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Hope Solo: 2026 World Cup shouldn’t go to United bid

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Former U.S. Women’s National Team goalkeeper Hope Solo is speaking out against the joint World Cup bid between the U.S., Canada and Mexico just a week before the vote for the 2026 host takes place.

“I can’t say it should be awarded to Morocco,” Solo said, according to the AP. “But I don’t think it should go to the United States, and that’s hard to say.”

“Hopefully FIFA can stand up and step in and say, ‘If we’re going to reward you, let’s look at everything and point out where you can fix certain things,’” Solo added.

The disgruntled former international netminder also chastised the structure of MLS while discouraging the efforts of the group behind the United bid.

“That is not helping the sport in America,” Solo said. “I want to see promotion-relegation in the NASL and the MLS. Right now it’s true, you have rich ownership groups owning MLS teams and they’re only getting richer and they’re alienating everybody else.

“A new ownership group can’t just come in and purchase a team even though they have the financial security, even though they have the commitment. It’s controlled by those single individuals at Soccer United Marketing, MLS in particular, (Commissioner) Don Garber,” Solo said.

The vote to decide the host of the 2026 World Cup takes place on June 10 in Moscow.

The United bid presented by the three North American nations is going up against Morocco for the right to host the tournament in eight years.

Comments

  1. $0.02 I didn’t read the whole thing. You wrote a book

    but I don’t have a problem with her voicing her opinion
    I like when others do.

    She is just wrong on so many accounts, like the ones listed by others above.

    Not saying everything is perfect, but sometimes not everything CAN be perfect.
    And things can change too. right or wrong, MLS salary structure is QUITE a bit different from when my Sounders joined.

    Oh and another thing that changed, the Sounders went from 3-5k fans to 40k+ at every game, because MLS is the only league in my lifetime ( two of hers ) to figure out how to make soccer work here.

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  2. hope solo touches upon topics of soccer politics and corruption. we assume that a pro player such as hope solo is busy practicing soccer and doesn’t have time to waste on reading about all of fifa’s scandals. so i think we respect the athlete’s general concept and we can honor it by supplying some of the missing details, if we can. after all, you must agree, in basic concept, she is right. the soccer world today is full of unfairness both at the league and world cup levels.

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  3. so what fifa and their friends in the news media have been doing recently is this:
    – they have faked the usa’s world ranking into the top 16 for recent world cups
    – then fifa does the drawing for the wc groups based on these rankings
    – for the usa, in their group they have:
    — a legitimate top 8 team in the world
    — and the usa (FALSE TOP 16 TEAM – probably closer to 100 or 150 in the world)
    — and two more teams, both of which are probably in the 100-150 range
    recall that the way that wc qualification works, the 32 teams in the wc are NOT the top 32 teams in the world. each confederation has so many slots, and some confederations are much weaker than others. so the range of rankings of teams in the wc can be quite big.

    so what they have done, by falsely ranking the usa as a top 16 team, is create FOR THE USA ONLY one strange group consisting of a top 8 team and 3 WEAK TEAMS. for this strange group, they coined the term, “group of death”. it’s a pr stunt/propaganda thing. we’re all supposed to believe that the usa’s top 16 world ranking is correct, and that the reason that this group is so difficult is because the #2, 3 and 4 teams are all so good. ACTUALLY, it’s not true. if it’s a group of death, that’s because the usa ISN’T REALLY A TOP 16 team. and because the #2 (usa) and #3 and #4 teams are so equal BECAUSE THEY ALL ARE EQUALLY BAD (~100-150 range teams).

    recall that in the fifa wc, the top two teams advance out of every group. so by doing the above things, the usa is put into a group that they have a real chance of getting out of. (we expect the true top 8 team and one of the other three will get out, and the usa has a good chance to be that other team.)

