Canada, Mexico welcome 2026 joint hosting with US
MOSCOW – The leaders of Mexico and Canada gleefully cheered winning the right to host the 2026 World Cup jointly with the United States on Wednesday, emphasizing unity at a time when US President Donald Trump has frayed relations with the two neighbors during his 18 months in office.
Trump, who as part of a tougher US immigration policy has called for a wall to be built on the country’s southern border and paid for by Mexico, just days ago personally insulted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over a trade dispute.
US Soccer Federation President Carlos Cordeiro suggested to reporters on a conference call that bringing the three countries together was more of a challenge than any Trump effect.
“If you stop and appreciate for a second just the vast number of assurances, guarantees that we had to get from all three governments working together, that is a massive undertaking for one nation, let alone three nations,” Cordeiro said after the vote by the Congress of world soccer’s governing body FIFA in Moscow, where the 2018 World Cup kicks off on Thursday.
“So if there were any complexity here it was three nations working together which just raised the difficulty of getting stuff done,” Cordeiro said.
The joint bid received 134 votes to 65 for Morocco. One FIFA Congress member voted for “neither bid.”
Trump, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Trudeau all took to Twitter to post their reactions to the news.
“The US, together with Mexico and Canada, just got the World Cup. Congratulations – a great deal of hard work!” Trump said.
Pena Nieto posted a video to his Twitter feed in which he said: “Football knows that Canada, the United States and Mexico are deeply united.”
Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa: “It’s an opportunity to bring the world together and highlight how well things work between Canada, Mexico and the United States.”
The North Americans pledged their tournament would generate an $11 billion profit for FIFA - greater than any previous World Cup finals – a financial shot in the arm for world soccer’s governing body, which has been rocked by a corruption and bribery scandal ensnaring top officials.
The “United Bid” projected that its tournament would generate more than $5 billion in short-term economic activity, including the creation of 40,000 jobs and more than $1 billion in incremental worker earnings. More than 5.8 million tickets are expected to be sold, generating over $2 billion in ticketing revenue, according to the winning bid’s projections.
Morocco, which has now failed in five bids to host the FIFA World Cup, said their tournament would make $5 billion. The North African country would have needed to invest billions of dollars to build new stadiums while the United States, Mexico and Canada will mostly use existing venues.