{"id":20468,"date":"2025-12-04T09:58:32","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T07:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/fifa-world-cup-arrives-in-us\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:31:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:31:47","slug":"fifa-world-cup-arrives-in-us","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/fifa-world-cup-arrives-in-us\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA World cup arrives in US"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The International Federation of Association Football World (FIFA) Trophy has arrived in Washington DC, touring some of the United States (US) capital&#8217;s most iconic sites, ahead of the much-anticipated draw for the 2026 FIFA World Cup 2026 on Friday evening.<\/div>\n<div>\nFootball&#8217;s ultimate prize was then showcased at the legendary John F. Kennedy\u00a0Centre\u00a0for the Performing Arts, where\u00a0football legend Rio Ferdinand and FIFA representatives welcomed\u00a0the\u00a0media for an exclusive sneak peek\u00a0of what&#8217;s to be expected.<\/div>\n<div>\nThis will be\u00a0the biggest ever\u00a0FIFA World Cup draw\u00a0in terms of teams with\u00a048\u00a0nations participating.<\/p>\n<p>Former England Captain, Rio Ferdinand,\u00a0shared his excitement as he prepared\u00a0to conduct the historic 48 team final draw alongside award-winning broadcaster,\u00a0Samantha Johnson,\u00a0on Friday.<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\nA stellar line-up of draw assistants will join the proceedings in a crossover of global sporting greats.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Sports stars such as National Football League legend Brady, basketball all-star\u00a0Shaquille\u00a0O&#8217;Neal, ice hockey icon, Wayne Gretzky, will assist with the draw.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":20469,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-20468","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"FIFA Trophy has arrived in Washington DC","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/20468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/20468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24495,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/20468\/revisions\/24495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=20468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}