A joint bid by the United States, Canada, and Mexico beat out Morocco to host the 2026 World Cup, becoming the first time that the soccer tournament will be hosted by three countries, per The New York Times.
The details: The vast majority of the tournament will take place on U.S. soil — with 60 matches in the U.S. (including the final), 10 in Canada, and 10 in Mexico. In the end, the decision likely came down to cash as the North American joint bid promised it could generate $11 billion in profits for FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, more than double Morocco’s projected profit….
Note….
Working together, eh?
Gee… and I thought Canada and Mexico were America’s new enemies…
Just waiting for a triumphant presidential tweet…
That might be the only way the U.S. men can get in the next World Cup, to host it.
Does that mean Canada gets a spot too? They are even worse at the sport.
When teams decide to build a wall around the goalkeeper, Mexico will have to pay for it.
That’s about the extent of my soccer humor.
The funny thing is that the U.S. and Canadian Women’s teams have been rather strong, although Mexico’s, like those of many male soccer powers other than Brazil, Germany and Russia, is relatively weak.
Scandinavia is also strong on the distaff side, but not so much on the male one.
(However we’ll see have to see how the remarkable Icelandic men’s team does this week. Iceland has about 340,000 people, or a little more than one thousandth of the 323 million Americans.)
Actually, the President did tweet about this about eight weeks ago, and none too constructively (with help like that…):
FIFA implicitly warns Trump over 2026 World Cup bid tweet
Henry Bushnell
FC YahooApr 27, 2018, 1:10 PM
FIFA has responded to President Donald Trump’s ill-advised tweet about the 2026 World Cup bid with a vague statement about the rules of the bidding process.
Trump, in an out-of-nowhere tweet Thursday night, appeared to threaten countries whose soccer federations don’t support the North American bid to host the 2026 tournament:
[ Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
The U.S. has put together a STRONG bid w/ Canada & Mexico for the 2026 World Cup. It would be a shame if countries that we always support were to lobby against the U.S. bid. Why should we be supporting these countries when they don’t support us (including at the United Nations)?
7:39 PM – Apr 26, 2018
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FIFA responded with two sentences, one of which said that it wasn’t really able to respond:
“As a general rule, we cannot comment on specific statements in connection with the bidding process. We can only refer to the FIFA Regulations for the selection of the venue for the final competition of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and in particular to the Bid Rules of Conduct incorporated therein.”
Those rules of conduct are vague as well….
https://sports.yahoo.com/fifa-implicitly-warns-trump-2026-world-cup-bid-tweet-171034559.html
The Trump threat is i’m Sorry to say TYPICAL for his gangster …
THAT is why his support among his base is so
High….
Russia 2 – Saudi Arabia 0 at half-time in the kickoff game of the World Cup in Moscow. The Russian and Saudi Arabian heads of state were watching.
Vladimir Putin, who fought strenuously to bring the World Cup to Russia, gave a short, perfectly acceptable welcoming speech (in Russian) before the game began, followed by an even shorter one almost all in English by the Argentine President of FIFA.
Shown live on Telemundo (owned by NBC) and, no doubt, various NBC outlets (NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, NBCSN, etc.)
Russia 5 — Saudi Arabia 0 (last goal in stoppage time).
English-language network is Fox/Fox Sports, not NBC, sorry. Spanish-language network is Tekmundo.
World Cup scores so far (in first four groups out of eight Groups A to H):
Group A
5 Russia – Saudi Arabia 0
1 Uruguay – Egypt 0
Group B
1 Iran – Morocco 0
3 Spain = Portugal 3
Group C
2 France – Australia 1
1 Denmark – Peru 0
Group D
1 Argentina = Iceland 1
2 Croatia – Nigeria 1
Group E
tomorrow (Sunday)
8 a.m. EDT Costa Rica & Serbia
2 p.m. Brazil & Switzerland
Group F
tomorrow (Sunday)
11 a.m. Germany & Mexico
Monday
8 a.m. Sweden & Republic of Korea
My mistake:
Croatia 2 to 0 (not 1) Nigeria
Absolutely stunning upset, as Croatia beats Argentina 3-0 in Nizhni-Novgorod this afternoon.
Lionel Messi, considered (with Cristián Ronaldo of Portugal) to be one of the world’s two best players, was on the field for Argentina but largely missing from action.
As Argentina could only tie Iceland (pop. about 340,000) 1-1 in an earlier match, it could quite possibly not make it to the next round. Croatia already has another victory, over Nigeria 2-0 last weekend.