On Wednesday, FIFA announced that a team of the United States, Mexico, and Canada has won the rights to host the 2026 World Cup, marking the first time since 1994 that the quadrennial tournament will be in North America.
While some were concerned that President Trump’s travel ban against several Muslim majority nations would sink its bid, the exact opposite happened. The combined bid of North America defeated Morocco’s bid by a vote tally of 134 to 65.
It’s the first time every country has been allowed to vote for a World Cup bid, as opposed to just FIFA’s executive committee, which has come under intense scrutiny for bribery and corruption following their selection of Russia and Qatar for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, respectively. The selection of those two nations as the World Cup hosts also launched a criminal investigation against sports corruption that led to the eventual ouster of several FIFA executives, including long-time FIFA president Sepp Blatter.
Additionally, it’s also the first time that all ballots cast in the World Cup selection process were open, and not secret.
It’s the type of transparency the organization needed to recover from the public relations nightmare of the last few years. Most importantly, however, it’s smarter to award the tournament to three nations with the infrastructure already set up than one nation that required a lot more investment and subsidies.
The simple fact of the matter is that Morocco would have needed six new stadiums built by 2026 in order to host the tournament. North America doesn’t have that same problem. They originally offered 49 stadiums in 44 metropolitan cities with seating of 40,000 or more for all matches, and 80,000 or more for the opening match and the final. They eventually trimmed down the list to 23 cities. Some of the venues may require a bit of expansion of some sort, perhaps with some subsidies, but not to the extent that Morocco would need.
It’s probably for the better that Morocco did not win its bid for World Cup hosting rights. After Qatar’s winning bid, it has been accused of human rights abuses for creating hostile conditions for the foreign workers who are building these massive stadiums in the tiny Arab nation. According to a 2014 report, since Qatar was awarded the World Cup in 2010, over 1,200 workers have died in the construction process. Hundreds more continue to die every year, and with tales of low wages, life-threatening working and living conditions, and the seizure of workers’ passports, people are not unjustified in comparing the preparations in Qatar as modern day “slavery.”
FIFA doesn’t need another instance of that on their conscience. And with the infrastructure already in place, the U.S., Mexico, and Canada will have a simple, straightforward job of hosting the World Cup in 2026.
