By RYAN TOLMICH
While the U.S. remains uncommitted regarding a potential 2026 World Cup bid due to current FIFA rules, Mexico has stated their intentions of joining Canada in bidding for the upcoming tournament.
Mexican federation president Justino Compeán has revealed that Mexico believes that it is deserves hosting duties after going 40 years without having a World Cup on home soil.
“This country? Why not? It also deserves a third World Cup, so the competition is going to be good, and I hope that our referee is impartial. We’re going to have Canada, the United States and Mexico giving it their all [to land the World Cup],”Compeán said. “Obviously, from 1986 to 2026, it’s a lot of years — 40 years — and so yes, we have the right to raise our hand, and we will have the stadiums.”
Mexico, who have hosted the World Cup twice in their history, features a series of World Cup-scaled venues, including the soon-to-be rennovated Estadio Azteca and a new stadium in Monterrey that is set to open in 2015.
It is widely believed that the 2026 tournament will be awarded to a nation in North America, who haven’t hosted a World Cup since the 1994 incarnation that took place in the U.S.
However, the U.S. have stated that they will not make a bid for the tournament unless FIFA amend rules regarding the bidding process, although Canada has stated their intention of submitting a bid.
Mexico will now hope to use the 2016 FIFA World Congress, which will be hosted in Mexico, as an opportunity to impress delegates in an effort to increase the likelihood of being chosen.
“We want to have a World Cup,” Compean said. “And also, I’ll remind you that in 2016 we’re going to have the FIFA World Congress here in Mexico, which [CONCACAF president] Jeffrey [Webb] helped us land. It’s so important to have this Congress: 209 countries, 1200-1300 persons will be attending the Congress, and we have to show the other face of Mexico.”
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What do you think of a potential Mexico World Cup? How do you see the bid process playing out?
Share your thoughts below.
North American World Cup. Combine the bids.
It’s the only way Mexico can get it’s national team to play at home!! It seems for the last several years the preferred place to play Mexican NT games seem to be in the US. where the financial arrangements are better than back home.
But I think that Mexico will have a hard time with FIFA due to the still ongoing fight with the Drug Cartels and messy street violence.
FIFA is OK with repressive, and/or corrupt governments. after all corruption is FIFA’s forte, but thugs, drugs and street violence make FIFA do a double take. and that will be hard to overlook.
The big plus is that US WC’s are money machines for FIFA, the downside for FIFA is the FBI
Rioting didnt stop brazil.
USA/Mexico joint bid. . . you heard it here first!
Add Canada
I’m sure FIFA would be thrilled to see the best players in the world getting bombarded with urine, trash and god only knows what else. Yay for Mexico!
Compared to that, FIFA would welcome the vuvuzela. (Until Mexican fans started using it as a funnel to fill balloons.)
What’s interesting to me is that nobody has managed to catch these ungodly acts on video.
Not even pictures exist.
One would think if they were so prevalent, somebody would actually have some sort of evidence instead of parroting what they read on the web.
There is no evidence because it never happened, it’s just part of the racist/xenophobic nature of US fans. Somehow we seem to attract that kind.
Cmon man, don’t make comments that make sense on the internet
because it’s all part of the narrative to keep the supposed rivalry alive, make your enemy look like monsters so it is easier to hate them. Truth is that, if you don’t act like a total douche to them, mexican fans are awesome if you can handle the banter.
The news source for the events in question: http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/blog/2006/06/notes_from_the.html
Umm… so how do you explain Bofo Bautista? There is plenty of footage of that fat bag of feces defiling Gold Cup and MLS events over several years. The stench of his play was so powerful it still lingers.
Mexico’s government and FIFA are a match made in heaven. They may want to host every WC there.
Not that it doesn’t still happen all the time, but It’s getting a LOT harder to get away with under the table deals in Mexico. A) Mexicans have taken with a zest to using social media to expose BS….and B) American media operates pretty freely in Mexico…even if a Mexican media outlet is too intimidated to run a story, it’s pretty easy for a whistle blower to find an international media outlet that will run the story. That’s how Walmart got its penchant for paying bribes in Mexico blown up by its top lawyer in Mexico and the New York Times. FIFA might find operating as per usual in Mexico less…profitable than it used to.
not surprising. why wouldn’t they? if it’s going to be in North America, it would seem pretty obvious that Canada, USA, and Mexico would bid.
Maybe Mexico or Canada could try hosting a Gold Cup every once in awhile first.
i feel like that is CONCACAF’s decision, right? and yes, the Gold Cup needs to rotate. i don’t care how much money CONCACAF loses.
