Using data from FIFA, Brown epidemiologists developed a tracking tool aimed at assisting public health experts in the event of an infectious disease outbreak.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] - With the FIFA World Cup 2026 competition kicking off in cities across North America, a Brown University research team is making it easy to track infectious diseases that could be spread by teams, players and fans.
The tool, developed by epidemiologist William Goedel at Brown's School of Public Health, shows all World Cup sites and where people will be congregating. Users can sort by upcoming soccer matches to view information on team training sites, hotels and major fan gatherings.
"Any time you get a lot of people coming together for a large celebratory event, such as a sports tournament, you have to worry about public health challenges like infectious disease outbreaks," Goedel said.
This World Cup is exceptionally complicated: Instead of one host country, as in the past, there are 48 soccer teams playing in 16 locations across the United States, Canada and Mexico - involving an unprecedented level of coordination and movement, according to Goedel. State health departments typically track disease outbreaks using tools like hospital records and wastewater surveillance. The new tool is meant to augment those systems.
"The explorer is intended to help people understand how teams and fans might be moving over the next couple of weeks," Goedel said. "This kind of information is invaluable for public health experts so that if a disease outbreak happens, they can understand where it may have started and where it will spread next."
Goedel built the tool using information from the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), which organizes World Cup events. It is populated with the first rounds of play and has matchups for the later rounds, and it will be updated as the tournament progresses.
Goedel explained how the tool works: If a public health alert is issued for something that happened in Miami (like a measles outbreak at a fan fest), then public health experts will be able to see which teams recently played in Miami and where they're headed next, as well as teams that will be staying or training in close proximity. While the intended audience includes public health experts and health departments who need to map the movements of teams, he said it's equally helpful for fans who following their favorite teams.
Goedel noted that experts are less worried about headline-grabbing rare diseases like Ebola or hantavirus and more concerned with common, easily transmissible illnesses.
"Considering the high density of people from all over the world, we are more focused on COVID-19, measles and norovirus," Goedel said. "The U.S. has had quite a struggle with measles over the last couple of months. Measles cases have been reported this year in every state that will host a team or match for the World Cup."
Public health experts are also staying vigilant about deliberate biological threats: "We're in a tense geopolitical climate where that is a real concern, but that's also part of what public health preparedness is about: being able to anticipate threats during these large gatherings," he said.
Kicking around ideas for a tournament tracker
Goedel is a faculty affiliate at Brown's Pandemic Center and leads the center's efforts to increase capacity for data-driven decision-making among staff at local health departments and their community partners. He has been helping the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) with emergency preparedness and response since joining the Brown faculty during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
