Sport: North American united bid selected to host 2026 World Cup

2018-06-13

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SULAIMANI — As the 2018 World Cup is set to kick off tomorrow in Moscow, Fifa has selected on Wednesday (June 13) a unified bid by the United States, Canada, and Mexico to host the 2026 World Cup over a rival proposal from Morocco.

The so-called “United Bid” received 134 votes, while Morocco received 65 votes. One country voted for neither.

A total of 210 members are present and eligible to vote but seven will abstain: the four countries directly involved (USA, Canada, Mexico and Morocco) and three US-governed territories (Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the US Virgin Islands).

The United Bid had identified twenty-three potential venues. Seventeen of those were in the US, while only ten will ultimately be selected, while the remaining six will be divided between Canada and Mexico.

Ultimately, the reason behind selecting the United Bid came down to the amount of revenue that the event would generate for FIFA.

The US, Canada and Mexico joint bid is promising Fifa associations vast profits of $11billon. That compares with around $6 billion from Morocco.

Both Mexico and the United States have already hosted World Cups on their own, the former in 1970 and 1986, and the latter in 1994. Canada staged the 2015 Women's World Cup.

The 2022 World Cup is due to take place in Qatar.

(NRT)