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USA-led United bid wins right to host 2026 World Cup

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The World Cup will be coming back to North America in 2026.

The United States, Mexico, and Canada have won their joint bid to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup. FIFA members granted the rights to the joint bid named United 2026, which beat out Morocco, 134-to-65 in the final tally on Wednesday.

The United States last hosted the World Cup in 1994, with Brazil lifting the trophy at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The final game of the 2026 tournament will be played in either Dallas, Los Angeles, or New York/New Jersey.

The American cities that could potentially host games are: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York/New Jersey, Orlando, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and Washington. Edmonton, Montreal, and Toronto are Canada’s venues, while Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Monterrey are Mexico’s.

Venues chosen for the matches will be selected from a total of 23 stadiums that already exist, or are under construction. Three each will be held in both Canada and Mexico.

Stadiums, hotels, and transport were three “high risk” elements in Morocco’s bid that were highlighted by FIFA’s inspections report. All 14 of the Moroccan venues would have needed to be built or reconstructed by the start of the tournament.

The U.S. also bid for the rights to host the 2022 edition but lost out to Qatar.

Comments

  1. In my opinion, a 48 team tournament works in venues such as United 2026, mainly due to the US infrastructure. However, I do feel this will limit the number of potential host countries going forward. I mean, how many hosts can hold an event so massive with 48 participants? Perhaps, the US might get even more world cups in the future if this 48 team format continues after 2026.

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  2. Yes, and the heat destroyed many games in the ’94 tournament. Not to mention, by the final both Brazil and Italy looked baked to death. The final was a no-energy, listless and drab 0-0 affair. Play as many games indoors as possible. I can’t imagine some of these venues as midday kickoffs. Baltimore, Nashville, Orlando! Who wants to see drab, slow soccer?

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  3. Hopefully, we can have some evening games this time around. Those of you that are old enough will remember that all the ’94 games were daytime kick-offs. If i remember correctly the reasoning stemmed from our governments worries over Hooliginsm….. I watched the poor Irish have to play Mexico in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando FLA, it was 98 degrees with 95% humidity!

    With it being a 48 team tournament I think all 3 Nations will automatically qualify.

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  4. Should just give it to Canada. This region is too big (bigger than entire Europe) & I do want USNT to “QUALIFIED” for the World Cup, & stop given “el tri” help.

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  5. The axis of evil…MLS, SUM/USSF and Garber did their job! Our henchman!

    PS…realizing there will be clowns who take this post seriously and believe it…..it’s sarcasm conspiracy nuts. Keep looking for bigfoot, hidden gold and ufo’s on whatever cheesy show u watch.

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    • “The axis of evil…MLS, SUM/USSF and Garber did their job! Our henchman!”

      my two cents: this view is backwards. mls/sum/ussf did not do their job. fifa did their job. fifa always wanted the wc to return to usa. for the $$. that’s why. so they gave gulati fast track bid and set up morocco as the straw man. since the qatar thing blew up, they couldn’t do another private back room vote so this time they had to have a public vote. but they had an answer for that: they released their report one month ago labelling the morocco bid as “high risk”. and with influential people such as the leader of the german soccer federation warning all nations not to vote for “unqualified” bids (meaning morocco’s bid) and FIFA GOT IT DONE. it was always fifa’s plan, executed by fifa. the mutual desire of north america to host merely fit into fifa’s plan.

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      • and i speculate that it’s possible that trump might have said a few words that could be interpretated as a threat of economic consequences to any nation voting against the united bid.

      • My goodness you really missed the entire point of my post. You definitley are not Drax the Destroyer. It is to fast, and it did go over your head.

  6. Gonna go ahead and say it – that 48-team formula is terrible.

    We need to just say “supersize it” and instead of having 3-team groups as has been proposed and seeing just the top team from each advance after just 2 games, we need to go ahead and make it 64 teams.

    People might squawk about how “unwatchable” the Group Stage is…but exactly as there are constant upsets in the NCAA’s – also a 64-team tournament – a 64-team tournie would still provide plenty of upsets and, more importantly, it would involve a more significant proportion of “the world”. And it would add only one extra game to the eventual winning team’s slate.

    Why not? We’re America. We can do it. Easily. We could do this easily without building a single new hotel or stadium. Actually we could do it with 128 teams if we cared to. Actually the freakin’ SEC – and all their 80K-100K stadiums – could host a World Cup a lot better than Morocco could, all on their lonesome.

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    • hey why not? Qualifying has been destroyed for any team with a prayer of making it past group stage. Keep it rolling……down hill.

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    • Not to take away from your overall message, but if I’m not mistaken, it’s groups of 3 with the top 2 teams advancing and the last place team from each group being sent home.

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      • That’s correct. Same amount of games to win it all, but one extra knockout game since 32 teams make it.

  7. Maybe the self-loathing about being a wealthy nation with top notch facilities, and gnashing of teeth about the world hating us, will simmer down for a while. FIFA tried to exert its influence and make us worry that we wouldn’t be awarded this tournament because our current president promotes immigration policies that some people don’t like. In the end, FIFA was just interested in making money and didn’t really care about that other stuff.

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    • “In the end, FIFA was just interested in making money and didn’t really care about that other stuff.”

      this should be the closing line of every article about fifa.

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  8. Mexico? Rob and his mom must be having a circle jerk right now! Her small hands aren’t just beneficial when rolling tamales. Make sure you thank the US when you’re done, comprende?

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    • Yeah, the auto-qualifier is definitely a question here. Typically, only the host country gets a free pass. Now, there are 3 Host Countries. If all 3 co-hosts get in, that would pretty much do away with the CONCACAF Q-Tournament, with only a play-off spot remaining. I hope they straighten this point out soon. I mean, if you are one of the host countries, how much would you want to invest in the activity if your team might not be playing??????

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    • the only previous co-host situation was 2002 Korea and Japan both auto qualified.

      apparently six concacaf teams will qualify for the 2026 edition; minus the three automatic hosts it should be business as usual with a three teams fighting for qualification.

      hex of Jamaica, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, T&T and Haiti?

      bigger question is how many friendlies with Mexico and Canada will the US schedule in the years before 2026?

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      • I believe it’s actually 6.5 spots instead of 3.5, so it could actually stay the exact same but without US/Can/Mex

      • @Beto I don’t see why all three wouldn’t be in (3/48 = 6.25%) given as you pointed out, in 2002 South Korea and Japan both auto qualified (2/32 = 6.25%). That’s the same % and more importantly, There would still be 45 spots available in 2026 vs just 30 in 2002. Surely FIFA can figure out how to allocate 15 additional spots, no?

  9. The young kids should be in their prime by this tournament. Add in players like Reyna, Pyndath, etc and it should lead to a good chance for us to get deep.

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