be a dreamer, right? I can be a dreamer. I believe in miracles, as the hockey team says.

QUESTION: Mr. Giuliani, going back to the visas issue, it will be easier for international fans to get the visa if they already have tickets to the matches?

MR GIULIANI: So it will be easier to go and get your appointment, is the best way to put it. I think actually, honestly, if you look at the FIFA Pass which was created in order to get your visa appointment adjudicated - right, let's say when this was created back in October, we were looking at some of the wait times and there was improvement. Like, I remember back in October those numbers where we were seeing in Brazil it was down from 700 days - I think at the time it was down to, like, three or four months. That's an improvement but it still wasn't what we wanted. We wanted to get that to within a month basically so then that way fans could.

We realized if there could be a way to make sure that at least people that had their tickets were able to get their visa adjudicated, get their B-1/B-2 appointment, that's what the FIFA Pass does. So it may be a one-month wait time, let's say, for Rio right now. But if you have your ticket and you click the FIFA Pass when you get your ticket on FIFA's website, you then go towards the front of that queue. Your wait time might be two or three days to get your appointment.

Now, again, we don't want to create a loophole for bad actors to potentially get a ticket and utilize that and gain access to the United States. So the exact same security procedure, whether or not you had a ticket or whether you don't have a ticket, will be the exact same. It's just a matter of they'll move up in the queue if you have it.

QUESTION: Thank you.

MR GIULIANI: Yeah.

QUESTION: Many World Cup supporters say the prices, the travel cost, the concerns about entering the U.S., are causing them to skip the tournament. Is the task force concerned that fans who traditionally have traveled may not be coming in the numbers seen in the past?

MR GIULIANI: No, I think actually when you look at demand of this tournament, I've heard that FIFA has crossed the 600 - sorry, the 6 million ticket number sold, which is amazing. If you think about most tickets ever sold in a World Cup, I believe it was 3.4 or 3.5 million in the '94 World Cup, back when only 24 teams played. So to see that they are close to doubling the tickets that they've sold, it really, really is amazing. And to me, that tells the story that there is an incredible demand for people to be able to come here.

Look, there are undoubtedly - and the President's said this. Ticket prices are high, right? I think when you end up having an incredible sporting event like the FIFA World Cup, and you combine that with America in the golden age of America, especially with this President who's doing everything he can to really show off I think American greatness - not just to Americans only, right? As he talks about America First, that does not mean America only. It just means America First, and then the rest of the world. I think he wants to really show off America in its best light over this stretch over here, so we're obviously excited to have it.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Going back to security a little bit, Super Bowl time around here, we get a hype - human trafficking, prostitution. Being that this is going to be almost a month-long event, is this going to be like a double amount of federal or even local attack forces or, I mean, task forces?

MR GIULIANI: Yeah. I mean, HSI - DHS, HSI - is focused on it. I mean, they've done an amazing job over the last year saving thousands of victims of human trafficking. And I can tell you that's something that our task force has continued to work with the Department of Homeland Security, with Health and Human Services, which also has a dedicated team working on it as well. So we're working across the interagency with private stakeholders as well and with state and local government.

We've also - I know that the Acting Attorney General has spoken to the 93 U.S. Attorneys' Offices to make sure that they know that it will not be tolerated and that anybody who is caught human trafficking another individual will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We take it very seriously. This is a great opportunity to enjoy the United States of America legally. If you human traffic somebody, if you enslave a person, there is a warm place in hell waiting for you, and the United States will do everything possible to make sure that you have no freedom if you do that until you get that moment with the devil.

MODERATOR: Last question.

QUESTION: At the beginning you mentioned World Cup 1994. What are the main difference between this one and that one regarding security, immigrants, Hispanics especially living here, passion about soccer?

MR GIULIANI: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: What are the difference?

MR GIULIANI: Well, as somebody with a Italian surname, I could tell you the difference is the Italians can't make the finals this time, unfortunately. But I'm not going to cry about it. I'm sure the Brazilians hope there's nothing different here that happens from the '94 World Cup.

There are a lot of differences, when you think of what's happened over - go back to September 11th and how that really changed the world, and the different security procedures. We've actually never - we've not hosted a major sporting event, an Olympics or a World Cup, with the September - with the post-9/11 security measures in place. Even in Salt Lake, Department of Homeland Security was not stood up at that point, so it was very much catching up in that moment. New security procedures ended up coming in in '23 and - sorry, 2003 and 2004.

So I think you'd see a very, very different setup around the stadiums. That's one of the things actually I'm glad you brought this up, because we want to message to fans that are coming in - we know that soccer fans like to come to the stadium 15, 20 minutes before the game. What we're saying is come earlier. Come an hour, come an hour and a half, come two hours before the game. There'll be activations inside the stadium. You'll be able to see maybe a few of your favorite legends in there, maybe be able to watch your team warm up. But people have paid a premium for these tickets. We want them to be able to go and enjoy this World Cup without missing the first half, or part of the first half. So come here early. There will be a much bigger security footprint than they saw in 1994.

