Thirty-two cities across North America remain in contention to form part of a joint bid by the United States, Canada and Mexico to stage the 2026 edition of football’s Fifa World Cup.
The list was last month whittled down from 44 to 41, and it has now been further cut to 32. The nine cities that have been cut from last month’s list are: Birmingham, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, Regina and San Antonio.
A total of 25 US cities remain in contention, along with four from Canada and three from Mexico.
The US cities are: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, New York/New Jersey, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Tampa and Washington, DC.
The Canadian cities are Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, while the Mexican candidates are Guadalajara, Monterrey and Mexico City.
“As we move to the next stage of the bid process, we’re even more confident we have everything needed to deliver the largest, most compelling Fifa World Cup in history and help accelerate the growth of soccer across North America and around the world,” said United Bid chairman Sunil Gulati.
“We have more than double the number of cities required to stage matches in 2026. We have a vision for growing the game and engaging fans as never before. Our biggest challenge will be finding ways to honour the enthusiasm of all the people across Canada, Mexico and the United States through the development of our united hosting concept.”
The United Bid Committee will integrate the 32 candidate cities into its bid strategy and vision during the next stage of the process, and work with local officials to finalise the hosting documents required by Fifa. Representatives from each city will travel to Houston during the week of November 13 for a working session with the bid committee.
The committee considers criteria such as city profile, stadium and support facilities, and services including transportation when making its decision.
The nine candidates that were dropped from last month’s list will be considered as locations for team base camps and other competition-related events and the bid committee will continue to work with these cities.
North America is the heavy favourite to host the 2026 World Cup, although a rival bid from Morocco has been lodged.
Image: Marcello Casal Jr/Agência Brasil
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