The World Cup is coming back to the United States
American soccer fans got a little taste of World Cup glory after all. A day before the 2018 edition of the tournament kicks off in Russia without the US team, an American contingent emerged victorious in a different kind of contest.
The United States, along with Canada and Mexico, earned the right to host the 2026 World Cup. FIFA’s 211 member federations voted for the North American ‘United’ bid in a landslide over the sole challenger, Morocco.
The United bid received 134 votes to Morocco’s 35. The vote took place at the 68th FIFA Congress, also held in Russia.
In the weeks leading up to the vote, many expected it would be a close contest. Even in the early hours of Wednesday morning both contingencies were campaigning hard.
Within 10 minutes of each other Moroccan and North American bid teams descend on Asian confederation hotel. Now past 1am in Moscow. Last gasp dash for votes. Is it really that close?
— tariq panja (@tariqpanja) June 12, 2018
While the United bid was rated as vastly technically superior by FIFA (4.0 out of 5 compared to 2.7), that isn’t always enough to guarantee a victory. Back in 2010 the U.S. lost out on a bid to host the 2022 World Cup to a bid from Qatar that made little sense.
The tiny desert nation, lacking stadiums and too hot for a Summer World Cup, should’ve had no business hosting. It was later revealed, unsurprisingly, that corruption played a major role in the awarding of the tournament. Still, the possibility of a similar thing happening with Morocco was always on the table.
For much of 2017 it looked like the United bid would win the 2026 World Cup unopposed, but in August Morocco announced its intention to bid. Initially not considered a legitimate challenger, the Moroccan bid picked up steam as some nations were said to be turned off by Donald Trump, even though he’d made many promises to help facilitate the World Cup.
In the end that proved to be a non-factor, much to the dismay of mainstream media outlets like the Washington Post who had already pushed out a commentary titled “If the U.S. doesn’t get the 2026 World Cup, blame Trump.”
Even though Canada and Mexico will be co-hosting the 2026 World Cup, the bulk of the games will take place in the United States. 60 of the tournament’s 80 games are slated to be played on U.S. soil, with 10 each in Canada and Mexico.
The United Bid named 23 potential host cities, which will eventually be narrowed down to 16. Cities under consideration include:
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United States:
- Atlanta
- Baltimore
- Boston
- Cincinnati
- Dallas
- Denver
- Houston
- Kansas City
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- Nashville
- New York/New Jersey
- Orlando
- Philadelphia
- San Francisco Bay Area
- Seattle
- Washington DC
Canada:
Mexico:
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