US-led 2026 World Cup will allow the game to grow to new heights
The three-nation bid led by the United States, which includes Mexico and Canada, will host the 2026 World Cup and allow for the game to grow to unprecedented levels across North America.
The 2018 World Cup may be just a day away from kicking off in Russia, but it was a future tournament that took center stage Wednesday when FIFA’s members voted to grant the three-nation bid led by the United States the hosting rights to the 2026 tournament.
The decision will be a boon for the game in the United States, which has seen the sport grow tremendously since hosting the tournament in 1994. For Canada, where soccer has struggled in the past to gain wider acceptance, the tournament is a chance for soccer to become a major sport.
The real winner in all this may be MLS. The league, which was born in 1996 after FIFA placed the development of a first division as a condition for hosting in 1994, has grown from 10 original teams to 23 teams this season. While the league has struggled to gain large TV audiences, soccer has become a mainstay of network programming thanks to the World Cup, Champions League and popular domestic tournaments such as the Premier League and Bundesliga.
In a statement, MLS said, “We congratulate all of those who worked tirelessly to bring the World Cup back to North America and thank the countries that voted for the United Bid, and for their belief in our vision for the future of the sport in our region. There is no doubt that World Cup 2026 will elevate the sport of soccer to entirely new levels and Major League Soccer is honored to be a part of this joyous day.”
MLS can only grow knowing there will be a World Cup on American shores in 2026. While the US’s failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup was seen as a major setback by some, the decision by FIFA to grant United 2026 hosting rights to the tournament remedies what happened on the field this past October.
The world's biggest sporting event is returning to our shores! #United2026 will host the @FIFAWorldCup!
— U.S. Soccer (@ussoccer) June 13, 2018
🇨🇦🇲🇽🇺🇸 | https://t.co/EKcwgDdX2u pic.twitter.com/ywvkssBJbw
The United States has not hosted a World Cup since 1994, a tournament that helped jump start the sport’s popularity in America. Mexico has hosted the tournament twice, in 1970 and again in 1986, after Colombia backed out due to economic reasons. A men’s World Cup has never been played in Canada and Morocco, who has bid on the tournament four other times.
It will be the first time the World Cup is hosted by three countries (the 2002 edition was co-hosted by Japan and South Korea), but a vast majority of games will be played on United States soil. Of the 80 matches to be played among the expanded 48-team tournament, 10 will be held in Canada, 10 in Mexico and 60 in the United States. The final will be played at MetLife Stadium in suburban New York City.
The heads of 203 voting FIFA members had only two bids to choose from during the public vote held in Moscow, having to pick between Morocco and the North American joint bid. The vote came two weeks after FIFA, the game’s governing body, released its warnings about Morocco as part of its technical report on both bids. The report rated the combined North American proposal a 4.0 out of 5.0 — considered “very good” — while the Moroccan bid received a rating of 2.7, considered “sufficient.”
The final decision, by a vote of 134 to 65 in favor of the North American bid, also rights a past wrong when in December 2010 Qatar was handed the rights to host the 2022 World Cup. The United States had been favored to host that year, but it was later revealed by FIFA that the voting had been tainted by corruption and backroom deals. That corruption, part of a larger web of deceit uncovered by US authorities, led to arrests and the decision by Sepp Blatter to ultimately resign as FIFA president.
The 2026 World Cup also allows the bidders, especially in the US and Canada, to advertise the game to a new generation in what will be a eight-year marketing campaign. In that time, MLS can piggyback off such a massive tournament as the countries prepare to host the world’s best teams. Americans who don’t watch soccer each week do care about the World Cup, like they do the Olympics. This means soccer will be talked about more in both print and electronic media as organizers keep the momentum going well into the next decade.
It also means that the United States and Mexico can both seriously build their national team programs with their sights firmly set on a deep World Cup run. The right to host is a big success for CONCACAF, a region that often doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Along with MLS, player development can become a major component of any future World Cup. We all saw what USA ’94 did for the sport in the United States. Having another World Cup on American soil, with the strength of Canada and Mexico alongside it, can only mean better things to come for the game across North America.
“Hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup is a rare and important moment to demonstrate that we are all truly united through sport,” said US Soccer President Carlos Cordeiro. “We are humbled by the trust our colleagues in the FIFA family have put in our bid; strengthened by the unity between our three countries and the CONCACAF region; and excited by the opportunity we have to put football on a new and sustainable path for generations to come.”