2026 FIFA World Cup

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is a successful joint bid between Canada, Mexico and United States to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It defeated a rival bid from Morocco. This will be the first World Cup to be hosted among three nations and the first since 2002 to be held in multiple nations.

Mexico had the FIFA World Cup in 1970 and 1986, and USA had the FIFA World Cup in 1994. It will be the first time Canada will be hosting it. All matches from the quarterfinals including World Cup Final will take place in United States. Mexico had been there in 2002 and 2008.

The United States is the largest partner in the bid, and is planned to host 60 of the 80 matches while Canada and Mexico would host 10 matches each. These matches are distributed among 23 candidate host cities (three in Canada, three in Mexico, and 17 in the United States) in the bid. Now that the bid is successful, the number of host cities in the three countries will be cut down over time to 16, according to the bid book (three in Canada, three in Mexico, and 10 in the United States).

Background
The three soccer federations of Canada, Mexico and the United States announced interest to submit a bid for the 2026 FIFA World Cup years before the federations intended to unify their efforts as the inter-North American team.

In July 2012, Canadian Soccer Association president Victor Montagliani confirmed plans for a Canadian bid, saying: "We have verbally told FIFA that when the bid process begins for the next available World Cup, which would be the 2026 World Cup, that the CSA will be one of the countries putting in a formal proposal". At the time the bid was announced, Canada had hosted the men's 1987 Under-16 World Championship and the U-20 World Cups for both men and women; the country has since hosted the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup and the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2015. In October 2013, Montagliani confirmed Canada's intention to bid for the 2026 tournament and the Canadian Soccer Association reiterated this in January 2014.

In September 2012, Mexican Football Federation President Justino Compeán confirmed plans for a Mexican bid. In October 2013, Liga MX President said that Mexico is interested in joining forces with the U.S. to co-host a bid for the 2026 World Cup. On December 9, 2014, the Mexican Football Federation confirmed that it is bidding for the 2026 World Cup. If the campaign is successful, Mexico will be the first nation to have hosted the World Cup three times.

On May 13, 2016 at the FIFA Congress in Mexico City, USSF board member John Motta told ESPN "whatever happens, we will bid for the 2026 World Cup -- either jointly (with Mexico or Canada) or we will go it alone." The United States hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup and unsuccessfully bid for the 2022 World Cup, which was won by Qatar in 2010. On April 18, 2015, Brazilian legend Pelé stated that the United States should host the 2026 World Cup.

In December 2016 Victor Montagliani, CONCACAF president announced for the first time a possibility of a joint bid between the United States, Canada and Mexico to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Bid process
Then UEFA head Michel Platini had suggested in January 2015, an expansion to 40 teams, and FIFA president also agreed in March 2016. A desire to increase the number of participants in the tournament was announced on 4 October 2016. Four expansion options were considered: On 10 January 2017, FIFA voted unanimously to expand to the 48-team tournament.
 * Expand to 40 teams (8 groups of 5 teams) - 88 matches
 * Expand to 40 teams (10 groups of 4 teams) - 76 matches
 * Expand to 48 teams (opening 32-team play-off round) - 80 matches
 * Expand to 48 teams (16 groups of 3 teams) - 80 matches

In March 2017, FIFA World Cup in 2026 cannot be hosted in the UEFA (Russia in 2018) and AFC (Qatar in 2022), leaving all other options open in 2026. Co-hosting for the FIFA World Cup, of which it was banned after 2002, was approved for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, through is not limited to a specific number, but instead evaluated on a case-by-case basis. The FIFA general secretariat, after consultation with Competitions Committee, had the power to exclude bidders who do not meet the technical requirements.

The bidding process was due to start in 2015, with the appointment of hosts scheduled for the FIFA World Congress on 10 May 2017 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but was delayed due to 2015 FIFA corruption case and the resignation of Sepp Blatter.

With no rival bid having emerged since April 2017 the CONCACAF member federations of Canada, Mexico and the United States sent a joint request to FIFA to hasten the bid process. Canada, Mexico and the United States wanted FIFA to award the bid outside the traditional bidding process at the June 2018 FIFA Congress in Moscow if the CONCACAF-bid meets FIFA requirements. However, the FIFA Council proposed on 8 May 2017, that FIFA shall establish the bidding procoedure of inviting only the member associations of the CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL and OFC - continental confederations whose members have not hosted the two previous World Cups as candidates to submit to FIFA bids to host the final competition of the World Cup by 11 August 2017. The 68th FIFA Congress will decide on the selection of the candidate host associations.

Interested candidates do include Canada/Mexico/United States, as well as Morocco. However, original bids are Algeria/Tunisia, Australia/New Zealand, China, Ecuador/Columbia/Peru, England and Kazakhstan before the ban on UEFA (2018) took effect, and AFC (2022).

The consultation phase focused on four areas: On 7 November 2017, FIFA published a guide to bidding process. It outlines the key elements of the reformed bidding process, the assessment mechanisms in place, recommendations on the protection of the process’ integrity, the timeline for the selection of the host(s), the specific requirements for hosting, a detailed explanation of the government guarantees, as well as the principles of sustainable event management and human rights protection.
 * The inclusion of human rights requirements, sustainable event management, environmental protection in the bidding
 * Principle of exclusion of bidders that do not meet technical requirements
 * Review of the current stance on joint bids
 * Number of teams

On 27 October 2017, the FIFA Council ratified the decision of the Bureau of the Council of 6 September 2017 to approve the enhanced bidding regulations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It also appointed the members of the Bid Evaluation Task Force.

