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World Cup 2026: Will the hosts get along?

USA, Canada and Mexico's joint bid to host the World Cup was approved by FIFA on Thursday with the elite football tournament returning to the North American continent after 32 years.

world cup


Bengaluru, June 15: While it was a historic day for USA with the meet of Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, there was another good news for the Westerners. USA, Canada and Mexico's joint bid to host the World Cup was approved by FIFA on Thursday with the elite football tournament returning to the North American continent after 32 years.

The North-American trio comfortably beat Morocco by 134 to 65 votes. The promise of £11bn (£8.24bn) in profit for FIFA, double that offered by their rivals was enough to sway undecided voters to side with the United campaign. World Cup 2026 will be a historic campaign due to it being the first World Cup with the revamped 48-team participation. As part of the first World Cup hosted by three nations, Mexico will become the first country to host the event three times after doing so on its own in 1970 and 1986.

The US will host 60 games, including the final possibly at the MetLife stadium in New Jersey, while Mexico and Canada will each have 10 games. However, one of the most important concerns will be the automatic qualification spot. As of now, the host countries for the World Cup get a direct qualification to the Group Stages of the competition. They don't play their regional qualification matches. And now, FIFA is considering to remove the automatic qualification for 2026 World Cup.

Considering there are three host nations, it'll be a tough ask to grant direct qualification to all the three nations. However, discussions will be made in a couple of years on whether direct qualification be granted to any one of the nations, all three nations or none of them.

Mexico and Canada will have three host cities apiece, while the US have submitted a list of 17 host cities. However, the list will be downed to 10 cities as notable hosts, such as Chicago and Vancouver, declined to host matches for various reasons, including cost concerns.

Story first published: Friday, June 15, 2018, 14:21 [IST]
Other articles published on Jun 15, 2018