U.S., Mexico & Canada confirm joint bid to host the 2026 World Cup

Canada, Mexico, and the United states have partnered up to make a bid to host the 2026 World Cup in North America.

Mexico and the United States both have hosted the World Cup before, twice in Mexico in 1970 & 1986 and once in the US in 1994 which was a huge success.

Canada has never hosted the World Cup but did host the 2015 Women's World Cup which was another success in terms of attendance and play, over 1.35M spectators attended matches while more than 20 million Canadian viewers watched the competition on television.

Canada has only ever qualified once for the tournament back in 1986 when Mexico hosted it, they lost all their games in the World Cup and haven't returned since.

"Canada has proven itself as a formidable host for the world's game," said Victor Montagliani, president of both CONCACAF and the Canadian Soccer Association.7

The 10 April announcement was made at One World Observatory in New York on the 102nd and top floor of the One World Trade Center, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. The announcement comes on the heels of the 2017 CONCACAF Ordinary Congress at which the intention to bring the FIFA World Cup™ back to CONCACAF in 2026 received unanimous support from the 41 member associations.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the first with the expanded 48-team format, requiring facilities and infrastructure that these countries are uniquely suited to fulfill.

One contentious disclosure made by Gulati is that the proposal would have the United States hosting 60 of the 80 matches, with Mexico and Canada evenly sharing the other 20. All games from the quarter-final stage and beyond would be played only in the U.S.

Hosting the FIFA World Cup in Canada could be huge for the development of the of soccer in the nation. The wonder is which cities in Canada will host some of the games, will we have a World Cup game in Quebec? We will have to see.