sport
World Cup 2026: Canada, US & Mexico joint bid wins right to host tournament
[su_label type=”info”]SMA News – Agencies – Sport [/su_label][su_spacer size=”10″] The 2026 World Cup will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico after their joint bid beat Morocco’s proposal to host it. The ‘United 2026’ bid was selected by Fifa member nations, winning 134 votes compared to 65 for Morocco. The 2026 tournament will be the biggest World Cup ever held – with 48 teams playing 80 matches over 34 days.
“Football is the only victor. We are all united in football,” US Soccer president Carlos Cordeiro said. “Thank you so, so much for this incredible honour. Thank you for entrusting us with this privilege.”
Of the 211 Fifa member nations, 200 cast a vote at the 68th Fifa Congress in Moscow on Wednesday, with the winning bid needing a majority of 104.
Canada, Mexico, Morocco and the US were exempt, while Ghana was absent after the country’s government said it had disbanded its football association amid allegations of “widespread” corruption.
Three US territories – Guam, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico – were among the other member nations to not vote. Both Mexico (1970 and 1986) and the United States (1994) have previously hosted World Cups. Canada staged the Women’s World Cup in 2015.
Five times they have bid, and five times they have been overlooked – Morocco are perhaps destined to never host a World Cup. Morocco’s bid faced unwanted attention when Fifa secretary general Fatma Samoura was the subject of an investigation into an alleged conflict of interest. Members of Fifa’s World Cup bid evaluation task force said she had an undeclared family link with Morocco 2026 bid ambassador El Hadji Diouf. She was cleared of any wrongdoing and dismissed the claims as “laughable” and “unfortunate”. The same evaluation task force later expressed concerns over stadiums, the availability of accommodation, and the travel network, despite ratifying their proposals. Nine of the 14 stadiums included in Morocco’s bid were yet to be built, while the remaining five required “significant renovation or upgrading”. But bid chief Hicham el Amrani said he was confident the country’s infrastructure “could deliver” and made play of the North African nation’s position, nine miles from the southern tip of Spain – dubbing it a “European” World Cup.
“Football is the only victor. We are all united in football,” US Soccer president Carlos Cordeiro said. “Thank you so, so much for this incredible honour. Thank you for entrusting us with this privilege.”
Of the 211 Fifa member nations, 200 cast a vote at the 68th Fifa Congress in Moscow on Wednesday, with the winning bid needing a majority of 104.
Canada, Mexico, Morocco and the US were exempt, while Ghana was absent after the country’s government said it had disbanded its football association amid allegations of “widespread” corruption.
Three US territories – Guam, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico – were among the other member nations to not vote. Both Mexico (1970 and 1986) and the United States (1994) have previously hosted World Cups. Canada staged the Women’s World Cup in 2015.
Five times they have bid, and five times they have been overlooked – Morocco are perhaps destined to never host a World Cup. Morocco’s bid faced unwanted attention when Fifa secretary general Fatma Samoura was the subject of an investigation into an alleged conflict of interest. Members of Fifa’s World Cup bid evaluation task force said she had an undeclared family link with Morocco 2026 bid ambassador El Hadji Diouf. She was cleared of any wrongdoing and dismissed the claims as “laughable” and “unfortunate”. The same evaluation task force later expressed concerns over stadiums, the availability of accommodation, and the travel network, despite ratifying their proposals. Nine of the 14 stadiums included in Morocco’s bid were yet to be built, while the remaining five required “significant renovation or upgrading”. But bid chief Hicham el Amrani said he was confident the country’s infrastructure “could deliver” and made play of the North African nation’s position, nine miles from the southern tip of Spain – dubbing it a “European” World Cup.
