With new FIFA boss Gianni Infantino running the governing body of World Football, the next bidding for a World Cup, which will be World Cup 2026 should be highly interesting. Infantino has already said that with the credibility of FIFA at stake, the bidding process has to be “absolutely bullet-proof”.
The bidding for the 2026 FIFA World Cup should have already started, but it was delayed amongst all the corruption scandals that blighted the organization last year. The bidding for both the World Cup 2018 and for World Cup 2022 are still under investigation by Swiss Authorities.
You can enjoy some betting on the 2026 World Cup already with online betting site Coral’s ‘Who will Host the 2026 World Cup’ market.
Coral are one of the first bookmakers out of the block offering a market on the host nation. At the head of the market, Canada is running as 4/1 favourites. The Canadians came up with a four year plan back in 2014 to get a shot at hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Canada are hoping that by hosting the event, it will boost interest in their domestic game, one that is dragging behind that of their neigbours, America.
Canada will need new stadiums built and a lot of renovations to bring things up to the standard of hosting a FIFA World Cup. Montreal’s Olympic Stadium has been touted as the place that the final would be held. Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium, Toronto’s Rogers Centre and Vancouver’s BC Place are all over 50,000 seater stadiums. The only other current venue that comes in at the FIFA minimum seating requirement of 40,000 would be the New Mosaic Stadium in Regina, scheduled for completion in 2017.
Canada’s hopes for hosting the FIFA World Cup may well be boosted after successfully hosting the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The USA have been gaining some interest in the market to host the World Cup. They were one of the nations who went for the 2022 by were passed up for in favour of Qatar, the result of that being under investigation. They seem the likely ones to host the 2022 World Cup if the Qatar bid were to be overruled.
But the USA are out at 8/1 in the market to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup, interestingly having seen Mexico come in at a shorter price. The main crux of the Mexican bid is renovating the famous Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. The infrastructure of Mexico, which has hosted the FIFA World Cup twice before, probably isn’t quite as up to date as that of the USA though. So the USA have the stadiums in place, a much improved domestic scene which has grown since they hosted the tournament in 1994 and they have made good headlines at previous World Cups.
The USA were one of the aggrieved parties when the 2022 bid went to Qatar, so they garner some sympathy there. The voting isn’t likely to happen until 2019 anyway, because nations generally have seven years to get ready for a FIFA World Cup. Colombia have also been put into a price of 13/2 alongside Mexico, with Morocco at 16/1 and New Zealand at 20/1.
You can narrow all of this down a bit because it is likely to end up somewhere in the Americas. No European nation or Asian nation will be hosting it, because a confederation can’t bid for a World Cup for two tournaments after it has hosted. So Russia 2018, knocks out European entries, while Qatar 2022 knocks out Asian entries.
So you have the OFC, where only New Zealand can bid because Australia moved to the AFC and can’t host until 2034 because of that. From the CAF Morocco are strong contenders from the confederation and they always seem to put their name in the hat. The World Cup has only been to Africa once, so that could work in their favour, however it’s probably the confederation that would need the most money putting in to build infrastructure.
Who Will Host The 2026 World Cup?
CONMEBOL representatives Colombia have some interest, whoever, their plans may well get pushed aside because of the 2030 World Cup which is the centenary anniversary of the first World Cup. The first World Cup was held in Uruguay and for the celebrations, FIFA is likely to want to send it back there in a joint bid between Uruguay and Argentina. If they were to do that, it would mean that no South American nation could host in 2026.
So you are basically going to realistically be left with CONCACAF, where the USA, Canada and Mexico come in. It looks to be the most viable three horse race.
