FIFA: N. America World Cup bid outscores ‘high risk’ Morocco

FIFA judged Morocco’s 2026 World Cup proposals to be “high risk” in three areas and offered significant praise for the North American bid, which outscored its rival by a wide margin in an inspection evaluation report published this past Friday.

The joint bid from the United States, Canada and Mexico scored 402 (out of 500), while Morocco registered 275 and had proposals on stadiums, accommodation and transport flagged as high risks.

The 2026 World Cup is the first tournament FIFA has confirmed will expand from 32 to 48 teams — putting increasing demands on the stadiums and facilities required to stage 80 games.

“The amount of new infrastructure required for the Morocco 2026 bid to become reality cannot be overstated,” the bid evaluation task force said in a report published ahead of the June 13 vote by the FIFA Congress.

“The Morocco 2026 bid and United 2026 bid represent two almost opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to the nature of their bids.”

No part of North America’s proposals was called high risk and FIFA said it “has a clear lead” to advance the governing body’s mission to “push new boundaries in terms of sportsrelated technology and engagement” since stadiums and hotels already exist.

“FIFA (could) focus on a number of exciting initiatives relating to sports science, fan engagement, multimedia interaction and other new forms of digitalization,” the report said.

The North Americans scored the only maximum 5 mark for its ticketing and hospitality plans, which helped drive a forecast revenue for the tournament of $14.3 billion, “significantly higher” than Morocco’s $7.2 billion.

However, the lowest mark out of 5 for either bid in each of nine categories is 2.0 for the American’s projected costs which were driven up by having 16 stadiums instead of the minimum 12.