The United States, Canada, and Mexico announced on Monday in New York that all three countries will submit a joint bid to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup. 

This marks the first time in World Cup history that three countries will have submitted a bid to jointly host the event, which in 2014 reached 3.2 billion viewers — or nearly half of the world’s population — and cost the Brazilian government an estimated $15 billion to host.

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The United States would host 60 of the tournament’s 80 games, with Canada and Mexico playing host to 10 games each. 

The announcement was submitted by the heads of the US, Canada, and Mexico soccer federations, which are all part of CONCACAF — the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football. 

The 2026 World Cup will be the first ever to feature 48 teams, up from 32 in 2014. 

The logistical challenges of three countries hosting the World Cup are numerous, but include US President Donald Trump’s travel ban, which could prevent certain teams (like Iran, which is a perennial contender) from competing. 

Only once in the event’s history has more than one country hosted the World Cup. That was in 2002, when South Korea and Japan jointly hosted the event. 

The United States last hosted the World Cup in 1994, Mexico last hosted in 1986, and Canada has never hosted the event, although it did host the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2015. 

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The news of this collaboration comes at an uncertain time for the three North American neighbors. Trump has been openly hostile to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which covers trade among the three nations and is worth $17 trillion in exchanged goods and services. Immigration between the United States and Mexico, long a contentious topic, has become even more fraught, as the Trump administration has doubled down on his campaign promise of building a border wall between the two countries. 

According to Sunil Gulati, the president of US Soccer and a FIFA council member, President Trump has not objected to the proposed World Cup bid and is reportedly “especially pleased that Mexico is a part of it.” 

Splitting the World Cup games between three countries will eliminate some of the infrastructural challenges that plagued the 2014 tournament in Brazil. The event cost Brazil around $15 billion, according to USA Today, about one fifth of which was spent on building new stadiums.  

Brazil’s World Cup also took a toll on the country’s poorest communities, as informal favela (shantytown) communities were often bulldozed to clear room for stadium construction

Things haven’t gone much better for the most vulnerable populations in Qatar, which will play host to the 2022 World Cup. Amnesty International has reported human rights violations against migrant workers in the construction of stadiums. 

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Already, in the United States, several recently-built NFL stadiums meet the specifications for hosting a World Cup game, which could ease the need for new construction. 

Anxious soccer fans won’t know the official location of the 2026 World Cup until May 2020, but the trifecta of the US, Canada, and Mexico is sure to present the FIFA commission with a strong case. 

A successful World Cup venture could help FIFA turn a new page, after corruption scandals — launched by the US and Switzerland — have rocked the organization for the past several years. And maybe, the event could help forge deeper ties between three key North American states, at what could be a turning point for hemispheric relations. 

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The World Cup Could Be Coming to North America in 2026

By Phineas Rueckert