Heimo Schirgi
Heimo Schirgi serves as FIFA's Chief Event Operations Officer and as the organisation's Chief Operations Officer for the FIFA World Cup 2026™️, taking place from 11 June to 19 July 2026 in Canada, Mexico and the USA. This dual role puts him at the helm of the planning and delivery of the FIFA World Cup, the pinnacle of men's football, as well as FIFA's broader global portfolio of tournaments and events.
Born in Austria and raised in Istanbul and Johannesburg, Mr. Schirgi brings a wealth of personal and professional experience to his work. Fluent in German, Turkish and English, he draws on a rich cross-cultural background to inform his approach to organising major international sporting events.
Mr, Schirgi's career has taken him across continents and has seen him take on some of sport's most ambitious operational challenges. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Graz in Austria and started his career at T.E.A.M. Marketing AG in Switzerland, where he supported media partner operations and commercial delivery. In the United Arab Emirates, he contributed to establishing a new professional football league, gaining first-hand experience in rapidly developing football markets. Returning to Europe, he served as Head of Operations for UEFA Events S.A. at UEFA EURO 2012 in Poland and Ukraine. He then became Senior Vice President of Special Projects at DO & CO AG in Vienna, further strengthening his expertise in large-scale event delivery. Upon joining FIFA, he took charge of the operational delivery of the FIFA World Cup™️ and other major global tournaments and events organised by football's world governing body.
The FIFA World Cup 2026™️ will be the largest in the tournament's history. It will be hosted for the first time across three countries and will feature more participating teams than ever before. Based primarily in Miami, but frequently travelling to Zurich for meetings at the FIFA headquarters and to the 16 host cities, Mr. Schirgi oversees areas including venue and city readiness, competition operations, broadcast implementation, mobility and safety coordination, ticketing and hospitality, and aligning a wide network of international stakeholders.
He combines operational precision with global coordination to ensure that football's biggest events run seamlessly for teams, partners, fans, and the billions of people following them around the world.