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  4. to clarify about the wc: i think fifa has been LUSTING after the $$ they will get from another successful usa wc (and united north america hosting is okay, too. either way, fifa gets lots of $$). i think fifa has been lusting for another usa hosting $$$ grab ever since they cashed in on the 1994 wc in usa and they probably frankly couldn’t believe their eyes HOW MUCH $$$ THEY GOT. and so ever since the ~1994 (maybe some of this began a few years earlier) wc, fifa has been doing things such as:
    – adding more wc slots to concacaf (to make it easier for usa to qualify for wc)
    – faking (this is my own personal allegation) the usa’s world ranking. why? well for several reasons: 1) at wc’s, it affects grouping. if the usa is artificially rated in the top 8, then in a group the usa would replace AN ACTUAL TOP 8 TEAM and thus the usa’s group has become easier, making it much much easier for usa to advance out of their group. similarly, if the usa’s world ranking were falsely placed into the top 16, then in a wc the usa’s group would have a legitimate world top 8 team but BE MISSING A LEGITIMATE WORLD TOP 16 TEAM, thus again making the usa’s group much easier. why make the usa’s wc group easier? well, more $$, that’s why. if the usa gets out of their group and plays one more game, that’s more $$. to understand what fifa does, just think $$. usually, that is sufficient to explain their actions, imo. 2) a kind of a pr/propaganda campaign. if fifa can convince the people of the world that the usa is a top soccer team in the world, a perennial world cup power, then i think it naturally follows that advertising $$ would start flowing in. a direct relationsihp between world ranking and $$, i feel sure about it.
    – creating the mini world cup called the confederations cup. i believe this was created specifically to pimp the usa. because the champion of each of the 6 federations (plus wc winner + host nation) are invited. well, in concacaf, basically all the usa has to do is beat mexico for the regional title (and we have done that many times recently) and presto! the usa is a participant in the new “mini” wc. so in this way we A) get people used to the idea that the usa is a regular participant in some kind of a mini wc and B) since the mini wc is always in the ACTUAL LOCATION OF THE NEXT YEAR’S REAL WC then all 8 of the participating nations get acclimated to the travel, the climate, etc. thus increasing the likelihood of their successes in the real wc the next year. again, i think this specifically was created to benefit the usa. this was all part of the plan to make the usa win real wc’s. for the $$, that’s why.
    – creatively applying/changing fifa’s “continental rotation policy” to benefit the usa’s wc bids each time. sometimes fifa upholds there rotation policy and sometimes they change it. it always seems to benefit the usa each time, regardless. so, although 80% of russia is located in asia, since it’s capitol, moscow, in technically in europe, so now it’s time for fifa to uphold their continental rotation policy, thus eliminating, in one stroke, all of the ACTUAL HOST COMPETITION such as england, france, and whichever other euro countries would have liked to have bid to host the wc. for example, recall that england has not hosted the wc since 1966. that’s a LONG TIME, considering that they have the premier league, one of the best football leagues in the world, and they more or less invented soccer. i believe that fifa’s lust for usa $$$ is screwing over nations like england who ought to have been awarded a wc but weren’t. i think england, not qatar, should have gotten the 2022 wc. (remember how frustrated and disappointed david beckham was that their excellent bid was denied?)
    i basically agree with hope solo in that i think fifa is being very unfair (to say it nicely) and corrupt (can we talk here?) about how they are awarding wc hosting. instead of accepting bribes and doing massive propaganda campaigns to cash in on usa $$$, it would be nice if they would award wc hosting by some fair and equitable process and hopefully then a nation like england would be getting ready for the next exciting wc in england. wouldn’t that be a great world to live in?

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  5. i agree with Ebenezer Samuel of the new york daily news.

    on august 25, 2016, he wrote:

    Hope Solo shouldn’t have been suspended from USWNT for ‘cowards’ comment and speaking her mind
    http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/soccer/hope-solo-shouldn-suspended-cowards-comment-article-1.2766171

    “Hope Solo, always a rollercoaster of a soccer star, was speaking her mind. But when U.S. soccer suspended her and severed her full-time contract with the U.S. Soccer Federation on Wednesday, it essentially served us all yet another reminder of why athletes routinely avoid authenticity in the first place.

    They’re not allowed. They’re encouraged to be blank billboards, to show only carefully crafted personalities, to avoid revealing their true selves to the public. It’s the irony of the athlete in 2016; we act as if we want them to be real with us . . . until we don’t like how “real” actually looks.

    We’ve seen it time and again. There was Richard Sherman in 2014rio, moments after he’d made a dynamic defensive play to send the Seahawks to the Super Bowl, woofing into Erin Andrews’ mic in a wild rant that got him labeled as “rude” and “disrespectful.” There was Cam Newton after this year’s Super Bowl loss, ditching the media, inconsolable. There was gymnast Gabby Douglas, scolded for simply looking less than excited as other U.S. gymnasts won individual events and she was reduced to a mere piece of the team, no longer its star.”

    she said the swedes played in the olympics “like a bunch of cowards.” so what? but then, sunil gulati goes on to explain that, actually, her six month suspension was due to an accumulation of “past incidents”.

    “Taking into consideration the past incidents involving Hope, as well as the private conversations we’ve had requiring her to conduct herself in a manner befitting a U.S. National Team member, U.S. Soccer determined this is the appropriate disciplinary action.” said gulati.

    apparently, these “past incidents” include:
    – In 2007, she publicly questioned then-coach Greg Ryan’s decision to bench her at the 2007 FIFA World Cup in favor of Briana Scurry.

