United States-led 2026 World Cup bid in jeopardy to Morocco's

Schneckerl said:
Zürich, Oslo....?

What an embarrassing thing to be ignorant about. How can someone think freaking San Diego is has a higher GDP per capita than Zurich.
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As pointed out earlier, plenty of European cities have higher GDP per capita
Cal? said:
Plenty of European cities have higher GDP per capita.

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Trump will be gone so nothing to do with him.

USA deserve it. They are the biggest country and best equipped after Russia and Qatar damaged the brand.
 
BBRBB said:
They're decades to a century old, no cover for spectators, no VIP facilities or basically anything that you can find in state of the art stadiums. They can only rival modern football or NFL stadiums by their capacity.
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Some of the college stadiums like the big sec schools have gotten upgrades though. But the problem is the lack of hotels and a major airport near the stadium or in the city, stadiums like beaver stadium or tiger stadium wouldn't be able to handle 50,000 tourists in the city.

Super Bowl and Final Four Cities are the only way to go LA, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, NYC, Miami, Orlando, San Francisco, Tampa, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Seattle, Indy
 
Openshaw53 said:
And the approximately 3 stadiums they have in Morocco do?
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Terrible post. There are 6 stadiums in Morocco with a capacity of 45k or more and another 2 being finished by 2020 with the same. Not to mention 2026 is 8 years away. Qatar did not have any regulation standard stadiums in place when they won.
 
redpatron said:
Some of the college stadiums like the big sec schools have gotten upgrades though. But the problem is the lack of hotels and a major airport near the stadium or in the city, stadiums like beaver stadium or tiger stadium wouldn't be able to handle 50,000 tourists in the city.

Super Bowl and Final Four Cities are the only way to go LA, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, NYC, Miami, Orlando, San Francisco, Tampa, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Seattle, Indy
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Maybe pass on Phoenix in the summer
 
I'd prefer a US world cup purely because I would see more of the games :lol:

With the World Cup this year I'm likely to only get to see the evening game during the week and even then with a 7pm kick off i'll likely miss most of the first half :rolleyes:

The kick off times for the 2014 WC were ideal for me, 5pm then 8/9pm then 11pm. I would imagine that a World Cup in the US would be similar.
 
Phil said:
Yeah but the stadiums too? Surely not
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They air conditioned to keep people from dying inside. Chase field does the same thing. It’s cool enough they open the roof.

I was there in the stadium, roof closed, air conditioned, it was 95 degrees outside in April 2017 for the final four. It was cold as ice even with 75,000 in there.
 
redpatron said:
Some of the college stadiums like the big sec schools have gotten upgrades though. But the problem is the lack of hotels and a major airport near the stadium or in the city, stadiums like beaver stadium or tiger stadium wouldn't be able to handle 50,000 tourists in the city.

Super Bowl and Final Four Cities are the only way to go LA, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, NYC, Miami, Orlando, San Francisco, Tampa, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Seattle, Indy
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I like the way you think.
 
World Cup 2026: Morocco bid team says tournament would be 'almost European'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44288408

A World Cup in Morocco would be "almost a European" tournament, the man leading the African nation's 2026 bid says.

Morocco - which is making its fifth attempt to host the finals - faces competition from a joint bid from Canada, Mexico and the United States for the expanded 48-team competition.

Bid chief executive Hicham El Amrani said he was confident the country's infrastructure "could deliver".

"A Moroccan World Cup is not just an African World Cup," he told BBC Sport.

"It would also be almost a European World Cup with the south of Spain just 14km (nine miles) away.

"We're just a few hours' flying distance from capital cities across Europe, and the European countries will provide a huge number of fans."

​
A big play for the European votes and really it would be a better option for all European nations compared to the North American bid - less travel time, no jet lag, little to no time difference. Good for both the teams and European fans travelling or watching on TV.
 
Cal? said:
Plenty of European cities have higher GDP per capita.
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I'm very skeptical about this list. Not having any of Hong Kong, Singapore Monaco or London in the top 20 seems wrong to me...
 