But at least we hope, in looking at American soccer between '94 and 2026 - and now I'm getting into the soccer side of it, but you could see what soccer was in the early '90s in the United States. It was very, very small. And certainly, look, we haven't caught up to the best of the world yet in terms of where we are in soccer. But I say "yet" because we might have to have a conversation on July 20th. Because I am a dreamer over here, and I have incredible hopes for our U.S. team.

But I think when you look at the last - '94, the '96 Olympics, the 1999 Women's World Cup, you've been able to see soccer growing at a pretty good pace in the United States over the last 32 years. I mean, the fact that Lionel Messi is - plays in this town is a great tribute to that. I see soccer continuing to grow in the United States, and I think it's - I think it's going to be an amazing moment for our country. So I really look forward to it.

One other thing I want to highlight too, and you mentioned - we talked about ticket prices there a little bit ago. I want to highlight something that President Trump was able to do with FIFA and Bank of America. The President was able to get 4,547 tickets for our military veterans and first responders to World Cup games, including 250 for each of the U.S. games. So that way, America's greatest heroes have the opportunity to enjoy this incredible moment. The sacrifices that they've made for our freedoms, whether you're American citizens, whether you're residents, whether you're here just visiting the country, are incredible, and we want them - and I know the President, in talking to President Trump, wants them to be able to enjoy this. It's the very least we can do, and 4,547 tickets is a - it's a really wonderful tribute that FIFA, Bank of America, and the 45th and 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, has been able to do for our veterans.

QUESTION: Just to clarify something you said a minute ago. You won't be allowed on stadium grounds unless you have a ticket for that particular game day, right? I mean you won't be allowed to enter the parking lot of Hard Rock, say, unless you have a ticket, right?

MR GIULIANI: There will be soft ticket checks before you actually get to the game. So there should be the check, first off, if you're taking public transportation, right? There should be the check before you get on that bus or on that train going to the stadium that you have a ticket, right? That would be a look-check, right? Then there should be the third layer of security which would actually show the ticket again. I show that I have a ticket. Then there'll be a second layer of security: scan the ticket. That's a scan, right? Then you'll have what will be your security lines to get in and then you'll have that final scan of the ticket which gets you in. So we are going to make sure that there are many different procedures understanding that, hey, you might have people that try to go around these.

QUESTION: Right.

MR GIULIANI: We want to make sure that there are layers to catch potential evildoers.

QUESTION: Yeah. Maybe I misunderstood you.

MR GIULIANI: Sure.

QUESTION: Because I thought you were encouraging fans to come to the stadium hours earlier and then leave.

MR GIULIANI: Ticketholders, thank you. No, that - thank you very much for allowing me to clarify. We want ticketholders, people that have their tickets, to come to the stadium early. We know that it's going to be a longer time to get into the stadium because of the security measures put in place, and so because of that, if you have a ticket - thank you for letting me clarify here - if you have a ticket, we want you to come to the stadium early. Because the perimeters are also pushed out, that means FIFA has more space to be able to activate within the perimeter.

So you'll see some really, really interesting activations in there. I know they've talked about, like I said, legends coming in there, probably some little kick matches and all that stuff that you would see, be able to watch, maybe the previous game that's going on there. If you don't have a ticket, then we're urging you to either go to Bayfront Park or do something else in the city where you can enjoy. There's going to be plenty of places where there are going to be great festivities here for this World Cup if you don't have a ticket.

QUESTION: Thanks. I was wondering if I misheard.

MR GIULIANI: No, no, no. I misspoke here. I'm on two and a half hours of sleep, so you have to forgive me.

MODERATOR: Well, Executive Director Giuliani, thank you so much for your time. It's been a privilege to host you here. This is always your home. We're going to have a transcript of this event on state.gov. It's also going to be translated into Spanish, Portuguese, and perhaps other languages on our website. And if we can be of service, you can always find us here at the Miami Hub.

MR GIULIANI: Great. Thank you so much for your hospitality. And can't wait for this event to get kicked off. Like I said, seven days to go. What an amazing opportunity it is to be able to show off America, American greatness, over our 250th birthday with the world, to be able to share this with the world. It's going to be a fantastic summer and it's going to be an amazing, amazing World Cup.

QUESTION: And your prediction? Not what you want.

MR GIULIANI: United States. United States is going to win. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: No, no, no, (inaudible).

MR GIULIANI: Who's going to finish second, third, fourth, fifth, and all that? (Laughter.) You know what, I got to tell you I'm so excited because I think this is one of the more open World Cups when you look at it, right?

I mean, if you see that - I know that right now the two biggest favorites are two European countries, between Spain and France, but then right behind them obviously Argentina to defend, and we know that Brazil is always going to be up there, and again, they're going to play with such charisma. I think it's going to be - it's going to be really, really fantastic. I'm actually looking forward to that U.S.-Paraguay match because I was in Philadelphia when they played the friendly back in November, and it got a little chippy at the end there. It almost looked like an American football game at the very end. So I was asking some of the players a couple of weeks back if that carries over because you've come to a World Cup, or is that behind you? And they were like, well, the emotions of a World Cup, it's just 10 scales different. But I think that's going to be - that's going to be a great match. And I think we're going to see a ton of great matches over the course of this summer. So, yeah.

MODERATOR: Great. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for joining.

MR GIULIANI: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.