Donald Trump took to Twitter to discuss to the 2026 World Cup hosting bid on Thursday, and now FIFA has responded in kind.
FIFA referred to guidelines prohibiting the influence of politicians in soccer matters in response to the president saying, “The U.S. has put together a STRONG bid w/ Canada & Mexico for the 2026 World Cup, it would be a shame if countries that we always support were to lobby against the U.S. bid. Why should we be supporting these countries when they don’t support us (including at the United Nations)?”
“As a general rule, we cannot comment on specific statements in connection with the bidding process,” they said in a statement to Reuters UK. “We can only refer to the FIFA Regulations for the selection of the venue for the final competition of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and in particular to the Bid Rules of Conduct incorporated therein.”
FIFA regulations specifically warn against national governments taking action that could “adversely affect the integrity of the Bidding Process and create an undue influence on the Bidding Process.”
Contrary to FIFA, Mexico president Enrique Pena Nieto issued a more favorable response. “We can have differences but football unites us. Together we support the candidacy of Mexico, Canada and USA as the headquarters of the World Cup 2026,” he wrote on Twitter.
Morocco is the only country competing with the USA, Mexico, and Canada joint bid. A vote will take place on the 2026 World Cup hosting rights at FIFA’s general congress on June 13.
my two cents: having weakened the straw man (morocco), now they must keep up appearances of following regulations.
the next step is to then use these same regulations to destroy the straw man and their plan is complete.
“FIFA regulations specifically warn against national governments taking action that could “adversely affect the integrity of the Bidding Process and create an undue influence on the Bidding Process.””
Hahahahahahoohoohoo!
FIFA acting like their “regulations” exceed the authority of nations.
Anyhow, while I would miss a World Cup in my home nation, the idea that corrupt FIFA would ship the WC to Morocco makes me laugh! Serves them right.
Didn’t platini outright admit that he voted for Qatar because of pressure from his prime minister? Now FIFA gets upset because of the tweeter in chief?
Meeting fifa President allowed threatening political reprisals at the UN if you don’t support US bid not allowed, not that hard to figure out the difference.
More like selective outrage.
I was worried he was gonna somehow gonna tie the bid in with NAFTA, which would be terrible.
But to get all in a frenzy comparing his tweet vs the actions-both past and present- of other nations, is ridiculous
Bribing your way to the WC election is far different than Trump threatening to pull support for countries that don’t vote for the bid he’s talking far more in aid money than the Qatari’s threw out. Not to mention he specifically mentions the UN which could mean much more than money. Of course its just Trump being a bully, his base isn’t a lot of soccer fans so he’d never follow through.
Its hard to find a number for how much in bribes Qatar may have paid for votes, but votes seemed to be going for a million or two a vote. So you are looking at 2 million a vote for 14 votes throw in 10 fifa officials like Jack Warner and you get 48 million. The US aid to Cameroon is 132 million per year, Kenya is 1.1 billion. That’s why FIFA doesn’t like Trump threatening other countries.
So Obama personally corresponded with Sepp Blatter, then met with him privately at the White House, then sent Bill Clinton to lobby on our behalf – all for the 2022 World Cup… and Trumps tweet has everyone up in arms and quoting the FIFA rules??
Morocco failed to disclose infrastructure issues AND their laws regarding LGBT people in their initial bid, and nobody bats an eyelash- but they blow a gasket over the tweeter in chief…
Unbelievable…
Sports and politics is always an oil & water nightmare but when it comes to soccer the two are intertwined (with a lot of money) in almost every country except The US, but when Trumps says something everyone freaks out.
Ridiculous..
That’s because of what he says, and how he says it. We’re not just comparing the number of times previous presidents uttered the word “FIFA”. Previous presidents considered their words before they said or typed them. Previous presidents weren’t ticking time bombs like this guy.
Like Fifa didnt already hate us for actually indicting their colleagues
I guess it’s time to buy tickets to Fez, thanks a lot unelected criminal A-Hole! Though of course this is totally intentional – Trump wants us to lose so he can add another eternal whine to his top-10 list of victimization talking points that the less fortunate one third of our population snorts up like lines of cocaine.
This is of course minor to the rest of the disasters he’s causing worldwide, but it really is a perfect example. Hey, Morocco is supposed to be a beautiful country to visit!
I really can’t wait until we start playing actual games again. The quality of the dialogue on this site and in these comments has become truly poor and mostly childish….. perhaps some actual soccer would provide for better conversation.
Don’t count on it.
Couldn’t have said it better, Gomer
Ohh, yeah. Football wasn’t effed up until Trump came along, right.
The president commented on something, and it happened to be soccer. Everybody is a politician!!
FIFA didn’t seem to have any issues with the ruler of Qatar bribing the rest of the third world to vote for Qatar for 2022, but one tweet from a US president gets them in a tizzy about regulations. Oh well, hypocrisy and corruption is par for the course for FIFA, not getting my hopes up on 2026.
Yeah, but that was done behind the scenes and on the Q.T. Trump is about as subtle as a panzer division with Stuka air support.
So Trymp should bribe people behind closed doors instead of publicly stating that we support a lot of countries in a lot of ways, and it would be a “shame” if they didn’t support us as well? Got it. You should totally run for office, bud
The will always be held to a different standard. It’s not fair but it’s how it is. This might blow the whole bid.
JCC: dramatic much…?
Not really sure how that’s being dramatic. The bid has been in question for the past few weeks because of Trump. I don’t see how him tweeting what he did helps the situation especially since this time around since it’s one nation, one vote and not vote by committee.
Good grief! Who was the idiot that put soccer on Trump’s radar?
Kanye West?
Face palm
You just don’t get the art of the deal
lol, new auto-response to anyone put off by something our blabber-mouth-in-chief tweets.
Is there anything this idiot can’t eff up?
How about unemployment?
headed towards an inflationary implosion
whammmm … I know right? Because the economy was doing so poorly when he took office. You know some things he eff’s up right away. Other times he sets something in motion that will eff it up down the road. Just give him time. He’ll eff that one up too.
When the situation calls for a scalpel, he brings a jackhammer.When there’s a ballroom dance competition, he’s like a bunch of elephants in a conga line.