USA to Host 2026 World Cup?

[warrior16]

Take everything Sepp Blatter says with like ten tons of salt, especially since he is running for an unprecedented fifth consecutive term as FIFA president. However, in a recent interview he mentioned the USA as a potential frontrunner to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Link to article: www.socceramerica.com/article/60382/blatter-likes-usa-2026-world-cup-possibilities.html

I'm still miffed about being cheated out of the 2022 World Cup by Qatar, but getting the next World Cup would be a nice consolation. When you think about it, CONCACAF is definitely overdue a chance to host the World Cup. By 2026, it will have been 32 years (nine World Cups) since CONCACAF last hosted the World Cup, and no other confederation besides OFC will have waited longer than 16 years. Also UEFA and AFC will not be allowed to submit bids since they have already hosted in the past two cycles.

Therefore, CONCACAF only has to face competition from OFC, CAF, and CONMEBOL. No countries in the OFC are even close to being suitable to host a World Cup, so they're not a threat. Let's be honest, no countries in sub-Saharan Africa besides South Africa are suitable to host a World Cup in the foreseeable future, and putting a World Cup in the Islamic region of Africa (which is overrun by terrorist cells) would be an incredibly stupid move even for FIFA. That's not going to happen, especially after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is a disaster. The only other confederation that might threaten a CONCACAF bid would be CONMEBOL, and all indications point to Uruguay and Argentina submitting a joint bid in celebration of the centennial of the first ever World Cup in Uruguay in 1930. They would almost certainly get that, so they would not want to waste a bid on 2026.

So basically it's between Mexico, Canada, and the USA to fight it out for the 2026 bid. All three countries have expressed interest. It's possible USA and Canada might submit a joint bid, but unlikely. Here are some pros and cons for each country's case:

USA
Positives: By far the largest population (est. 450 million by 2026), rapidly growing interest in soccer, infrastructure already in place
Negatives: Hosted the most recent CONCACAF bid in 1994

Mexico
Positives: Large population (est. 200 million by 2026), interest in sport, hasn't hosted in 40 years
Negatives: Has already hosted two World Cups, questionable infrastructure, some parts of country dangerous for tourists

Canada
Positives: Has never hosted before, good infrastructure, slowly growing interest in soccer
Negatives: Smallest population of the three (est. 75 million by 2026), lack of venue sites

As far as I'm concerned, the USA has by far the best case of the three to host. Hopefully FIFA agrees...

Here are all the World Cup sites since 1986:

1986- Mexico (CONCACAF)
1990- Italy (UEFA)
1994- USA  (CONCACAF)
1998- France (UEFA)
2002 - Japan and South Korea (AFC)
2006- Germany (UEFA)
2010- South Africa (CAF)
2014- Brazil (CONMEBOL)
2018- Russia (UEFA)
2022- Qatar (AFC)
2026- TBD      Almost certainly a CONCACAF team
2030- TBD      Almost certainly Argentina and Uruguay (CONMEBOL)

[usasoccerboy]

With Sepp Blatter in charge, nothing is certain.

[beasleyisbeastly]

The fact that FIFA hasn't stripped both Russia and Qatar of their tournaments is an absolute shame. Russia invaded another country! Isn't that going against all that stuff FIFA has been saying about peace and unity and what not? I guess Russia keeping their WC isn't as bad as Qatar's though what with Qatar basically having slaves building its stadiums. It's a dream of mine to go to a world cup and I will most certainly NOT be going to Qatar. Not to profile a certain region of the world but isn't Qatar surrounded by countries filled with extremists who would probably take advantage of the huge crowds the WC brings to do something crazy like bomb a stadium that the USA plays in? Don't even get me started on the obvious fact that qatar payed off voters either. to make it even worse they want to move the WC to the winter! I read an article about how the final would be december 23. Seriously? Christmas time is premier league time! Is FIFA trying to tell me that I have to watch boxing day games featuring clubs' reserve players since all the main guys will be resting from the WC? What a joke.



As for the US getting the world cup in 2026 I don't see us not getting it. FIFA almost has to give it to us after screwing us out of 2018/22. I wish the stadiums that would host games weren't all NFL stadiums though. Compared to the world cup stadiums of other countries NFL stadiums are ugly. WC stadiums lately have been new beautiful stadiums that were built to look good and not just be huge. NFL stadiums are just built to pack in as many fans as possible and can restrict the size of a soccer field.

[happyjack]

You neglect to mention the serious amounts of travel for a U.S. hosted WC. Which was touted as a huge negative after 94 WC

[loJic]

[warrior16]

Mar 25, 2015 12:21:31 GMT -6 happyjack said:

You neglect to mention the serious amounts of travel for a U.S. hosted WC. Which was touted as a huge negative after 94 WC

That is a good point, Happyjack. The continental US alone is nearly the size of Europe excluding Russia and most players would not experience that type of travel outside of maybe the Champions League. Heck, just Louisiana is bigger than many countries.

Looking at Russia 2018, there will be a considerable amount of travel involved. Most of the sites are relatively close to Moscow, but several are very far away.

I do think the technology and infrastructure has improved significantly since 1994, but it's still not convenient for anyone to travel a lot. The USA had to travel the most of anyone in Brazil by far, and I have to wonder how that might have affected our performance.

Mexico and Canada are also huge countries, and since that is who we'll likely be competing with for the bid, I don't think it would be a major negative. If we are competing with smaller countries like Uruguay and Argentina, that could be a problem, but like I said, it would be very surprising if they don't go for the 2030 World Cup. Brazil is also a massive country dealing with major political problems, and they still got to host.

FIFA knows it would have the potential to make a lot more money in America than in Mexico or Canada, and I think that will ultimately decide the vote. Let's hope so.

[warrior16]

Mar 2, 2015 14:54:48 GMT -6 usasoccerboy said:

With Sepp Blatter in charge, nothing is certain.

True dat. Wouldn't surprise anyone if the 2026 is in Antarctica the way FIFA thinks. Gotta bring the beautiful game to all the penguins.