Well, FIFA does care about money — which is why this won’t happen — unless, of course, they are paid off well enough.
i’m talking about the Gold Cup, not the World Cup. how much money does FIFA get from CONCACAF for the Gold Cup? i just assumed they didn’t…you know, since they are a non-profit and all. what expenses would FIFA need to recuperate for a CONCACAF tournament?
FIFA scarecly spends a dime on any of this. They make their money through licensing fees, and they make a profit no matter what.
The Gold Cup is consistently held in the US because it is far-and-away the most profitable way to run the tournament (CONCACAF is not a wealthy organization, and member organizations count on this revenue), and also because it really isn’t that “unfair” to the visiting teams at all. The US rarely has a raging home-field advantage, and in some cases US fans are significantly outnumbered by fans of the opposition. Most all CONCACAF nations have significant emigrant populations in the host cities, and they show up in numbers– in many cases equal to or greater than US fans.
There really is no need to rotate this tournament to Mexico for “competitive fairness” reasons. All it will create is an even bigger home-field advantage for Mexico (they rarely play in front of anything but a raucous pro-Mexico fanbase here, anyway). Canada might make a case, but can they really offer the attendance that the US can? Who will show up in Winnipeg for a Jamaica-El Salvador game
I agree with the sentiment, but don’t profits from the Gold Cup subsidize a bunch of the CONCACAF federations? I think they need that money more than they need Gold Cup to circulate.
fair point, King. i would not be surprised to hear a good portion of the money is used that way.
Worth noting that Mexico has in fact hosted Gold Cup games before, in both 1993 and 2003.
I suspect personally that Mexico really has no belief it could actually win a 2026 bid on its own. However, they are probably looking at the Euro 2020 plan and sensing that a joint regional hosting plan plan may be the end-game (particularly if the tournament is expanded to 40 teams, as has been suggested by some in FIFA). At this extrememly early stage, it’s impossible to say what will happen, but they’d like to make sure that they have “tossed their hat in the ring” insofar as any future discussions are concenred.
Who knows if there will even be a FIFA World Cup in 2026… but if I’m Mexico, I’d do the same thing…. no reason to get left out, when you can always withdraw your interest.
if NA international travel was a bit easier I would suggest just hosting at the 16 largest metro areas in NA.
USA (11): NY, LA, Chicago, Miami, Philly, DFW, Boston, Houston, Atlanta, DC, Seattle (actually 19th but better than Detroit or San Fran.)
Mexico (3): DF, Guadalajara, Monterrey
Canada (2): Toronto, Montreal
WC is usually 11-13 venues but 4 games in 16 stadiums makes sense for a host who doesn’t have to build much. maybe run a Gold Cup like this first..
Even better, let’s just have them all in the US so we don’t have to worry about international travel.
NAFTA 2026
Group A Seattle Vancouver
Group B Bay Area LA
Group C Mexico City Guadalajara
Group D Houston Monterrey
Group E Dallas KC
Group F Chicago Columbus
Group G NYC Montreal
Group H Toronto DC
1Av2B Vancouver I 1Ev2F KC M
1Bv2A Bay Area J 1Fv2E Columbus N
1Cv2D GuadalajaraK 1Gv2H Montreal O
1Dv2C Houston L 1Hv2G DC P
I v J Seattle Q M v N Chicago S
K v L Monterrey R O v P Toronto T
Q v R Los Angeles S v T New York
3rd Place Mexico City
Final Dallas
Can’t imagine why anyone would choose Mexico over the US but seeing as we have Qatar hosting 2022 (at least for now) anything is possible.
Temperatures in Mexico will seem cool by comparison.
not if you getting burnt someone out in the middle of the dessert in durango.
Other than Mexicans, North and South Americans that live way closer to Mexico than to the US and all the people around the world that hate the US you are right, I can’t think of anybody either.
Judging by the number of times Mexico has played here in the past few years, even they prefer the US.
Pesos suck hombre!
I know where you come from and I know all that, but what Im trying to say is that Mexico is NOW taking very similar philosophies from MLS, as if they have 20 years of existence. LigaMX is old school and now they want to recreate their league with MLS ideas, like if they are 20 years old like MLS.
Think outside the box, this is not creative witting or English 1301, think use your brain,its a blog to express open ended opinions.
Good luck Mexico. Start building your “FIFA Development Fund” war chest now, and remember…brown envelopes.
I’m pretty sure Mexico has lax anti-bribery laws so they are well primed to compete for the bid.
