The heads of a joint bid from the US, Mexico and Canada to host the 2026 World Cup on Saturday trumpeted a winning plan that technically ticks most if not all the boxes FIFA wants, but could miss the mark when it comes to winning friends.
On the surface, the fight to stage the expanded 2026 tournament would appear a David and Goliath struggle with Morocco, the only other bidder, up against the commercial and organizational might of the North and Central Americans.
Already possessing all the necessary infrastructure and stadiums to host a massive 48-team tournament, United 2026 executive director John Kristick said that the bid was able to “focus on building the game, not stadiums.”
While the United 2026 bid might be technically impressive, it comes at a time when the US’ global popularity is on the decline.
United 2026 bid members said that their efforts have not been helped by the sight of disgraced FIFA officials being paraded in front of US judges on corruption charges almost daily and the escalation of tensions in the Arab world over US President Donald Trump’s decision last week to move their embassy to Jerusalem.
If the United 2026 officials need to understand how important good relationships are, they need look no further than efforts to host an Olympic Games in the US.
After stunning rebukes to New York to host the 2012 Olympics and Chicago’s failed bid for last year’s Games, the US Olympic Committee spent years repairing fences and were finally rewarded for their efforts earlier this year with Los Angeles landing the 2028 summer Games.
“An important part of what we are doing has got very little to do with the sport frankly — it’s a lot to do with the countries and given what is going on in the world we have always had a special relationship with these two federations,” US Soccer Federation head Sunil Gulati said.
One thing that could help smooth over rocky relationships is the commercial viability of the United 2026 plan, which could help replenish FIFA coffers.
“We believe between the size of stadiums, which obviously impacts attendance, the level of hospitality available at stadiums that affects revenue and the commercial opportunities that will be available to FIFA, this will be by far the most successful financial World Cup and this is probably a pretty good time for that to happen for FIFA,” Gulati said.
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