    – In January 2015, Solo’s husband, former NFL tight end Jerramy Stevens, was driving a U.S. Soccer-owned vehicle when police pulled him over on suspicion of driving under the influence. Solo was a passenger in the vehicle. U.S. Soccer consequently suspended her 30 days.

    – In October 2015, a Washington appeals court determined she will face charges on an alleged domestic violence incident that occurred in June 2014. According to ESPN.com’s Mark Fainaru-Wada, Solo’s half-sister, Teresa Obert, alleges Solo attacked her and her teenage son.

    so let me get this straight: if i say publicly that another team played like “cowards”, and if my partner and i have previously had a DUI, and if there were an episode of domestic violence reported in my house, and if i had protested being benched by my coach, then i should be suspended from ussoccer for six months? do i understand that right?

    my two cents: weren’t sunil gulati/ussoccer being just a little “heavy handed” with hope solo? i mean, come on. the dui and domestic violence incidents? that’s her home life. it didn’t happen on a soccer field. it’s none of their business, actually. and what? these tweets she made which were highly critical of the other women’s goalkeeper? so what? and finally, what? she said the swedish olympic team played like “cowards”. so what? maybe they did?

    i just think this whole ussoccer-hope solo thing to be a bit odd. i just think they are being awfully, awfully heavy handed with her. i think we need to ask the more important question, “why are they being so heavy handed with her? WHAT ARE THEY AFRAID OF?”

    but i agree with the writer ebenezer samuel of the new york daily news. let the athletes compete. and let them talk smack. there’s nothing wrong with a little enticing smack talk before or after the game. in fact, i enjoy my pint quite a bit more listening to it 😉 wink wink. (i like athlete’s smack talk.) i actually LOVE when athetes talk smack. i think it just adds a little spice to the whole sports thing.

    please don’t take away the spice! please let the athletes talk smack.

    the swede’s are adults. they can take it. (and they can probably dish it out, too. don’t worry.)

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  6. The only thing she got right was the SUM/Garber part. I predict FC Dallas will develop the future Bundesliga all-star starting 11 team and be compensated= $0, for it.

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    • I am very interested in the concept of “Mining Children for Gold” – Pick up as many prospects as possible hoping one of them is really valuable.
      You spend some $ on training ($10k per person per year?) and hope to own that golden child’s rights for the rest their life, pocketing $ Millions?
      Is that how it works?

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    • MLS clubs now receive 100% of the transfer fee on academy products now. This was reported on when Montreal sold a player to Barcelona earlier this year.

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  7. Holy *&^%… LoL… There are certainly legitimate arguments against- one being a joint bid spread that far over an enormous continent makes for a diluted logistical mess in my view- kinda lame. That however was… quite a disjointed, random compilation of irrelevant grievances. Come on Hope say what you really mean: “Plus, well… ya know….. they done me wrong :(” What makes this all the more funny/sad/amazing is months back she was actually on the ballot to run U.S. Soccer. Ha! Instead of Hope her parents should have named her Vindictiva.

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  8. Oh you didn’t hear? They dismissed the domestic charges against her. That makes her a saint now (seriously, check her Twitter).

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  9. Her arguments are shakier that whaaaaa’s mobile home when his mom comes to visit.
    It’s not FIFA’s job to police every decision every FA around the world makes. They’ve already done enough forcing USSF to create MLS. The rest is up to us.

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  10. Let’s bring in pro/rel so you’re happy about the bid and then watch it blow up the leagues and then no man is making more than the old $30k A-League salaries and women are out of work above amateur level because there aren’t economics to carry women’s pro teams anymore. What a dingbat.

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    • I don’t see how this statement does anything except make her look (more) like an uninformed, bitter outsider to the US Soccer world. I realize that their can be disagreement on how things are run, but every candidate and supporter of the US M and W teams should be in favor of our joint bid with Canada and Mexico.

      And, if she can’t say that Morocco should get it, what is the point of her comment at all? There are two bids. I hope that this is the end of any commentary on Hope Solo. She was a great competitor for the USWNT, but “she crazy”

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      • for any grammar police – sorry for misuse of “their” instead of “there”. Not sure how that happened.

      • NASL canceled its season and for the time being is effectively defunct. That’s the first hint she’s being a zealot crank, is mentioning that league, carrying that water. It resonates like the lawsuit or the guy who keeps offering a money pledge in exchange for adopting NASL style rules. At some point people need to give MLS some credit as the longest lasting first division pro soccer league in recent memory, and acknowledge that we’ve tried NASL’s version twice and folded each time.

      • And, yeah, you can line up with the NASL folks and be the dissent without coming off like a hater. Maybe it’s that despite all she did for the Nats, the way it ended, she’ll be carrying some sort of Tonya Harding thing with that forever. So not only is she with NASL but out of the tent altogether.

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