The bidding process for the 2026 World Cup is set to begin in the coming months and CONCACAF’s three biggest countries are set to come together in an effort to host the world’s premier tournament.
According to the Guardian, CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani says that the U.S., Mexico and Canada are set to join together to submit a joint bid to host the 2026 tournament, the first to feature an expanded 48-team field. Montagliani says a joint bid would be “a fit” for the new format while adding that he expects a final decision “sometime this year”.
“Canada, the US and Mexico are aiming for a joint bid, the idea has been around for a while, discussions are continuing and it is a very exciting proposition if it comes to fruition,” Montagliani said. “We have had nothing but positive remarks about it and it is a very strong sign of what football can do to bring countries together.”
Bids are set to be submitted and evaluated starting in June with the process running until Dec. 2018. Evaluations of countries’ suitablity will be done from Jan. 2019 to Feb. 2020 with a final decision on the host set for Dec. 2020.
thank you, French one, for helping us to remember that important bit about FIFA basically saying usa will get wc if we submit bid with mexico and Canada.
well despite all of the unsavory politics surrounding the fifa wc bid process, actually, if we get it, i get excited just thinking about it. wc ’94 was awesome IN A WAY. but in ’94 we didn’t have 40,000+ REGULAR REASON mls attendance like they have in Seattle, etc. i mean i kind of get goosebumps thinking about how awesome this NEXT usa (+mexico +Canada) wc will be!
this guy is just excited about getting Canada into their first World Cup since the 80’s.. and all the Canadian dollars (what are they called loonies and toonies?) involved in fixing up the Toronto Skydome and Montreal O
could have hosted a world cup twice the size next year in the USA but what would the world cup be without crazy construction projects and obnoxious logistics
Ugh… Too many cooks in the kitchen!
This is sad. USA should get it 100% by ourselves but politics and being inclusive wins.
Hopefully the US gets the Final.
We will. We wouldn’t have included the other countries in our bid if we weren’t.
I like your optimism. I have a strange feeling we won’t though for unexpainable reasons (see: joint hosting).
I’m actually a fan of this.
1. There will be a lot more games this WC, and I’m sure the U.S. will host 1/2 or more of them, so it will be almost as many as a normal WC.
2. It’s a show of good faith that we are willing to work with other countries–aka I think it sets up goodwill to allow us to host/be a part of Copas once per cycle and could potentially lead to better cooperation between the CONCACAF Feds and refs from now until 2026.
3. This could mean we get like 6 or 7 countries in from our region, which will raise the level of play. Part of the reason Europe and S Am teams excel is that they play against good competition year in/year out. If the borderline teams are working harder and investing more money, it will raise the level of all of CONCACAF IMO.
4. I’m assuming that we’ll be able to ensure that al US games will be played here, so maybe the venues will be chosen after the group drawings or something like that.
5. It will also set the bar very high in terms of what is expected of the host country/ies as well as make it more of a continental thing rather than an individual country thing, so it will lead to us getting the next one much sooner.
As long as the US doesn’t give up control of any of the important details, I think it’s a great idea.
This is completely unnecessary from a US standpoint. You’re welcome Mexico and Canada.
I agree Old School. I don’t really have a problem including Canada, they are not going to get on their own.
Mexico has already hosted. Twice. So they will be the country that hosted the most now.
I am not a Mexican hater and I don’t have a problem with them hosting the most. I just don’t know why we dilute the US World Cup for a country that hosted successfully twice already by themselves when most countries that aren’t even half the US size host by themselves. Especially since the US hosted the most successful already in almost every measurable way and is set from day one to repeat that.
Great points.
The only way I see this working is if there are groups who play all their games in one location similar to how the NCAA tournament does it. That I would actually be ok with if I could travel to one location to see both group games (by then the groups will only be 3 teams large). Then the next round consolidates into other regional locations and so forth until the finals.
Overall, I hate this idea. Travel is going to be an absolute nightmare.
Who gets the auto bid?
US/MEX/CAN would get 3 bids and I assume there’d be a Hex for the remaining 3 bids, using the 6 allocated bids that were reported.
There really is no qualifying for US and Mexico by then. They have already qualified with >99% certainty
I don’t like the idea unless they can keep all the group games in a close area so not much travel until knockout stage. One group play in south east, one group play in pacific Northwest, northeast, southwest, central and so on. There is enough stadiums throughout
What they need to do is set up the final in St. Louis, with all of the group games starting in the host cities that are the furthest off (Mexico City, Montreal, etc.). Each game gets closer to St. Louis as the tournament progresses. This allows for all teams to travel similar distances with not too much change in time-zones.
How is this a “bid” when FIFA is basically telling us that if we submit a joint bid with Mexico and Canada, it’s pretty much a sure thing (not based on this article, but previous news reports)? Why bother with this charade?
FIFA should just figure out where it wants to host next, approach those countries and say “do you want to bid, and here are the terms.” Allowing ourselves to be bullied into this joint bid is a bad idea. Soon, FIFA will try to dictate American immigration policy and tell us we may lose our bid if we don’t comply with their humanitarian standards (*cough cough* Russia and Qatar…).
Let Mexico and Canada submit a joint bid. And good luck having teams make that 6 hour flight from Mexico City to Toronto for their next game…