Mexico, Canada and US to candidate for 2026 World Cup

Although the last few weeks have been marked by numerous controversial events, the sport always gives us a reason to be positive. In fact, in order to cope with the socio-cultural resentments that are emerging more and more as a result of Donald Trump's election and the various nationalistic egoisms, Canada, Mexico and the United States have agreed to jointly apply to host the FIFA World Cup in 2026.

Even though international clashes have risen dramatically from November due to the tensions on all fronts, Mexico, Canada and the United States demonstrate with this joint bid that building walls is useless because the only feasible way is through integration and cooperation. The United States have not hosted the World Cup since 1994 when it was Brazil that won the competition. Mexico has not hosted an event of this magnitude for several years either, precisely since 1986, when Argentina got to be on top of the world. For Canada, however, this would be the first opportunity to host the men's football world, having hosted the female also jointly in 2015. It needs to be pointed out the fact that it would be the first joint world cup since 2002 when Korea and Japan organized the most important football competition.

The event, held in New York, has garnered a lot of attention around the world. The president of the U.S. Soccer Federation Sunil Gulati, Victor Montagliani, president of the Canadian Federation and Decio de Maria, president of the Mexican Federation were the ones who presented the candidacy. In this respect, in addition to the uniqueness of the application, it is important to emphasize that the system for the finals will be different: in contrast to what happens now, there will be 48 national teams that will qualify for the last phase, thanks to new rules introduced by the FIFA, which, however, have yet to find a definitive confirmation.