United 2026, also known as the North American 2026 bid, was a successful joint bid led by the United States Soccer Federation, together with the Canadian Soccer Association and the Mexican Football Federation, to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America.
While the soccer federations of Canada, Mexico, and the United States had individually announced plans to field a bid for the 2026 World Cup, the concept of a joint bid among the three North American countries was first proposed in 2016. The joint bid was unveiled on April 10, 2017, under which the tournament would be held at venues in all three countries. A shortlist of 23 candidate cities were named in the official bid, with 17 in the U.S., 3 in Canada, and 3 in Mexico. The final list included eleven U.S. cities that joined two Canadian cities and three Mexican cities, to form the roster of 16 cities that hosted the matches of the World Cup. Although a joint bid, the majority of the matches were held in the United States. The initial bid recommended that the United States would host 60 of the 80 matches. After the tournament format was modified in March 2023, the match allocation then stood as follows: of the 104 matches, Canada hosted 13 matches, Mexico hosted 13 matches, and the United States hosted 78 matches, including all matches from the quarterfinals onward.
On June 13, 2018, at the 68th FIFA Congress in Moscow, Russia, the United bid was selected by 134 votes to Morocco's 65. Upon this selection, Canada became the fifth country to host both the men's and women's World Cup, joining Sweden, the United States, Germany, and France. Mexico became the first country to host three men's World Cups, and the United States became the first country to host both the men's and women's World Cup twice each. This was the first World Cup to be hosted in three countries, as well as the first since 2002 and the second overall to be held in multiple countries.
Background The three soccer federations of Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. announced interest in submitting a bid for the 2026 FIFA World Cup years before the federations intended to unify their efforts.
In July 2012, Canadian Soccer Association president Victor Montagliani confirmed plans for a Canadian bid, saying: "We have verbally told FIFA that when the bid process begins for the next available World Cup, which would be the 2026 World Cup, that the CSA will be one of the countries putting in a formal proposal". At the time the bid was announced, Canada had hosted the men's 1987 Under-16 World Championship and the U-20 World Cups for both men and women; the country has since hosted the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup and the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2015. In October 2013, Montagliani confirmed Canada's intention to bid for the 2026 tournament and the Canadian Soccer Association reiterated this in January 2014.
In September 2012, Mexican Football Federation (FMF) President Justino Compeán confirmed plans for a Mexican bid. In October 2013, Liga MX President said that Mexico was interested in joining forces with the U.S. to co-host a bid for the 2026 World Cup. On December 9, 2014, FMF confirmed that it was bidding for the 2026 World Cup.
On May 13, 2016, at the FIFA Congress in Mexico City, USSF board member John Motta told ESPN "whatever happens, we will bid for the 2026 World Cup -- either jointly (with Mexico or Canada) or we will do it alone." The United States hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup and unsuccessfully bid for the 2022 World Cup, which was won by Qatar in 2010. On April 18, 2015, Brazilian legend Pelé stated that the United States should host the 2026 World Cup.
In December 2016, Victor Montagliani, CONCACAF president announced for the first time a possibility of a joint bid between the United States, Canada, and Mexico to host the 2026 World Cup.
On April 10, 2017, the three bodies announced their intent to submit a joint bid for the 2026 World Cup.
Bid process
Bidding for the 2026 FIFA World Cup was postponed due to the 2015 FIFA corruption case and the subsequent resignation of Sepp Blatter, then was restarted following the FIFA Council meeting on May 10, 2016, wherein the bidding process would consist of four phases: May 2016 – May 2017: a new strategy and consultation phase June 2017 – Dec 2017: enhanced phases for bid preparation March 2018 – June 2018: bid evaluation June 2018: final decision
With no rival bid having emerged since April 2017 the CONCACAF member federations of Canada, Mexico, and the United States sent a joint request to FIFA to hasten the bid process. Canada, Mexico, and the United States wanted FIFA to award the bid outside the traditional bidding process at the June 2018 FIFA Congress in Moscow if the CONCACAF-bid meets FIFA requirements.
However the FIFA Council decided on May 8, 2017, that FIFA would have a full bidding procedure. In order to ensure continental rotation of hosting duties, only the member associations of CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, and the OFC were invited, as these continental confederations had not hosted the two previous World Cups. A date of August 11, 2017, was set for submission of an intention to bid.
FIFA soccer tournament hosting experiences Together, Canada, Mexico, and the United States had hosted 14 FIFA events, which was the most of any trio of geographically connected nations.
1987 U-16 World Championship 2002 U-19 Women's World Championship 2007 U-20 World Cup 2014 U-20 Women's World Cup 2015 Women's World Cup
1970 World Cup 1983 World Youth Championship 1986 World Cup 1999 Confederations Cup 2011 U-17 World Cup
1994 World Cup 1999 Women's World Cup 2003 Women's World Cup 2025 Club World Cup
In addition, all three countries had hosted at least one Olympic soccer tournament: Canada played host in Montreal 1976, Mexico in Mexico City 1968, and the United States hosted thrice – in St. Louis 1904, Los Angeles 1984 and Atlanta 1996. The Atlanta Games were the first to include a women's tournament.
