Although the 2018 World Cup has just kicked off in Russia sights have already been set on the 2026 edition of the FIFA tournament.
In a historic first, The FIFA World Cup will be travelling across the Atlantic ocean in 2026 as North America has won its bid to host the 2026 games.
The announcement was made following a rigorous campaign on behalf of officials of the united States, Canada and Mexico. A social media campaign using the hashtag #United2026 led the charge as did support from the three nations political leaders.
The vote for the games was held in Moscow on June 13th in which every member nation of FIFA cast a vote between North America and Morocco, which was also in the running to host the tournament. North America won by a landslide with 134 of the of 199 votes being awarded.
Although Mexico hosted the tournament in 1970 and 1986 and the United States hosted the tournament in 1994, this will be the first time that multiple countries act as hosts and the first time that the games are played in Canada.
2026 will be a year of many firsts for FIFA as they will also introduce a new format to the tournament making it the largest edition of the tournament to date. Traditionally, 32 teams take place in the games but in 2026 that will be expanded to 48 teams in which 16 round-robin groups of three teams will play against one another with the top two teams from each group advancing to the 32-nation knockout round over the course of 32 days.
Even with record projections in sight in terms of both size and scope of the tournament, the bid has not been without controversy. Speculation has arisen that, following the tournaments being awarded to Russia this year and Qatar in 2022, nations were dissuaded from voting for Morocco given its lack of human rights laws. Advertisers such as McDonalds have already announced they will be pulling their sponsorship from the games after the 2018 edition because of such issues. Hosting the games in North America has as such been viewed as a safer option for both FIFA and its sponsors.
However, tension has still arisen given the current political climate in the US and its strict border patrol. This prompted the US Government to issue the following statement within their bid:
“The US intends to issue visas, subject to eligibility under U.S. law, without regard to race, skin color, ethnic, national or social origin, gender, language, religion, political opinion or any other opinion, disability, wealth, birth or any other status, or sexual orientation.”
Following FIFA’s assessment of the bids, it was determined that North America would be better suited to host given the ease of access to stadiums, accommodations, transport and infrastructure. Whereas Morocco had projected having to spend $16 billion on infrastructure with a return revenue of $5 billion, North America has projected a revenue of $14 billion with much of the infrastructure already in place. $11 billion from that projected revenue would go straight to FIFA making this their most lucrative edition of the games following their $4.8 billion revenue after the 2014 games in Brazil.
All that to say, if everything goes according to plan and projections line up with reality; 2026 could be a monumental year for FIFA, its sponsors, and North America.
