On the eve of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the hosting rights of World Cup 2026 came to a resounding result at the FIFA Congress held in Moscow, as a new model of hosting the future World Cups came into sight: Mexico, Canada and USA will be hosting the 2026 World Cup together. This is the first time in history that three nations will hold a World Cup in unity. 

Gianni Infantino, the FIFA President, was quite happy with this result, saying this voting result with a hefty win percentage for the three nations bid opened a gate for future hosting rights. However, of these three nations, Mexico had already hosted two World Cups in 1970 and 1986, and USA hosted the 1994 World Cup. These two nations do have the capability of hosting a World Cup by themselves, the joint bid is more like a bid of political alliance, instead of footballing decision. 

A bigger challenge lies ahead, beyond the unfriendliness of hosting a World Cup across such a vast distance area, which is the enlargement of the amount of participating teams in the World Cup. FIFA and especially Infantino has been promoting the 48 World Cup for years, and if that comes into reality, the 2026 World Cup would become a 80 matches World Cup, lasting for more than 5 weeks. Too many teams participating would definitely devalue the competitive level of such an elite showpiece cup competition, and would bring a series of headaches to the competing teams and organizers, as well as the international football audience. 

Internal travelling from city to city, was a devastating factor in 1994 World Cup. Dennis Bergkamp, the legendary striker from Holland, suffered from the flying from the west coast to the east in the USA, and has since become a notorious aviophobia patient. If a participating team would have to fly four or more hours from one hosting city to another, the World Cup itinerary could become a disaster. It is challenging for the broadcaster as well, because the World Cup has come to rely more heavily on the media rights income, and matches have to be adjusted to the European timing, which means that a lot of matches have to start at high noon times. 

The enlargement of the number of finalists would surely dilute the quality of competition, and there are already rounds after rounds of complaining of below the par performances in current World Cup group stage. If the competition is below the quality demanded of the World Cup, it will reflect on the global audience figure and would definitely reflect on the sponsorship and marketing revenue part. 

Nevertheless, North America won 2026, therefore, the hosting right of 2030 World Cup would be in the hands of the European nations and African nations, as Asia just held the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. This is the reason why Morocco were be lining up in queue for the 2026 rights. They know for certainty that they can’t beat the USA led North America unity bid, their real intention is to make up the queue first. The opportunity for China would be 2034 or even 2038, if we are serious about bidding for the rights to hold the World Cup.