Maybe we could convince the cartel’s to take Sepp Blatter off our hands during the World Congress
+infinity
“Mexico will now hope to use the 2016 FIFA World Congress, which will be hosted in Mexico, as an opportunity to impress delegates in an effort to increase the likelihood of being chosen.”
Indeed, because all logic is lost when a World Cup location is chosen.
real story here is FIFA needs nations like the USA to play the WC bribe game if not host. the 2018-22 award was great for fifa because so many developed nations spent a lot of money trying to win those bids forcing the two winners to basically drop blank checks off with FIFA.
FIFA encouraging Mexico and Canada bids is all about reducing the leverage USSF has in terms of pushing reform.
ding! ding! ding! we have a winner
I told you people, I heard this like 2 years ago. Ligamx and the Mexican soccer federation are watching everything MLS is doing and they are practically copying MLS and the US federation.
For example, they re-branded to LigaMX, they have a new trophy that looks like the old MLS trophy and they brought back their league cup which has not succeeded as they thought it would, and now they want MLS to join their league cup. ( Dont join MLS, we have a good league cup)
LigaMX also wants to expand to 20 teams and promote and relegate 2 teams.
Not only that, they are asking for new stadiums from almost every team. Chivas has a new stadium, Monterrey Rayados will have a new one next year, Estadio Azteca will be remodel, Santos Torreon has a new stadium, and easily other stadium can be remodel to host a world cup.
Ligamx also wants every team to have a DP signing, but they can only get spanish speaking DPs, so that means Spaniards,Brazilians and Portuguese.
Last but not least, they want to switch to 1 season instead of 2 per year and have just 1 game for the championship like MLS Cup.
There is nothing wrong with emulating MLS/US Soccer.
I don’t think Canada deserves to host a WC. They can’t even provide real grass for the Women’s World Cup and I do believe that FIFA rankings (or some other form of minimum qualification from a sporting standpoint) should be a criterion for hosting the tournament.
Dude, your medication!!!
Mexico used to have one season like most of the rest of the world so they’re not copying MLS
DP’s? Why? they can spend as much as they want since they don’t have a salary cap.
Expanding to 20 teams has been talked to death for decades and still hasn’t happened.
They’ve done the league cup before and it didn’t work.
Why would they want to copy a league that loses money in a regular bases and has trouble getting tv audiences?
see this is a reason why i dont think you deserve that doctorate, tv audience is relative to the size of the population. our league rivals and in some cases surpases top european leagues in attendance and viewship. Mexico has one dominant sport the usa has 5 and this league has to rival those league to gain tv audiences. dont forget this league is only 20 years old there are new generations that are growing up with the league and when they get older this will be their game of choice. and yes they want to copy a league that is the black not yet on the green because its able to achieve great growth and popularity around the world. dont be irritated by the fact that in north america and even in the whole continent of america mls is the top choice league for any european or big start wanting to play. obviusly you even point out that they have incompetent people in charge, people who have not been able to figure out how to make those problems you list work. so yes thank you for proving that their goal is to want to model towards a league that was given no chance, mocked, undermined and yet it still risen above alll that, even liga MX. find a tissue.
Seems like you’re beyond misinformed at this point.
LigaMX doesn’t need MLS. They’ve managed to grow their brand in the US without needing MLS. Matter of fact, their ratings in the US are far superior to those of MLS.
The reason why Sacramento, to name just one expansion hopeful, is in its current position is because their owners were blown away that a game between Morelia and Puebla sold out on a week day years ago.
Morelia and Puebla. Two middling teams from Mexico.
I’d say that it’s the exact opposite. MLS’ success is largely dependent on attracting those same Mexican fans that turn out for one off preseason games but don’t bother showing up for MLS games.
As far as what LigaMX can copy from MLS, there are a couple things they could implement down there. League transparency for one. Better sponsorship deals that would make some of the teams’ uniforms less cluttered. They have no need DPs since they don’t have a salary cap.
The notion that LigaMX wants to be like MLS is laughable since every step they’ve taken has been to follow in the footsteps of La Liga and the Argentine league. Those who claim otherwise, like you, are merely exhibiting the inferiority complex that plagues a lot of American fans.
Brazilians and Portuguese don’t speak Spanish… They speak Portuguese.
beat me to it!
True, but every Portuguese and Brazilian I know speaks Spanish. I used to play with a Brazilian team, and they all spoke Spanish for the benefit of a few other South Americans on the team.
Do you think that’s representative?
