US, Canada and Mexico host 2026 finals
Scotland receive backing to co-host 2030 tournament
THE 2026 World Cup will take place in the United States, Canada and Mexico, FIFA announced yesterday.
All three host nations are expected to be given a free pass to the tournament’s group stages, though this has yet to be confirmed by football’s ruling body.
The three nations’ ‘United Bid’ was considered more feasible than the other bidder, Morocco, where 14 venues would have had to either be built or renovated at an estimated cost of £12billion
Mexico is the only one of the three to have secured passage to this summer’s tournament, while Canada has never even scored a World Cup goal.
The vote by football federations was held in public, in contrast to secrecy surrounding the ballot by FIFA’s elected board members for the 2018 and 2022 hosts, Russia and Qatar, in 2010.
The US plans to stage 60 out of the 80 games, when 16 teams will be added to the finals, leaving Canada and Mexico with ten fixtures each. The US, which staged the event in 1994, is set to host all games from the quarter-finals onward.
Carlos Cordeiro, president of the US Soccer Federation, said: ‘The beautiful game transcends borders and cultures. Football today is the only winner.’
The distance between the most northern host city of Edmonton, Canada, and the most southern, Mexico City, is almost 3,000 miles. It will be the first World Cup shared by three host nations.
Despite the huge distances between venues, Mr Cordeiro claimed the ‘United World Cup’ will generate £10.3billion in revenue and make £8.1billion profit for FIFA.
The decision sparked renewed hope that the World Cup could return to Britain in 2030. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, England’s FIFA council representative David Gill, plus other council colleagues, were all enthusiastic about a future joint Home Nations bid involving Scotland, England and Wales.
FIFA vice-president David Gill has revealed he is ready to get behind Scotland joining forces with England and Wales to stage a joint Home Nations bid for the World Cup in 2030.
Gill, formerly vice-chairman of the English FA, was joined by UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin in talking up the strengths of a combined tournament in England, Scotland and Wales after rubber-stamping the award of the 2026 competition to the USA, Canada and Mexico.
There is strong impetus for the competition returning to Europe in 2030 and, although Gill believes England could go it alone, Ceferin has made it clear he believes a bid involving several countries would hold the advantage.
Asked about the possibility of a shared
Home Nations bid, Gill said: ‘You look at the assets that we’ve got in England or the UK, in terms of grounds. Some of the best grounds in world football, the best training grounds. So why not? It would be fantastic.’ Ceferin added: ‘It’s definitely Europe’s turn in 2030 and it’s always a bit stronger with more countries. But, at the same time, England can host on their own or with the rest of the UK.’ The other challenge is coming from a combined South American proposal from Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, who staged the first World Cup in 1930 and have effectively set up a bidding headquarters in Moscow. But after the financial and organisational difficulties of the 2014 competition in Brazil, there is opposition on the FIFA Council to returning so soon to South America. Football’s top brass do not want sentiment around the 100th anniversary World Cup returning to Uruguay beating economic sense. There is also optimism amongst the FIFA delegates about a level playing field in future World Cup bids after a transparent process, with all Congress voting on the decision for the first time, saw the ‘United’ bid of US, Canada and Mexico beat Morocco by 134 votes to 65. Gill said: ‘It does give us great confidence that the voting procedures now in place are appropriate and relevant.’
The Scottish FA confirmed its support for the United 2026 FIFA World Cup bid. Newly appointed chief executive Ian Maxwell said: ‘Following a review by the board of the Scottish FA, we cast our vote for the 2026 FIFA World Cup to be awarded to the United bid. We came to this decision after receiving presentations from both bids and an appraisal of FIFA’s Bid Evaluation Report. ‘We concluded that the United bid represented the best option due to the impressive overall plan presented and, in particular, the state-of-the-art infrastructure which already exists across the United States, Canada and Mexico. It promises to be a terrific competition for football fans, players and for the game in general and we will work hard to be there to be part of it.’