The soccer associations of the United States, Canada and Mexico have formally announced their intention to enter a three-way bid for the right to host the 2026 Fifa World Cup.
Soccer officials from each country made the announcement with much fanfare from the observatory of One World Trade Center, which offered a clear view of the city under sunny skies on Monday.
US Soccer Federation chief Sunil Gulati, who announced the bid in NY with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts, insisted they had the full backing of President Donald Trump, despite the US leader's rocky relations with Mexico.
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Canada Soccer and CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani revealed that a joint bid was being worked on in an interview with the Guardian last week.
He also said the three-nation partnership has the blessing and encouragement of U.S. President Donald Trump, who plans to build a wall along the U.S. -Mexico border and whose immigration policies have created public doubts about where the U.S. government would stand on a joint bid.
Gulati would not answer directly a question about where the World Cup final would be played. Infantino has proposed multiple chances to the World Cup, including expansion of the tournament to allow for more countries to qualify. Under the agreement signed today, 75 percent of the matches will be played in the US and the remaining 25 percent split between Mexico and Canada. The US will host 60 games and Canada and Mexico will host the other 20 games.
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Gulati said the initial plan was for 60 of the 80 World Cup games to be played in the US, with Canada and Mexico hosting 10 each. But he noted that a final decision on the structure of the games would be determined by Federation Internationale de Football Association. In that year, South Korea and Japan hosted the World Cup.
Gulati said that the principals have been discussing a joint effort for several years, "dreaming of a World Cup in North America and sharing it".
USA soccer officials had been publicly coy about the possibility of a future World Cup bid since the country lost out to Qatar in the battle for the 2022 tournament at a corruption-tarnished vote in Zurich in 2010. It is expected to confirm the bid rules at its May 11 congress in Bahrain. "And given what's happened in the last World Cups and some of the Olympic Games, the thought of building sports facilities that don't have a long term use is not one that's particularly inviting for anyone". All matches from the quarter-finals onwards would be in the US.
This North American joint bid is now favored to be chosen due to the increased size of the tournament.
The three nations have hosted 13 FIFA World Cups combined (Men's, Women's and Youth), which is more than any other trio of geographically connected nations, and set attendance records for five of those events. And if they can convince Federation Internationale de Football Association, plans for the 2026 World Cup could begin much sooner than we thought.
If also successful, it would be the first World Cup in the United States since 1994, where Brazil defeated Italy on penalties at the Rose Bowl and broke the World Cup average attendance record with almost 69,000 spectators per game, a mark that still stands today.
"We have the full support of this project from the USA government", Gulati said. The winning bid may not be confirmed until 2020.
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