A three-nation United States-led bid to host the 2026 World Cup outscored its rival Morocco as both passed an inspection of their facilities and infrastructure, global soccer body FIFA said on Friday.
The joint US, Canada and Mexico bid was given an overall score of four out of five by a five-man FIFA task force which evaluated the two bids while Morocco was awarded 2.7 in a 220-page report. A minimum score of two was required to stay in the contest, Reuters reported.
This means that the host for the 48-team tournament will be chosen at the FIFA Congress on June 13, where each of the 211 member associations hold one vote, provided the two bids are first rubber-stamped by the policy-making FIFA council.
The report said that “both bids have been deemed eligible on the basis of having met, or exceeded, the minimum hosting requirements for the 2026 FIFA World Cup technical evaluation.”
The US hosted the finals in 1994 and bid unsuccessfully for 2022 while Mexico staged the 1970 and 1986 tournaments. Morocco has already made four failed bids to host the World Cup.
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