World Cup games set for Foxborough after deal with city reached

An agreement between the owners of the New England Revolution and New England Patriots, the regional World Cup organizing committee and the town of Foxborough, Mass., will allow the town's planned World Cup games to move forward.

The sides announced the deal on Wednesday, ending a standoff in which the town had threatened to deny the necessary licenses unless it was assured of receiving $8 million for security. Foxborough was steadfast in refusing to foot the bill with public money.

A joint statement regarding the agreement read in part, "As part of this arrangement, the Town of Foxborough will not incur any cost or financial burden related to the FIFA World Cup, with Boston Soccer 2026 providing advance funding for security-related capital expenditures and the full extent of deployment that public safety officials have determined is needed to execute the event with Kraft Sports + Entertainment's backing."

The Kraft Group, fronted by Robert Kraft, owns the Foxborough-based NFL and MLS teams as well as their home venue, Gillette Stadium.

Seven World Cup games are scheduled to be played in Foxborough, including England-Ghana on June 23, Norway-France on June 26, a round-of-32 contest on June 29 and a quarterfinal on July 9.

The town of Foxborough is now expected to approve FIFA's license on March 17.

Town Select Board chair Bill Yukna said in a statement, in part, "On behalf of the Town of Foxborough, I'm very pleased to say that all of our funding concerns have been addressed. I want to personally thank KSE and Robert Kraft for his involvement in bringing the funding concerns to a resolution. We expect that any open issues in the license will be resolved before the 17th public hearing and we look forward to a very successful and safe World Cup event."

--Field Level Media