On 11 May 2017, the 67th FIFA Congress voted on the FIFA Council to fast-track the 2026 FIFA World Cup bidding processes and set the following deadlines:
 * 11 August 2017: any other nations interested in bidding have to express and seek interest
 * 16 March 2018: bidders must meet a list of FIFA's technical specifications, and bids must be officially submitted by then
 * 13 June 2018: the 68th FIFA Congress will decide on whether to select one of the official bids. Should neither be selected, further member associations including those from AFC and UEFA and excluding the initial bidders will be invited to bid.

Bid requirements
Endorsement of a set of principles submitted by the FIFA administration as part of the process to select the host of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, including an overview of the content to be requested from bidding member associations and high-level hosting requirements. These include: stadium and infrastructure requirements; principles of sustainable event management, human rights and environmental protection; and details on aspects such as governmental support documents, the organisational model to be adopted and provisions for the establishment of a legacy fund. A complete version of the bid requirements will eventually be dispatched to member associations that register to take part in the process.

Team and referee facilities
There should be 48 team base camp training sites and hotels.

Qualification
On 30 March 2017, the Bureau of the FIFA Council (composed of the FIFA President and the presidents of each of the six confederations) proposed a slot allocation for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The recommendation was submitted for the ratification by the FIFA Council.

On 9 May 2017, two days before the 67th FIFA Congress at Kuala Lumpur, the FIFA Council approved the slot in Bahrain. It includes an intercontinental play-off tournament involving six teams to decide the last two FIFA World Cup berths.


 * AFC - 8 out of 46 will be eligible (17%), increased from 5
 * CAF - 9 out of 54 will be eligible (17%), increased from 5
 * CONCACAF - 6 out of 35 will be eligible (17%), increased from 3
 * CONMEBOL - 6 out of 10 will be eligible (60%), increased from 5
 * OFC - 1 out of 11 will be eligible (9%), increased from 0
 * UEFA - 16 out of 55 will be eligible (29%), increased from 13
 * Host city is included.
 * There will be 2 playoffs, increased from 1.

The issue of how to allocated automatic host country qualification given that there are multiple host countries has not yet been resolved and will be decided by the FIFA council. The United bid anticipated all three countries being awarded automatic places.

A play-off tournament involving six teams will be held to decide the last two FIFA World Cup berths, consisting of one team per confederation, except UEFA and one additional team from the confederation of the host country.

Two of the teams will be seeded based on the FIFA World Rankings and the seeded teams will play for the FIFA World Cup berth against the winners of the first two knockout games involving the four unseeded teams.

The tournament is to be played in the host country(ies) and to be used as a test event for the FIFA World Cup. The existing play-off window of November 2025 has been suggested as a tentative date for the 2026 edition.

Potential venues
On August 15, 2017, the United Bid Committee released a list of 49 stadiums in 44 metropolitan markets across the three nations which will be considered for the official bid. The United Bid Committee plans to include 20-25 venues in the official bid, which will be sent to FIFA in March 2018. Stadiums must have a capacity of 40,000 in group stage matches and 80,000 for the opening match and final.

On September 7, 2017, the United Bid Committee announced that a total of 41 cities (with 44 venues) had submitted bids marking their official declaration of interest to be included in the final bid. Almost a month later, on October 4, 2017, the list of cities were narrowed down to 32 to 35 venues. During US soccer annual general meeting at Orlando in February 2018, Gulati revealed that the list of cities has been cut down to 26 with 29 venues. On March 14, 2018, Vancouver, Minneapolis and Chicago all announced that they were dropping out as potential host cities. All three cities cited concerns over the financial transparency of being a host city and cited FIFA's unwillingness to negotiate financial details as reasons for their decisions; the bid committee announced the next day they had reduced the number of cities in the bid to 23. Cities had to submit written proposals to the United Bid Committee by January 19, 2018, before being selected by the committee.

The official bid had proposed the "opening" match to be held at Azteca Stadium (not Aztech), in Mexico City, or at the Rose Bowl at Los Angeles (Hamburg) area, that all three host countries teams would host the first matches on the first day of the tournament and the final match must be held at the MetLife Stadium in the New York City area. The bid also proposed the two semi-final matches will be held at the AT&T Stadium at Dallas and Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. All of the other cities in the American portion of the bid are under consideration for the quarter-final matches. The bid book proposal calls for Mexico and Canada to each host seven group-stage games, two matches in the round of 32 and one in the round of 16.

Venues Excluded

 * Chicago (Soldier Field)
 * Minneapolis (US Bank Stadium)
 * Vancouver (BC Place)

Not selected as potential venues (2nd round)

 * Charlotte (Bank of America Stadium)
 * Dallas (Cotton Bowl)
 * Detroit (Ford Field)
 * Las Vegas (Las Vegas Stadium, under construction)
 * Los Angeles (Memorial Colliseum)
 * Los Angeles (Hollywood Park)
 * Tampa (Raymond James Stadium)

Not selected as potential venues (1st round)

 * Pittsburgh (Heinz Field)
 * San Antonio (Alamodome)

Venues contacted, but did not submit bid

 * Calgary (McMahon Stadium)
 * San Diego (San Diego Stadium)
 * Toronto (Rogers Centre)