N. American trio to avoid rival WC bids

Argentina will qualify: Bauza

MANCHESTER, England, April 12, (RTRS): The three-nation North American bid to host the 2026 World Cup is asking FIFA to fast-track its proposal without a competitive bidding process.

On Tuesday, FIFA released the agenda for next month’s congress in Bahrain, where all 211 member federations will gather, and it included an item on the 2026 World Cup put forward by the US, Mexican and Canadian federations.

The three federations announced on Monday that they will bid to host the 2026 tournament jointly.

A spokesman for U.S. Soccer said the congress proposal included a “non-competitive window” where the North American bid’s proposal would be given a technical evaluation. That could mean the US-led bid being approved without the usual competition between rival bids.

So far, the North American joint bid is the only one to have emerged for the 2026 World Cup although the Confederation of African Football has discussed a possible bid from Morocco.

The planned bidding window has yet to open and FIFA’s new four-stage bid process, announced in May 2016, stated that any vote would not be held until May 2020.

The plan, drawn up by FIFA’s ruling Council, stated that an evaluation of bids would conclude in February 2020 but the North American proposal seeks backing for a technical evaluation that would conclude nearly two years earlier.

FIFA’s World Cup bidding processes have been tainted with scandal in the past and the decision to hand the 2018 tournament to Russia and 2022 to Qatar came under strong criticism and sparked investigations into corruption by U.S. and Swiss authorities.

It remains to be seen whether FIFA’s members will want to speed up the process and bypass the normal competitive bidding process.

What may help the North American proposal is the lack of any alternative at this stage.

In October, FIFA’s ruling body decided that no country could bid for the 2026 hosting if their continental confederation had hosted one of the two preceding tournaments.

That leaves Africa, South America and Oceania as potential bidders, but no candidate has emerged so far.

Meanwhile, Lionel Messi’s faltering Argentina team will reach the 2018 World Cup finals in Russia despite their precarious position in the qualifiers, sacked coach Edgardo Bauza said on Tuesday.

The Argentine FA, under newly elected president Claudio Tapia, sacked Bauza on Monday after he picked up 11 points in his eight matches in charge.

Local media reports suggest Sevilla’s Jorge Sampaoli is being lined up to take over.