DanDZI said:
I'm very skeptical about this list. Not having any of Hong Kong, Singapore Monaco or London in the top 20 seems wrong to me...
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I can only speak from experience, but if Macau are where they are, there’s no way Hong Kong are on the list. HKers have been envious of Macau for years now.
 
DanDZI said:
I'm very skeptical about this list. Not having any of Hong Kong, Singapore Monaco or London in the top 20 seems wrong to me...
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For Paris that is about right, Paris represents 30% of France GDP with 660bn€. The GDP per job is around 104k€.
 
Rood said:
World Cup 2026: Morocco bid team says tournament would be 'almost European'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44288408
A World Cup in Morocco would be "almost a European" tournament, the man leading the African nation's 2026 bid says.

Morocco - which is making its fifth attempt to host the finals - faces competition from a joint bid from Canada, Mexico and the United States for the expanded 48-team competition.

Bid chief executive Hicham El Amrani said he was confident the country's infrastructure "could deliver".

"A Moroccan World Cup is not just an African World Cup," he told BBC Sport.

"It would also be almost a European World Cup with the south of Spain just 14km (nine miles) away.

"We're just a few hours' flying distance from capital cities across Europe, and the European countries will provide a huge number of fans."

​
A big play for the European votes and really it would be a better option for all European nations compared to the North American bid - less travel time, no jet lag, little to no time difference. Good for both the teams and European fans travelling or watching on TV.
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He’s right to be fair. I could see teams staying in Andalusia as well rather than in Morocco
 
While I think a WC in Morocco would be cool, the North American bid is a no brainer in terms of stadiums and maximising ticket sales. Those big shiny NFL stadiums plus the Azteca in Mexico City and the Olympique in Montreal would certainly ensure FIFA a big income (and more chances to get a ticket).

The distances would suck though. Everything would be by plane.
 
http://www.espn.com/soccer/fifa-wor...orld-cup-bid-outscores-high-risk-morocco-fifa

FIFA judged Morocco's 2026 World Cup proposals to be "high risk" in three areas and offered significant praise for the North American bid, which outscored its rival by a wide margin in an inspection evaluation report published on Friday.

The joint bid from the United States, Canada and Mexico scored 4 out of 5, while Morocco scored 2.7 following FIFA inspections.

Morocco's risks relate to stadiums, accommodation and transport. No part of the North America bid was flagged a high risk, and FIFA said it "has a clear lead" to advance the governing body's mission to "push new boundaries in terms of sports-related technology and engagement" since stadiums and hotels already exist.

FIFA's five-man panel could have disqualified Morocco had the North African country scored less than two overall, and less than two on key measures including stadiums.

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 and the inspection task force scores can be ignored when making their decision.

The 2026 World Cup is the first tournament FIFA has confirmed will expand from 32 to 48 teams -- putting increasing demands on the stadiums and facilities required to stage 80 games.

While Morocco has said it needs to spend almost $16 billion on infrastructure for the 48-team World Cup, including building or renovating all 14 stadiums, North America does not require any tournament-specific building work.

"The amount of new infrastructure required for the Morocco 2026 bid to become reality cannot be overstated," the bid evaluation task force said. "The Morocco 2026 bid and United 2026 bid represent two almost opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to the nature of their bids."

The North Americans scored the only maximum 5 mark for its ticketing and hospitality plans, which helped drive a forecast revenue for the tournament of $14.3 billion, "significantly higher" than Morocco's $7.2 billion.

However, the lowest mark out of 5 for either bid in each of nine categories is 2.0 for the North American bids' projected organising costs which were driven up by having 16 stadiums instead of the minimum 12.

In 20 categories evaluated for risk, the North American bid had three medium-risk areas -- government support, human rights and labor standards, and organizing costs -- and 17 low risk. Morocco had the three high-risk sections, 10 medium risk -- also including human rights and labor standards -- and seven low risk.

FIFA ordered more rigorous inspections after criticism of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup votes in 2010, with a five-man delegation this time paying the countries week-long visits in April.

