USA's Joint 2026 World Cup Bid Outscores Morocco's Ahead of FIFA Vote

The scoring of the bids was a result of FIFA's official evaulation of the two plans to host the first 48-team World Cup.

LONDON (AP) — A person with knowledge of the situation says the North American bid to host the 2026 World Cup has outscored Morocco in FIFA’s official evaluation of the two plans.

The person told The Associated Press that the joint bid from the United States, Canada and Mexico scored four out of five, and Morocco scored 2.7 out of five following FIFA’s inspections.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the scores ahead of an expected announcement from FIFA.

The FIFA Council has to approve both candidates at a June 10 meeting in Moscow. The final vote of up to 207 member federations is on June 13.

World Cup ‘26 bids: North American bid gets 4.0 rating out of 5.0 from FIFA. Morocco gets 2.7.

— Subscribe to GrantWahl.com (@GrantWahl) June 1, 2018

Morocco deemed high risk in precisely the kind of categories — stadiums, accommodations, transport — that could easily make a World Cup a disaster: pic.twitter.com/WBQX6RbxYU

— Andrew Das (@AndrewDasNYT) June 1, 2018

The development comes the same day FIFA lifted its ban on Guatemala, thus allowing the Central American nation to vote in the process.

The United States is aiming to host the World Cup for the first time since 1994, while Mexico last hosted the event in 1970 and 1986. Canada has never hosted a men's World Cup but put on the 2015 Women's World Cup–which was won by the USA.

This would mark the first time the World Cup would be hosted in three countries and the first since 2002 to be held in multiple nations.

The 2026 World Cup will be the first to feature 48 teams, in an expanded 80-game edition. As it stands, the United States would host 60 out of the 80 matches across 10 cities, while Mexico and Canada would host 10 each, according to the United 2026 bid.

All matches from the quarterfinals forward would be held in the United States, should the United 2026 bid win. It unveiled its list of final potential host cities in March. MetLife Stadium in New Jersey has been proposed as a host for the final, along with AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas and the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles.

SI Staff contributed to this report.