He’s right Googley they all espeak espani
1. Liga MX rebranded because they made a sponsorship deal with BBVA
2. There has been talks about Liga MX expanding for years and to increase the number of relegated teams but it never happens.
3. Liga MX isn’t asking for new stadiums, the teams are doing it themselves for different reasons. Guadalajara built a new stadium because they didn’t want to share it with their rivals Atlas, Monterrey basically had the same reasons (they share it with the local american football team) but also needed to increase the capacity and it was impossible without building a new stadium, the Azteca will be renovated because it is over 40 years old and the last time it was renovated was before the 1986 WC, almost 20 years ago, Santos built a new stadium because the old one could barely host 18k fans and they were growing as a club.
4. No they don’t want DPs, the only team that is doing that is Queretaro, Club America and Cruz Azul actually rejected the idea of signing Ronaldinho as they are more focused on results than attracting new fans like Queretaro.
5. Liga MX was a one season tournament for decades before MLS ever existed, the format change was to immitate Argentina’s first division and probably will stay the same as they make more money that way.
“Ligamx also wants every team to have a DP signing, but they can only get spanish speaking DPs, so that means Spaniards,Brazilians and Portuguese”
Brazilians and the Portuguese speak — wait for it… Portuguese not Spanish Einstein.
Vai Corinthians!!!!
Chupa Porco
It’s not a matter of who’s “copying” who. What’s happening here is that the FMF and Liga MX are finally waking up to the fact that the “noisy neighbors” have some good ideas, and that the best organizations are constantly barrowing from one another– these things become “best practices”, and they have been napping on that, another side effect of their longstanding sense of denial about the USA actually catching up to them.
Our friends down south are realizing (years too late, in some ways) that this is a long-term war, and they are nobody’s pick to win at the rate things are going. Seems like they are actually realizing the true state of affairs finally. Good for them (hehehe).
I think it’s hard to imagine Mexico becoming the first country to host three times
Not as hard to imagine as the US having as many WCs as Mexico.
I don’t know about that my friend…. FMF might have one of the better endorsements for the US bid as they’ve demonstrated time and again that they prefer playing in the US to Mexico.
Perhaps one pathway for in which in country supporters of El Tri will finally get to see their own national team play is by hosting WC?
But…. who knows…… no guarantees as if they win the bid they very well could play their games in Texas or something.
….Or the other way around: 20 years after being forced by FIFA to create a league your teams, league or national, are still getting outdrawn by Mexican teams at home…and by teams from every country in the world for that matter. Tell me again why you deserve another world cup?
hahaha funny you come back with that since the guy saying he will bid for the world cup is saying that he is working on a porject to invite mls teams to liga mx because of how bad its doing. the only reason why they fill up stadiums here in the usa is nostalgia. even the mexicans in mexico dont want to watch it live, that should say something. i really hope you dont leave in the usa and refer to the usa as you not us.
The guy you’re referencing is Decio de Maria, who works for LigaMX. The above person is Justino Compean, head of the FMF.
That’s two separate entities.
Even more importantly, de Maria talked about a “Champion of Champions” game between the winner(s) of the Liguilla vs the winner(s) of the Copa MX. He mentioned discussions with MLS about a tournament between both leagues.
Your comment sounds rather uninformed.
it is not but rather you strengthen my point that liga mx needs mls, not the other way around.
“Your league”….. “you deserve a WC” LoL
Just pointing out an irony. Honestly, it ain’t personal brother. For the record, I enjoy watching both leagues, have ownership in neither and quite frankly, I don’t give a ^%$# if that tainted, corrupt, exploitive, parasitic train wreck of an organization brings it’s WC to the US or not. Whether my country “deserves” it or not is a matter of opinion. I don’t even know what deserve is supposed to mean in this context. I do know those making the decisions aren’t serving the interests of the people of the host nation, the greater organization of FIFA or the game of soccer.
If I were a supporter of EL Tri living in Mexico, I’d be questioning whether or not FMF serves the interests of its own supporters or team n many of its decisions. I’d also be pretty PO’d that I have to go to the US to see my own team play. The most passionate, “deserving” fans can not. Believe it or not, I have plenty of love for Mexico, its people, its culture and its passion for the game and think for those reasons, Mexico would host an awesome WC… in spite of how hard its federation tried to F it up.
Imagining the US hosting twice is not outrageous at all. They were the highest attended world cup of all time and have a massive TV market. FIFA is about the money and a WC is the US would make more than in Mexico probably.
or how about the first WC with not two host countries but three….from Vancouver to Tijuana…a west coast N.American World cup. Give the host slot to Canada. They need it real bad