Potential 2026 WC Hosts (Update: Morocco Sole Challenger to CONCACAF Bid)

Well more seriously, if FIFA doesn't make of the World Cup a new King Fahd Cup, I would personally love to see the Netherlands hosting the event.

I know it's a small country, but sportively that would be deserved. Historically, the Dutchies have produced some of the greater players who inspired fantastic emotions in the competition, and played 3 finals.

And after all, if Qatar can host it, why the Netherlands wouldn't ?
(I admit this argument actually tends to apply to 90% of countries in the world)

 

Bahrain aren't though are they. And Abu Dhabi is filthy rich more than Dubai. Oh doh, both represent seem country, silly me.

 

UAE would be a better option than Qatar, which makes it unfortuante that if Qatar do host '22 and I see no reason as to why they wouldn't then UAE would be a long way off hosting before 2050.

Bahrain, not a chance in hell, which made me ask the previous poster.

 

LOL it's funny that now when I talk about Dubai or Bahrain hosting the world cup, people don't see it anymore as a joke!

 

Sorry, we do se it as a joke, hence why I asked.

And hey, Dubai is part of the UAE, so there's Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Al Ain, etc, so get your facts right. As for Bahrain, well, it is just Bahrain,

 

No. Just Dubai.

If Doha can get it alone, why wouldn't Dubai? Who cares of the rule that a country is supposed to host the event? Rules can be changed. That's what money (or debt in Dubai's case) stands for. You don't have the "Gulf Emirates spirit" enough Druryfire.

 

Hello Mitt Romney/Salt Lake City '02!

 

This is what happens when your favorite sport is an indoor sport. Canadians don't have a huge passion for any of the three codes of football that are played this side of the Atlantic that would require the building of building 7 or 8 big stadiums for it. Nor is Canada a big baseball country which is a sport that utilize many 40K+ venues. The US always has this ace in the hole as we have high schools that play in 20,000 seat stadiums and dozens of colleges that play in 100K not to mention the NFL stadiums. The question that needs to be raised, and probably will, is finding a use for these stadiums after the competition is done.

Perhaps some of them can be awarded CFL expansion franchises (even on a part-time basis like in Montreal), or they could be built on or near college campuses allowing the schools to either purchase them, or have them donated to them afterwards for their own use.

 

Never thought we would see the WC finals being hosted by the Canadians but it would be awesome for the game in North America if the 2026 bid is successful so the best of luck to all concerned.

 

I understand what you said about stadiums in Canada.
I visited Olympic stadium in Montreal and it seems it would go to have important renovations to meet some standards.
Edmonton and Vancouver are OK.
Toronto may have two stadiums including a temporary 80000 places stadium. After it would be reduced to 20000 places, but who will it host in the future.
Curent stadiums and legacy seem to be challenges for bids.

 

Capacity: 47,568 for soccer

 

U should be working for an organising/hosting/campaigning commitee lol... In just a couple of paragraphs u wholly convinced me... needless to say every post b4 urs was just throwing names without any real backing of their opinion. You went all out man!!! So I am joining the Turkey train!!!

 

I can't see a Canadian bid being successful without meeting the same requirement the U.S. had to do for 1994. No national league. That means we need to go from teams competing in a foreign league to a full national league in 14 years. That league would almost have to be a corporate subsidiary of MLS, because it would be much cheaper to have the premier Canadian clubs start up without having to buyout MLS to terminate their clubs. Besides, an MLS Canada would have the safety net of MLS's corporate backing that no fresh start up would have. The main issue then would be how do you get interest to go from 3 teams to the 8 or 10 that are needed for a full national league.

 

When FIFA awarded the WC Finals to the US in 1988, the NASL just went bankrupted 4 years before and professional outdoor soccer was close to nothing in the USA. The requirement, I felt, was meant to kickstart the rebirth of the sport in the US. The situation is different for Canada. At the time of writing in 2012, Canada already has three teams in MLS. They are not at ground zero as in the US back in 1988. It will be counter productive to the developement of the game in Canada if FIFA tries to move those Canadian teams from MLS and form their own league. FIFA should know that soccer in Canada has merged with the US throughout history(they should also know about NHL, MLB and NBA too).

 

Not to mention everything goes out the window now that Qatar will host.


I think Canada Can be a good host and the majority of the matches would be Sellouts.
They had a very successful U-20 World Cup.

 

I don't think Canada is a serious bid, but we'll see. The country can't get arenas built for hockey clubs and that is a much more popular sport. Civic and provincial governments aren't going to pay for stadiums, so the bid isn't going anywhere.

 

I also doubt Canada will have a serious bid for the WC Finals for stadium reasons mentioned below(they cannot get hockey stadium bulit). The WC Finals have become serious business. Japan/Korea. France, Germany, South Africa, Brazil, Russia and Qatar bulit, upgraded or offered to build state-of-the-art stadiums for the WC Finals. All the future bidding countries will come up with massive plans and offer super stadiums. I don't know if Canada can match them.

Just look at Brazil, Russia and Qatar..... the last three winning bids.

 

Agreed! If the USA can't get it then it might as well be Canada. That would be close to home for many Americans.

 

Way too much thought is being put into this thread...lmao.

As the rules stand now, Europe and Asia can't have it (although as noted about a gazillion times, that theoretically could be changed). The Arab world isn't getting 2 consecutive WCs, so that rules out Egypt and Morocco (the only two other African countries that could possibly pull it off). Therefore, scratch Africa. In theory, New Zealand could pull it off, however I haven't heard a thing about them even being interested...and it's really tough to picture an OFC WC before Australia gets a chance to host it. It's probably safe to write off New Zealand and the rest of OFC for 2026, but they'll get one years down the road for sure. That leaves CONCACAF and CONMEBOL. In South America, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Venezuela could all pull it off, and in CONCACAF, Canada, USA, and Mexico can pull it off. So far only Canada and the US have officially confirmed (to my knowledge) that they will be bidding for 2026. At that point it will have been absent from North America for 32 years, they are years ahead of south america economically and socially, and are both extremely safe after what would be 4 straight risky hosts.

 

People need to remember as well that the reason Canada can't get hockey arenas built is because local and provincial governments find that the current hockey infrastructure in place is sufficient, and reasonably so. Why waste money building new arenas when you already have enough suitable ones in use.

 

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/s...-challenge-u.s.-in-2026-world-cup-bid?cc=5901

Mexico is bidding for 2026. Lots of CONCACAF competition for this one.

 

Anybody know how much money did FIFA gain from Mexico U-17 WC and the attendance? It's most likely going to come down to Mexico and the U.S. and from what I can tell and I am a bit bias here but Mexico might become the first country to host it for a third time. Mexico has a great history when it comes to hosting but the U.S. has the most overall attendance in any WC so who knows but damn 2026 is so freaking far away.

 

The 2022 World Cup proved that the FIFA don't care about human rights or something, as long as they get their money. Egypt could host the 2026 FIFA World Cup. That would be cool, apart from the human rights part. I just love Africa .

The only concern the FIFA would have would be that two following world cus would be hosted in a hot Arab nation. In fact, the only thing Egypt has to do is express its interest...

Wikipedia doesn't mention the USA as a proposal host for the tourney.

 

European countries aren't eligible to host the 2026 edition, as Russia hosts the 2018 edition. Asian countries are neither eligible to host the tourney.

 

By the way: what about Ghana (together with Côte d'Ivoire?) or Nigeria or again South Africa or something?

Or Tunisia/Algeria, who also bade for 2010?