CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani admits that the “door is wide open” for a joint bid between the United States, Mexico, and Canada for the 2026 World Cup.
Speaking alongside Infantino at the Dubai International Sports Conference on Wednesday, Montagliani said, according to ESPN FC: “The opportunity for a joint bid, I think that door is wide open.”
Both the United States (1994) and Mexico (1970, 1986) have hosted the World Cup, with the former most recently losing a bid to Qatar for the 2022 installment.
Montagliani, who is also the president of the Canadian Soccer Association, reckons CONCACAF’s three biggest member nations should be able to come together to host the quadrennial tournament.
The 2002 finals in South Korea and Japan were the first and only World Cup hosted by more than one nation, with Montagliani conceding that the political climate in the U.S. is ideal for a joint bid.
“It is pretty obvious the (USA) president-elect (Donald Trump) is a supporter of sport, a supporter of the Olympic movement, and builds golf courses,” Montagliani added.
“At face value I don’t see it being a challenge, and I think any administration, whether it be in the west or, in my case, Canada, or in Mexico, would be supportive of an event like the World Cup. And, no pun intended, I would think the World Cup would trump any political issues.”
The bidding process for the 2026 tournament was set to kick off in 2015, with the appointment of potential hosts scheduled for the May 2017 FIFA Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. On June 10, 2015, it was announced that the process had been postponed, with bidding set to resume in 2020.
