FIFA has released it’s evaluations of the potential hosts for the 2026 World Cup, and the United bid of the USA, Mexico, and Canada has to like the results.
The United 2026 bid scored an impressive four out of five possible points compared to Morocco’s less than stellar 2.7 out of five.
Propping up the North American bid was their score in stadium infrastructure and hospitality. The big features 17 stadiums that could all host a World Cup match right here and now, compared to Morocco’s 14 stadiums that all require some form of renovation or still need to be built.
FIFA’s report praised the American stadium situation, saying it allowed the organization to “focus on a number of exciting initiatives related to sports science, fan engagement, multimedia interaction and other new forms of digitalization.”
The United bid received a perfect score for ticketing and hospitality as well, the only such mark in any category across the two bids.
That isn’t to say the bid was 100% perfect. One negative mark for their proposal was overall organizing costs. The evaluation committee estimated the North American event would cost $2.16 billion all told. Morocco got off cheaper at $1.87 billion.
However, that cost is potentially offset by the estimated revenue to stem from the 2026 World Cup. The United bid would bring in an estimated $14.3 billion, nearly twice Morocco’s $7.2 billion guess.
Morocco’s bid featured three categories slated as “high risk” propositions. FIFA had strong questions regarding their stadiums, accommodations, and the availability of transportation. The United bid, meanwhile, didn’t have any high risk categories and only three considered medium risk, including governmental support and human rights standards.
Overall, neither bid failed the evaluation, so a vote will proceed on June 13, at the next FIFA General Congress.
The strong showing is by no means makes the American big a slam dunk to be selected. Qatar notoriously had a very low showing in the initial evaluation process for the 2022 World Cup, and they ended up winning the vote.
FIFA published the entire evaluation report and it can be read here.
It is a moot point that Russia and Qatar bribed FIFA voting members into winning the World Cup. FIFA promised reform. This 2026 bid is a referendum on whether FIFA as a non-profit entity is still relevant. There’s little doubt Morocco is paying for support – they have been caught before. If they win this time, against all common sense, why bother submitting a bid again? Why would any law-abiding nation?
The funny part is that FIFA stands to make $14 billion off a USA/Mexico/Canada World Cup. By way of comparison Brazil 2014 made just $4.8 billion and a projected $5 billion off Russia 2018…they’re “targetting” $6.25 billion for Qatar 2022…maybe they make it, maybe they don’t. Even a 48-team World Cup in Morocco would net just $7 billion.
The USA bid would make double. You would THINK greed alone would carry the day. But it’s crazy to think the USA bid would make almost as much as the last three World Cups combined…and that likely still won’t win the vote.
You’ve gotta think Infantino & Company will do everything humanly possible to make that $14 billion short of stuffing the ballot boxes too…and even that may not help. Crazy world.
The good news is Morocco will make for a great trip.
Sadly no way the US, Mexico, Canada win this bid. Too many countries hate the US. Also Africa has like 50 countries who will all vote for the African nation. I don’t even want to discuss how much Trump hurt us. I will be very surprised if we get the bid.
The outright corruption at the double bid process by FIFA for 2018 and 2022 is gone, but the underlying manouvering is still live and well. The legitimate money going into FIFA from a US World Cup will not outweigh the under the table benefit to the voting individuals for each member.
quozzel makes some interesting points and so does the writer, joe hojnacki. my two cents: morocco was always fifa’s straw man. fifa lust for the 17 billion, but they must keep up appearances that the 2026 wc might be awarded elsewhere according to some voting process. thus they modified their continental rotation policies to eliminate the real wc bidding competition for 2026, leaving only morocco, the pretend competition or straw man. morocco will now be rejected for lack of stadium infrastructure by design, this fatal flaw made morocco the perfect straw man.
unlike qatar, morocco isn’t a wealthy oil producing nation like qatar. a massive vote buy-out by morocco seems unlikely to me. and with trump making thinly veiled threats to nations who vote against the united bid, victory for the united bid seems (to me) to be all but assured.
You haven’t been paying attention then. Sep Blatter has been whipping votes in favor of Morocco, all of Africa is behind their bid (that’s a lot of votes). The rest of FIFA is still upset with the USA for exposing the corruption of the Blatter regime. Just like the vote with Qatar, even though all evidence points to a USA World Cup being better in nearly every way, FIFA will vote for a ridiculous bid anyway.
Does it even matter, though?
IMHO the only way the USA was going to carry this thing was if the technical evaluation somehow utterly disqualified Morocco, which it should have done. In allowing this thing to go to a vote, basically we’re throwing our fate to the hands of such nations as Micronesia (population 6,000, but their vote counts the same as ours thanks to FIFA’s absurd one-nation-one-vote formula), North Korea, Iran, or Russia – who wouldn’t vote for us against a race of invading insectoid aliens bent on harvesting mankind – and France, who has already thrown their support behind their former colony for publicly-stated political reasons despite the fact that one of FIFA’s primary regulations expressly forbids that.
Also: Trump, and how popular he’s making us…not that the world loved us before. Need I say more?
Morocco, take bow. You guys get World Cup 2026. It’s all over now but the shouting. Woof.