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Report: USA-led 2026 World Cup bid in danger as support for Morocco rises

The U.S. Mexico and Canada united bid for World Cup 2026 may not be as ironclad as originally thought.

According to ESPN, support for the bid to host the 2026 World Cup is more divided than many foresaw. The report states that, according to many high-ranking FIFA officials, the lone rival bid, Morocco, may not just challenge the North American bid, but has the potential of beating it in this summer’s vote.

The report adds that Morocco currently has the support of much of Asia and South America, as well as its home continent of Africa, a number that likely would push the bid over the 104-vote total to secure hosting duties. Further complicating the North American plans are that all three potential host nations cannot vote while a fellow CONCACAF nation, Guatemala, is suspended.

According to the report, part of the reason the North American bid is not running away as many predicted is due to a growing frustration with the U.S. on a number of levels. Several voting nations are reportedly not past the widespread FIFA corruption exposed by U.S.-led government agencies while the bid has also worked to counter anti-American sentiments stemming from the election and subsequent actions taken by President Donald Trump, including a travel ban and reported disparaging comments about a number of countries.

The 2026 host is set to be announced on June 13.

Comments

  1. Morocco was already standing accused of bribing voters once.

    I have no idea how the US would get away with bribing folks after our own justice department hauled so many FIFA execs out already for doing just that, so anybody who’s for sale will probably go to Morocco, though I suspect the olive oil business is not so lucrative as well, the actual oil business, so those expecting handouts this time around will probably have to settle for much less.

    I don’t think we get this one. This one-country-one-vote ridiculousness kind of slants the field against us ever getting one, especially as popular as we are with everybody around the world right now.

    Gut punch.

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  2. Ah yes, FIFA and corruption… Blatter is still there so nothing really changes.

    Morocco didn’t have any problems “donating” to the Clinton Foundation, so they will “donate” to the other voting nations to support their bid.

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  3. just goes to show how short-sighted and moronic this organization is. they’re mad for getting caught in illegal activities and about an election of a guy who will be gone by 2026 even if he somehow got a second term. these people just gave RUSSIA and QATAR wins.

    sounds like some serious lobbying efforts are needed in South America. Asia as well but that may be harder. i’d like to think member nations like Japan, Australia, and South Korea would support the North American bid.

    i also think this is proof more games should have gone to Mexico and Canada. like someone said above, 20 games each would make the bid seem more “North American”. but Sunil is leading it and is a greedy little snot, so no shocker there.

    the cherry on top is FIFA wanted more joint bids. now we have a strong one, in an area of the World that hasn’t had a WC in a long time, and they aren’t supporting it.

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  4. While I can understand the international football community thinking rejecting the North American bid is a way to admonish Trumpism (America first!!!), the irony is that most of his threatened fearful followers would probably be happy to strike a blow against soccer.

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      • Fair or unfair, Russia and Qater didn’t call the countries that vote on this $hi!h0!e5 or lead investigations into FIFA. It sucks, but this isn’t surprising in any way

      • the S-Hole debate is ridiculous to me. It was a private comment that was made public by a Congressman looking to gain notoriety. Not excusing the comment (the Pres should be better), but to pretend this type of remark about third world countries is soo egregious vs the actual human rights violations of Russia, Qatar and many of the “s-hole” countries is a bit rich

  5. I’ve read several articles suggesting (or flat out stating) that the world may not be in the mood to “give something nice to the U.S.” due to the Trump presidency and the travel ban (among other policies). To that I respond: How did the Olympic Committee respond when the universally-beloved Barack and Michelle Obama actually traveled and addressed the IOC in support of Chicago’s bid for the 2016 games? And we know how that worked out.

    Look, I don’t doubt that most of the world is envious/hates/is annoyed with US. I lived through that for 18 years while living in Europe. But it has very little to do with who is in the White House. So if these third world countries want to support Morocco, then that’s fine. Just don’t complain when the infrastructure sucks and events are taking place near shanty towns, like the Rio games.

    I’m not worried about losing out, but I also won’t be upset if we do. We just need to focus on improving our national program from top to bottom so that we play in the 2026 game, regardless of where it takes place.

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    • I suggest you read a history of US foreign policy. Who is in the White House makes a big difference, especially vis a vis Latin America. If you think a president disparaging a country (i.e., s-hole countries) doesn’t make a difference, you learned nothing from living abroad. Not only that, people in other countries think that a US policy reflects how our citizens think about them, even though 90% of Americans would be ignorant of that policy. I worked with a fellow from Greece and found out that the Greeks were still mad at the US 10 years after the US had backed a junta that took over their country. When the Shah of Iran was overthrown, the leaders of the revolution were leading chants for Mossadegh, who was overthrown because of US and British intervention back in 1952. People don’t forget things like that.