FIFA sent a second group of officials to Morocco after finding deficiencies in their bid offering, including the stadiums proposed. The Associated Press also revealed that Morocco did not declare its anti-LGBT law to football's governing body in the human rights risk assessment included in the bid book.

"The documents submitted do not specifically discuss risks to some potentially affected groups, such as representatives of the LGBTI+ community," the FIFA report said. "Also absent from the documents is a comprehensive methodology to prioritize risks."

The new batch of technical staff being deployed from FIFA headquarters to Morocco did not make a similar follow-up visit to North America after the task force inspected the rival bid's facilities this month.

But the North American campaign has been dogged by questions on the impact of policies from the Trump administration, including attempts to implement a ban on travel by residents of six majority-Muslim countries. The U.S. has offered fresh guarantees to FIFA there will be no discrimination around entry to the United States at a World Cup in 2026.

"Due to new entry regulations that are currently being proposed in the United States in relation to citizens from certain countries, there are significant risks to discrimination-free entry to the country,'' FIFA said.

Scores out of 5 (the various categories carry a different weighting in the overall score):

Overall score: United bid 4.0, Morocco 2.7

Infrastructure

Stadiums: United bid 4.1, Morocco 2.3
Team facilities: United bid 3.7, Morocco 2.9
Accommodation: United bid 3.9, Morocco 2.6
Transport: United bid 4.3, Morocco 2.1
Telecommunications: United bid 4.0, Morocco 3.5
Fan Festival locations: United bid 3.6, Morocco 3.2

Commercial

Organising costs: United bid 2.0, Morocco 3.0
Media and marketing: United bid 4.9, Morocco 4.6
Ticketing and hospitality: United bid 5.0, Morocco 2.4
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HorrorFan07 said:
Trump will be gone so nothing to do with him.

USA deserve it. They are the biggest country and best equipped after Russia and Qatar damaged the brand.
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4th Biggest. Russia, Canada, China, USA. Biggest doesn't mean best. The distances between stadia and time zone differences could be a problem.
A USA WC could have more traveling than Russia, who have opted to have the games in European Russia.
 
Morroco would be a cool place for a world cup. That's a reason. USA, Mexico and Canada is basically just giving it to a continent.

I still can't get my head around 48 teams not being a terrible idea.
 
noodlehair said:
Morroco would be a cool place for a world cup. That's a reason. USA, Mexico and Canada is basically just giving it to a continent.

I still can't get my head around 48 teams not being a terrible idea.
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the 48 team thing certainly makes it difficult for any single country to host, combined bids will probably be the norm from now on - the North American bid is likely to win for this reason, perhaps a combined North African bid might be one for the future.
 
Anyway the vote is today - nice summary of the 2 bids here:

Fifa World Cup 2026: Canada, US & Mexico v Morocco
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44428947
One side has David Beckham lobbying and Donald Trump menacing on social media. The other is promising a "European" World Cup in Africa.

But who will prevail on Wednesday when a vote is taken to decide on the hosts of the 2026 Fifa World Cup?

Morocco and a combined 'United Bid' between the United States, Canada, and Mexico are fighting for the right to stage the biggest World Cup ever held - with 48 teams playing 80 matches over 34 days.

After the controversial award of the 2018 and 2022 tournaments to Russia and Qatar respectively, Fifa has promised a "more open and transparent" vote this time.

But what are the two bids offering? How will the vote work? And who is going to host the World Cup in eight years' time?....​
 
WTF ... what about the travel distances ?
It is a huge continent ... this is unbelievable...
US had a worldcup given in 1994, why not give it to someone who never had it or had it years before.
 
shahzadi said:
WTF ... what about the travel distances ?
It is a huge continent ... this is unbelievable...
US had a worldcup given in 1994, why not give it to someone who never had it or had it years before.
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Mexico had one in 1986 too.

Whilst England are sat here waiting.
 
USA getting 2 World Cups before we get another ffs. Imagine fans trying to travel between 3 different countries.
 
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