US, Mexico and Canada in joint bid for 2026 World Cup

The United States, Mexico and Canada have announced a joint bid to stage the 2026 World Cup.

Canada’s Victor Montagliani, America’s Sunil Gulati and Mexico’s Decio de Maria announce their joint bid to host the 2026 World Cup.

The United States, Mexico and Canada have announced a joint bid to stage the 2026 World Cup and become the first three-way co-hosts in the history of FIFA’s showpiece tournament.

US Soccer Federation chief Sunil Gulati, who announced the bid in New York with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts, in­sisted they had the full backing of President Donald Trump, despite the US leader’s rocky relations with Mexico.

Gulati said 60 of the tournament’s matches would be staged in the US, with Canada and Mexico hosting 10 games each. The US would host all knockout games from the quarter-finals onwards.

He played down the possibility that politics could hamper the bid, emphasising that Trump was ­“especially pleased” with Mexico’s involvement.

“The President of the US is fully supportive ... We are not at all ­concerned at some of the concerns that some people may raise,” ­Gulati said.

Trump was elected last year after a campaign marked by rhetoric against Mexico, vowing to build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants he branded “criminals” and “rapists”.

The joint bid will start as the heavy early favourite in the race, despite US prosecutors leading the probe into football corruption that rocked the sport in 2015 and led to the downfall of former FIFA ­supremo Sepp Blatter.

A bid from the North America region for 2026 had long been ­regarded as inevitable by FIFA watchers. That sense of certainty hardened last year, when FIFA’s council ruled that neither Europe nor Asia would be eligible to run for the 2026 tournament on the grounds that the regions are ­hosting the next two World Cups. Russia are hosting the 2018 finals, followed by Qatar in 2022.

With Europe and Asia in­eligible, CONCACAF could in theory face potential competition from the Africa, South America and Oceania confederations.

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, staging a commer­cially successful 24-team tournament that played out in packed stadiums.

The 1994 tournament remains the most attended World Cup in history, with just over 3.5 million fans flocking to its 52 games, an ­average of 68,991 a match.

Mexico has hosted the World Cup twice before — the 1970 finals won by a Pele-inspired Brazil and the 1986 tournament won by Arg­entina, led by Diego Maradona.

Canada has never hosted the tournament.

AFP