FIFA President Gianni Infantino has promised that the bidding process for the 2026 World Cup will be “transparent”.
Writing in the governing body’s magazine, the Swiss moved to allay fears after the controversies surrounding the race for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, insidethegames.biz reported.
Russia and Qatar were awarded the respective events at the same time in December 2010 but the bids were plagued by allegations of corruption.
A “legally appropriate” report was released in 2014 alleging “a number of “serious problems” with the bidding process for the two tournaments.
The crisis led to the nomination process for the 2026 World Cup being delayed for nearly a year.
It eventually began in May last year with a joint North American bid from the US, Canada and Mexico now entered alongside a bid from African country Morocco.
Infantino has promised to “radically enhance the mechanisms for selecting the location of our showpiece event. The process is as objective and transparent as it can get”.
“Every step of the bidding process will be open to public examination - and, for the first time, the process will be scrutinized by an independent audit company,” he added.
The 2026 World Cup will be the first to feature 48 teams after Infantino successfully engineered an increase from 32.
A decision on who hosts the event is expected to be made in 2020.
Caption: Gianni Infantino
Add new comment
Read our comment policy before posting your viewpoints