North America will try to land 2026 World Cup
U.S., Canada, Mexico to announce details of joint bid today.
NEW YORK — A final on or around the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Modern stadiums across the United States and perhaps in Mexico and Canada, too.
A North American World Cup in 2026 with 48 nations woul d b e f a r l a r ge r a n d played in almost all different venues than the 24-team eve nt t he U. S. hoste d i n 1994.
Soccer officials planned to announce details of the joint bid by the U.S., Mexico and Canada at a news conference today atop the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan. The split of games was likely to be discussed.
“Don’t think for a moment that the political climate in t he Uni t e d S t a t e s d i d n’ t impact this,” former U.S. defender Alexi Lalas, now a Fox analyst, said Sunday. “A joint World Cup that includes Mexico probably garners additional support and sends a message.”
President Donald Trump has faced criticism over his plans — since stopped by courts — to bar new visas for people from Iran, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Libya. FIFA President Gianni Infantino said last month than “any team, including the supporters and officials ... who qualify for a World Cup need to have access to the country, otherwise there is no World Cup. That is obvious.”
A m a j o r i t y o f g a m e s likely would be played in the United States.
Infantino and the six confederation presidents have recommended the North and Central American and Caribbean region get six berths, any host included. But the proposal said the FIFA Council would decide on a structure in the event of co-hosts.
“You sit there and just shake your head: Where is this thing going to go and why?” said former U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller, currently an ESPN analyst. “Who knows, maybe they’ll move it to 68 teams by that time? It’s so hard to tell what FIFA’s thinking or what they ’re doing or what’s the pro - cess after the last bidding fiasco. I guess you just have to trust the people closest to it, that they know what they’re doing.”
FIFA’s Congress of all members decided on World Cup hosts through the 1982 tournament, but the power was then given to its ruling executive committee of about two dozen members.
After the tainted vote in December 2010 that awarded the 2018 event to Russia and 2022 to Qatar, the decision was returned to the Congress, now 211 members.
FIFA announced last May that the 2026 vote will take place in May 2020 and said in October that the previous two World Cup hosts — Europe and Asia — will not be eligible to bid.