A joint bid from the US, Canada and Mexico to host the enlarged 2026 World Cup is expected to be finalised this year for submission to Fifa, according to Victor Montagliani, the president of the regions Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf). Speaking to the Guardian before Saturdays annual Concacaf congress on the Caribbean island of Aruba, Montagliani contrasted the prospect of the countries cooperating on a World Cup with the division represented by the wall along the border with Mexico planned by Donald Trump.
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Canada, the US and Mexico are aiming for a joint bid, the idea has been around for a while, discussions are continuing and it is a very exciting proposition if it comes to fruition, Montagliani said. We have had nothing but positive remarks about it and it is a very strong sign of what football can do to bring countries together.
Asked if he was referring to Trumps belligerent rhetoric about building a wall, Montagliani, a Canadian insurance executive elected as the Concacaf president last May, said football has to rise above all kinds of political regimes which many people dislike. It behoves football and leaders of football to deal with it and rise above it, he said.
Although each country individually would have the infrastructure to host the World Cup alone, Montagliani said, a joint bid would be a fit with the new 48-country, 80-game format of the 2026 tournament. A final decision is likely to be taken some time this year.
Fifas new process for countries bidding to host the 2026 World Cup, announced last year under the presidency of Gianni Infantino, set out a period from June this year to December 2018 for the preparation of bids. Evaluation of countries suitability by Fifa is scheduled for January 2019 to February 2020, with the final decision to be taken at Fifas congress in May 2020. Concacafs proposed joint bid is considered by far the early favourite to host the tournament, which has not been held in the region since the US World Cup of 1994. The previous Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, lobbied for the US to host the 2022 World Cup, as part of a continued push to expand football as a sport in the country, before a majority on the Fifa executive committee voted controversially instead for Qatar.
The development of the Concacaf bid, together with running a successful Gold Cup tournament this summer, is a key element in Montaglianis campaign as its new president to refocus on football itself, following the arrests, criminal indictments and revelations of huge corruption at the confederation under his predecessors.
It is still shocking when you think of the depth and breadth of the corruption; it was unbelievable, Montagliani said. You are in a very privileged position to work in football, 99% of people would give their right arm to be in that position; its an honour, and to abuse it is unforgivable.
