FA backing is Trump card

THE 2026 World Cup looks set to go to Big Brother today – with a little help from the FA.

Sponsor-luring money will be the “Trump” factor despite the US president’s tweets about “***hole” countries and threats of retaliation against anyone who votes for Morocco.

The joint US-CanadaMexico bid has promised £10.5billion in revenue for the first 48-team finals, eyewatering figures that Morocco – the only rivals and always the bridesmaid – cannot possibly match.

As both sides put the finishing touches to lobbying long into the night, reports suggested the FA and the other three British FIFA members would back the American-led bid despite the huge distances involved for fans.

The FA appear convinced by the recent report of FIFA’s evaluation team, which rated the three-way US bid far stronger than that of the underdogs, who look likely to suffer a record fifth failure to land the event.

“The amount of new infrastructure required for the Morocco 2026 bid to become reality cannot be overstated,” stated the report.

The FA, like many federations, would not want to be seen to publicly ignore the evaluation team and bring about a repeat of 2010 when Qatar was bottom of the pack but emerged victorious.