Joint bid for 2026 World Cup makes sense | John Smallwood
Joining with Mexico and Canada will make the United States bid hard to deny
THE UNITED STATES got jobbed the last time it bid to host a FIFA World Cup, beaten by Qatar for the 2022 tournament.
Mexico has played host to the most popular sports tournament in the world twice - which ties Brazil, Italy, France and Germany/West Germany for the most.
Canada has qualified for only one World Cup, and that was 31 years and eight cycles ago in 1986.
It makes sense that if any of these countries want to convince FIFA to bring a World Cup back to North America for the first time since the 1994 tournament in the United States, a combined bid from the three most industrialized nations would be the best chance.
That's what the United States, Mexico and Canada did on Monday in announcing a three-nation combined bid to host the 2026 World Cup.
Putting aside competitive rivalry, the three nations from the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football will put together a joint presentation that FIFA will have a difficult time denying.
Simply getting a World Cup back in this hemisphere is more important than which particular nation is the host. All of CONCACAF will benefit.
And it's time for the World Cup to return to North America.
With Russia as host nation in 2018, Europe will have had three of the six tournaments since USA 1994.
Asia, which had Japan and South Korea as co-host in 2002, will get its second tournament with Qatar scheduled for 2022.
Africa hosted its first Cup with South Africa in 2010, and after a 36-year absence since Argentina in 1978, South America finally got the tournament again with Brazil hosting in 2014.
Although this is a three-nation bid, it does almost look like a solo bid from the United States.
The 2026 Cup will be the first with an expanded field of 48 nations. That means there will be 80 games.
The United States is scheduled to have 60 games, including all of them from the quarterfinals on, which means the final will be in the continental United States.
Mexico and Canada will get 10 games each.
If the current format stands and FIFA simply adds two more teams to each of the eight groups in round-robin play each, Canada and Mexico would host one group (eight games) and two of the eight round-of-16 games.
The United States would host six groups (48 games) plus the other four round-of-16 matches (four), the quarterfinals (four), semifinals (two), the third-place match and the championship match.
In soccer-mad Mexico, the reaction to getting only 10 games was understandably not received well.
"That is the number that has been put down, but there are still nine years to go," said Mexican federation president Decio de Maria.
The United States can thank the NFL for giving it the leverage over Canada and Mexico to get two-thirds of the games.
Including the stadiums to be built for the Los Angeles Rams and the Las Vegas Raiders, FIFA will have its choice of at least 25 stadiums with a capacity of at least 60,000 that will have been built or refurbished within 30 years of 2026.
If you add in collegiate stadiums such as the Rose Bowl, which hosted the 1994 World Cup final, then you're talking capacities of more than 90,000.
Mexico has the legendary Estadio Azteca, host of the 1970 and 1986 World Cup finals, which seats 87,000. But it is one of only three stadiums in Mexico with a capacity of more than 50,000.
With a capacity of 56,302, Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton is the largest stadium in Canada and one of only three that can seat 50,000.
No nation has more high-capacity and well-maintained stadiums than the United States.
The ability to sell tickets matters a lot to FIFA, and the United States is a gold mine.
The 1994 World Cup here still holds the record for total attendance (3.6 million) despite it being the last tournament with 24 teams and 52 total matches.
That was before the creation of Major League Soccer brought soccer to a higher level of exposure in the United States over the past two decades.
"Listen, you have to be reasonable, and everybody knows the U.S. infrastructure is enormous, second to none maybe in the world," said Canadian federation president Victor Montagliani, who also heads CONCACAF, the regional governing body.
Actually, the United States could submit a strong bid on its own. With nations from Europe and Asia ineligible to bid for 2026 because the previous two World Cups will have been in those regions, a U.S. bid would likely be a favorite.
Still, Mexico has a strong history with FIFA, and a solo bid from it would put the two nations against each other and cause the other nations in the region to pick sides.
That's not what CONCACAF needs.
This World Cup will be selected by the full FIFA membership and not a select executive committee.
A joint bid that would consolidate the 35 members of CONCACAF is the best chance to bring a World Cup back to North America - which is the most important thing.
@SmallTerp