The World Cup fixer

It's the largest sporting event on the planet and one of the most complicated logistical operations imaginable. It's a spectacle so massive it achieves the impossible: uniting billions of people from around the globe for a transcendent experience that is kinetic, historic and - thanks largely to a University of Delaware graduate - secure.

Ed Klima, Class of 1994, serves as director of safety and emergency preparedness for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the largest in history. The job is a labor of love that requires 16-hour days, countless air miles and the kind of composure usually reserved for penalty shootouts.

"I deal with more issues in a week than most people deal with in a year, but that's a privilege and a tremendous opportunity," the Blue Hen said. "I don't think I'd be able to do this job without the building blocks of the past 30 years - and my time at UD is certainly a part of that."

Klima, a Dover native, majored in horticulture and political science … not exactly a surefire path to success in his field. But while at UD, he also volunteered with Aetna Hook, Hose and Ladder, a Newark fire company with close ties to the University. A mentor there encouraged Klima to intern with the Congressional Fire Service Institute in Washington, D.C., a nonprofit that educates lawmakers on fire safety issues. A passion for emergency management took root.

After graduation, Klima worked as head groundskeeper at Dover International Speedway. But his focus quickly shifted from turf to triage. When the organization needed to strengthen its on-track fire and rescue operations, Klima built an improvement plan. Soon, he was overseeing safety operations across multiple racetracks nationwide.

That reputation traveled. The National Football League invited Klima to work on emergency management procedures for Super Bowl XL in Detroit, which led to a recurring role. Klima became a steady presence in Super Bowl and NFL Draft planning. He went on to launch his own consulting firm, advising major sport and entertainment players on large-scale safety and preparedness. (He's the guy responsible for evacuating 80,000 people from the 2017 Firefly Music Festival during a lightning storm.)

But Klima's greatest challenge? That's unfolding now.

Because of its global significance, the World Cup has always been considered a high-profile target for cyberattacks and terrorism. Layer in hordes of impassioned fans, and the public safety challenges compound - consider the 1998 stampede that occurred at an overcrowded stadium during a qualifying match in Guatemala, killing 85 spectators.

And the 2026 event is even more complex. While the World Cup typically takes place in one or occasionally two countries, this is the first to occur across three nations: the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It's also the first to involve 16 host cities (that number usually falls somewhere between nine and 12). Instead of 32 teams, Klima is dealing with 48. Instead of a four-week timeline, this tournament will last six. Everything has expanded, so planning must, too: more infrastructure, more strategy, more room for error.

"We're basically putting on 16 Super Bowls up to 10 times in each city," Klima said. "This has been a marathon."

When he stepped into this role two years ago, the purview was clear: Enact a plan that accounts for, well, everything: political protests, disorderly fans, medical crises, weather emergencies, unidentified drones hovering above the pitch … the list goes on. So Klima (alongside colleagues and public safety representatives from the aforementioned host cities) set to work creating a 100-page safety and security playbook. Think of it as a shared framework so that all World Cup partners - stadiums, local and state law enforcement agencies, private security firms, healthcare providers and federal authorities - are operating from the same set of standards and goals.

Easier said than done.

Development of this blueprint required James-Bond level coordination between stakeholders, scattered across borders and time zones and disciplines. Collaborators sometimes pushed back on expectations - or needed translators to communicate. ("I only took two years of Spanish at UD, and I was not the best student," Klima said.) But he was able to navigate tricky conversations partly because of lessons gleaned on campus.

"In college, interacting with people from so many other places and seeing that we all have different ways of thinking but that we're also the same in so many ways - that's the piece of my education that's been so important in my world," he said. "I grew in my ability to communicate with people."

Much of Klima's job has involved investigating the cultural norms of fans from every corner of the globe, understanding which countries might bring pyrotechnics into a stadium (looking at you, Turkey), which groups enjoy oversized banners (Germany), and which will likely march to an event in large groups while chanting, drumming and waving flags (Argentina). To consult with experts, Klima logged hundreds of flights around the globe.

"I've definitely spent more nights in hotel rooms in the last two years than I have at my own house," he said. "I've gained 20 pounds from eating on the road." (Klima has promised his wife and fellow Blue Hen, Jen, a master's and doctoral graduate in education, that he'll get back on a fitness routine after the tournament.)

But while the days are long and the pressure is high, Klima isn't lying awake at night fretting about worst-case scenarios.

"Managing emergencies doesn't stress me out," he said. "When you've put all the time and energy into the front end - when you've come up with the potential security triggers, you've done the crowd modeling and you know how to respond - implementing those plans is the easier part."

If all goes well, Klima's role in the 2026 World Cup will go largely unnoticed. It's the kind of labor that is, best case, invisible. But Klima insists he doesn't want any kudos. The real reward comes from understanding: This event is much bigger than any one person, or even any one team or country. He thinks fondly about a specific meeting in Switzerland, which brought together at one table security leads from all 55 European soccer entities - including folks whose countries are currently at war.

"This event provides an escape that people need from the problems of everyday life," he said. "Soccer unites the entire world in this way."

It is, all spectacle aside, a goal worth protecting.