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      • GP –
        Not only have I read about US foreign policy as a political science major and a law student, I actually lived it (as did my parents who were in Europe for 34 years). So forgive me for not checking my years of personal experience at the door in light of some random comments from your Greek colleague… You can get worked up about Trump’s comments (which were idiotic, for sure), but I’m telling you that most of the world’s loathing of the US has little to do with who the current resident of the White House is. Obama was supposed to improve our standing around the world. But at the first chance to give him a pat on the back and award us the 2016 games, they stuck it to the US. The countries know that Trump will be gone at some point (they can all count to 4, or 8). He will be long gone by the time 2026 rolls around. It’s bigger than Trump. It’s 70 years of accumulated policy. They want our culture, our movies, our music, but they don’t want us meddling in their politics (especially when we knock off a dictator or two).

        Most of the world has an inferiority complex that is based, in large part, on us being the domineering big brother since WWII. None more so than the French who would rather align themselves with Russia and China at the UN Security council, just to feel relevant, rather than siding with a country with whom it shares so much history (not to mention we bailed them out during two wars…).

    • You’re being a little rough on Morocco. As a neutral viewer I would be excited to see the tournament played there, actually. Fes, Casablanca, Tanger, Marrakech, Rabat, Agadir… worth the trip, really beautiful places. They have a rather corrupt king, but he runs a tight ship and the cup would go smoothy.

      Much of the world loathes the United States. WWII was a long time ago. Those cherished partnerships still exist like siblings but the relationships have evolved by what has happened since – aggressive American behaviour in the rest of the world seems perpetually intrusive, insensitive, ideologically extreme, even naive. It can be hard to put up with, if you take a less patriotic point of view.

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    • Well, I have a degree in poli sci plus a lot of grad work, mostly in international relations and comparative government and I, too , have lived abroad, maybe not as long as you, but I also married an immigrant and we have probably a dozen friends who were originally immigrants. Not knowing your background, I used examples that most people can understand. As for the main point, pollsters take polls in other countries asking people things like their opinion of the US. The US favorability went down from Clinton to Bush Jr., way down after the Iraq War. It went up considerably with Obama and last I checked was down to 30% under Trump, which was an historic low. Certainly you should be aware of the difference between Dollar Diplomacy and the Good Neighbor Policy and how that improved relations between the US and Latin America. Policies and Presidents make a difference and that should be obvious.

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      • Just to play devil’s advocate it would be easy to point out that every year we get further from WWII, Marshall Plan and US protection from Soviet aggression during the Cold War. People forget and the younger generation of Europeans never saw what the US protected them from. Trump certainly bringing America bashing back en vogue.

    • If this is true I really do not believe it should be viewed as a USSF failure. It would only show the continued flaws and corruption that have been so strongly entrenched in FIFA.
      US and Australia passed on for Qatar. US, Canada Mexico passed for Morocco? If corrupt politics is whats needed for votes then its fine if we don’t ever host. That will be FIFA’s undoing in the long run.

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      • Typical ignorant american response. Their grievances as as legit as any and the way to select the world cup host is as democratic as anything we see in the US. Maybe even more so. Just because you don’t get the results you want doesn’t make them corrupt.

      • FIFA has been a corrupt, flawed organization for decades. That’s a fact. Pointing this out is not ignorant or arrogant.

      • @Rob, so because FIFA execs got called out for bribes and collusion by the FBI, that somehow equates to acceptables grievances had by these same cheaters and frauds within FIFA?? Other countries can make this about Trump all they want, and i can certainly understand that in a sense, but let’s not pretend that pocketing money illegally for the purposes of awarding undeserving countries the biggest global event on the planet ie equitable to anything Trump has said! It’s one thing to be ignorant and incompetent i.e Trump, and quite another to have received bribes in the form of millions of dollars for gain! If that’s what you consider more democratic than anything we see in the US then that would mean your view of democracy is skewed, to what i don’t know though!

  6. Count me among those who isn’t worried at all. This is how FIFA gets itself better economics. Those money grubbing weasels will come to daddy eventually.

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  7. We even added two more countries to our bid so non-whites, non-christians and other trump undesirables would have a place to play and this is the thanks we get?

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    • The problem is that it never really looked like a joint bid with both Mexico and Canada getting a paltry amount of games. It always looked like a “US needs to look they play nice cause everyone hates us” bid. Canada and Mexico should have been awarded at least 20 games each to make it look more like a partnership and not like the US was trying to cover it’s butt.

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