Bid committee
On July 6, 2017, a United Bid Committee was officially formed by the national federations of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, to kick off the bidding process to bring the 2026 World Cup to North America.
Honorary chairman of the board Robert Kraft: National Football League and Major League Soccer executive and owner
United bid committee board of directors Steven Reed – co-chairman, president of the Canadian Soccer Association Decio de María – co-chairman, president of the Mexican Football Federation Carlos Cordeiro – co-chairman, president of the United States Soccer Federation Victor Montagliani – president of CONCACAF Sunil Gulati – FIFA Council member Don Garber – commissioner of Major League Soccer Dan Flynn – secretary general of U.S. Soccer Donna Shalala – trustee professor of Political Science at the University of Miami Guillermo Cantu – general secretary of the Mexican Football Federation Peter Montopoli – general secretary of the Canadian Soccer Association Carlos Bocanegra – technical director of Atlanta United FC Julie Foudy – founder of Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy and television analyst and reporter for ESPN/ABC Ed Foster-Simeon – president and CEO of U.S. Soccer Foundation
United bid committee executive team John Kristick – executive director for the united bid committee Jim Brown – managing director, technical operations Peter Montopoli – Canada bid director Yon De Luisa – Mexico bid director
Potential venues On August 15, 2017, the United Bid Committee released a list of 49 existing, fully-functional stadiums in 44 metropolitan markets across the three nations to be considered for the official bid. Cities had to submit written proposals to the United Bid Committee by January 19, 2018, before being selected by the committee. The United Bid Committee planned to include 20–25 venues in the official bid, which was sent to FIFA in March 2018. Stadiums had to have a capacity of at least 40,000 for group stage matches and at least 80,000 for the opening match and the final.
On September 7, 2017, the United Bid Committee announced that a total of 41 cities (with 44 venues) had submitted bids marking their official declaration of interest to be included in the final bid. Almost a month later, on October 4, 2017, the list of cities was cut down to 32 with 35 venues. During U.S. Soccer's annual general meeting in Orlando in February 2018, Gulati revealed that the list of cities had been cut down to 26 with 26 venues.
On March 14, 2018, Soldier Field in Chicago, U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, and BC Place in Vancouver all announced that they were dropping out as potential host cities. All three cities cited concerns over the financial transparency of being a host city and cited FIFA's unwillingness to negotiate financial details as reasons for their decisions; the bid committee announced the next day they had reduced the number of cities in the bid to 23.
On July 6, 2021, Canada Soccer announced that Montreal had withdrawn its bid from the selection process, due to the Quebec provincial government withdrawing its support. On April 14, 2022, more than four years after dropping out, BC Place in Vancouver was announced as a replacement for Montreal. On April 21, 2022, Washington, D.C. announced that they were dropping out and merging their campaign with Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium.
The official bid proposed the main opening match to be held in either Azteca Stadium in Mexico City or at the Rose Bowl in the Los Angeles area, that all three host countries' teams host their first matches on the first day of the tournament and that the final match be held at MetLife Stadium in the New York City area. The bid also proposed the two semifinal matches to be held at AT&T Stadium in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. All of the other cities in the American portion of the bid were considered for quarterfinal matches. The bid book proposal called for Mexico and Canada to each host seven group stage matches, two matches in the round of 32, and one in the round of 16.
A denotes stadium used for previous men's World Cup tournaments A denotes retractable-roof or indoor stadium
Venues excluded since start of bidding process
Venues that were contacted but did not submit a bid City Stadium Capacity Image Calgary, Alberta McMahon Stadium 35,400(expandable to 46,020) Green Bay, Wisconsin Lambeau Field 81,441 Montreal, Quebec Saputo Stadium 20,801 San Diego, California Qualcomm Stadium 70,561 Toronto, Ontario Rogers Centre 54,000
Venues that submitted bids but were rejected (1st round) City Stadium Capacity Image Birmingham, Alabama Legion Field 71,594 Cleveland, Ohio Huntington Bank Field 67,895 Indianapolis, Indiana Lucas Oil Stadium 62,421(expandable to 70,000) Jacksonville, Florida TIAA Bank Field 69,132(expandable to 82,000) New Orleans, Louisiana Caesars Superdome 73,208(expandable to 76,438) Ottawa, Ontario TD Place Stadium 24,000 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Acrisure Stadium 69,690 Regina, Saskatchewan Mosaic Stadium 33,350(expandable to 40,000) San Antonio, Texas Alamodome 64,000
Venues that submitted bids but were rejected (2nd round) During the 2018 U.S. Soccer Annual General Meeting, Sunil Gulati announced that the following cities were not selected for the final hosting bid.
City Stadium Capacity Image Charlotte, North Carolina Bank of America Stadium 75,525 Dallas, Texas Cotton Bowl 92,100 Detroit, Michigan Ford Field 65,000(expandable to 70,000) Las Vegas, Nevada Allegiant Stadium(Paradise, Nevada) 72,000 Los Angeles, California Memorial Coliseum 93,607 Phoenix, Arizona State Farm Stadium(Glendale, Arizona) 63,400(expandable to 78,600) Salt Lake City, Utah Rice–Eccles Stadium 53,609 Tampa, Florida Raymond James Stadium 65,890(expandable to 75,000)
Venues that withdrew voluntarily