FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread

[Strongkored]

~snip~
If I'm not mistaken USA Mexico and Canada were selected in 2018 as hosts for the 2026 World Cup so it's been quite a while, and those who put themselves forward, and must have seen the huge advantage to be had by hosting. If an alternative covid emerges then there will definitely be adjustments like what happened at the Japanese Olympics and also the previous European Cup

This will be the third time that Mexico hosts a world cup, that must be some kind of record, I can't remember any other team that would have hosted it that many times.

It's a bit weird because there are still so many places in the world that haven't hosted it, and yet having Mexico for a third time (and the US as a second time) seems a bit strange.

First time for Canada though, so that's something at least.

It's true that Mexico will do it and become the first country to be able to host the World Cup 3x because other countries like Germany and Brazil and the USA will only be 2x so far, and that's not weird because FIFA doesn't appoint just any country, only countries who propose to be the host will be selected and for 2026 there are only 4 countries that apply to host WC USA along with Mexico and Canada are counted as one place and Morocco. The high cost of building infrastructure is an obstacle for many countries to apply to host the World Cup, and it will be difficult for developing countries to do so

We are still talking about COVID? It has been almost 3 years since the first cases spread from China to other countries (Italy and Japan). Here in India, hardly anyone cares about COVID anymore. People seems to have got the immunity against COVID, as a result of vaccinations and infections. Zero-COVID countries such as China have realized their mistake and are no longer trying to contain the infection. A flu virus similar to COVID may emerge in 2026, but I don't think that the current pandemic will last beyond this year (2023).

I mean is about alternatives covid or other viruses instead of covid like some time ago, and it shouldn't be a scary thing anymore and we should live our lives back to normal

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[Sithara007]

It's true that Mexico will do it and become the first country to be able to host the World Cup 3x because other countries like Germany and Brazil and the USA will only be 2x so far, and that's not weird because FIFA doesn't appoint just any country, only countries who propose to be the host will be selected and for 2026 there are only 4 countries that apply to host WC USA along with Mexico and Canada are counted as one place and Morocco. The high cost of building infrastructure is an obstacle for many countries to apply to host the World Cup, and it will be difficult for developing countries to do so

Most of the money that is spend goes to building road and rail infrastructure, that will be in use even after the tournament. However, there will be some wasteful expenditure as well. For example, Qatar built so many stadiums for the 2022 edition and many of them will remain idle for the next few years (unless they host some major tournament again). In case of Mexico, in most cases they are not building new stadiums. They are only refurbishing the existing stadiums. So my guess is that there would not be much wasteful expense.

[Slow death]

Well, many think that Mexico is just drugs, cartels and things like that...

I wonder if mexico would be an appropriate place to organize the world cup since they are a very insecure country:

“You could hear the shooting – huge blasts, so much noise,” said the Mexican businessman, who had planned to board a flight to the eastern city of San Luis Potosí.[/size]

source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/06/terror-cartel-violence-engulfs-mexican-city-el-chapo-son

reading the article, and just do more research that anyone can see that this type of news is very frequent in mexico, I can not understand why they are putting mexico to organize the world cup when they know the issue of crimes they have, I know that in every country in the world the number of crimes varies, but the difference between Mexico and other countries is that in Mexico they are dealing with drug crimes in which criminals already have evolved weapons and fight against the police, the brazil for example has this, they organized the world cup, but in brazil drug dealers stay in their territory, they have no power in the cities where the police are, whereas in mexico all institutions are corrupted by drug dealers

[slackovic]

I wonder if mexico would be an appropriate place to organize the world cup since they are a very insecure country:

/snip

“You could hear the shooting – huge blasts, so much noise,” said the Mexican businessman, who had planned to board a flight to the eastern city of San Luis Potosí.[/size]

source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/06/terror-cartel-violence-engulfs-mexican-city-el-chapo-son

reading the article, and just do more research that anyone can see that this type of news is very frequent in mexico, I can not understand why they are putting mexico to organize the world cup when they know the issue of crimes they have, I know that in every country in the world the number of crimes varies, but the difference between Mexico and other countries is that in Mexico they are dealing with drug crimes in which criminals already have evolved weapons and fight against the police, the brazil for example has this, they organized the world cup, but in brazil drug dealers stay in their territory, they have no power in the cities where the police are, whereas in mexico all institutions are corrupted by drug dealers

I saw your post and wanted to check where Mexico stands in the list of countries by murder rate per 100k people. I was surprised to see that Mexico is in the 13th spot with 29,07 murders per 100.000 people. That measurement was taken in the 2018 year, but I don't think that anything has changed since then. For comparison, in the USA the murder rate per 100.000 people is 4,96. That still is a big number but it's nothing when compared to Mexico.
I really don't know how smart it is to hold such a big competition in such an insecure country.

[Sithara007]

I saw your post and wanted to check where Mexico stands in the list of countries by murder rate per 100k people. I was surprised to see that Mexico is in the 13th spot with 29,07 murders per 100.000 people. That measurement was taken in the 2018 year, but I don't think that anything has changed since then. For comparison, in the USA the murder rate per 100.000 people is 4,96. That still is a big number but it's nothing when compared to Mexico.
I really don't know how smart it is to hold such a big competition in such an insecure country.

We had the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and it was conducted without any safety issues. The same can be said about the 2014 World Cup, which was held in Brazil. Both these countries do have very high murder rates. And in Brazil and South Africa (and in Mexico as well) the crime ridden areas are located far away from the major urban centers. On the other hand, in the United States the major urban metropolitan areas are more crime ridden when compared to the rural localities. If you are concerned about crime, then I guess you need to worry about the US more than the case with Mexico.

[slackovic]

I saw your post and wanted to check where Mexico stands in the list of countries by murder rate per 100k people. I was surprised to see that Mexico is in the 13th spot with 29,07 murders per 100.000 people. That measurement was taken in the 2018 year, but I don't think that anything has changed since then. For comparison, in the USA the murder rate per 100.000 people is 4,96. That still is a big number but it's nothing when compared to Mexico.
I really don't know how smart it is to hold such a big competition in such an insecure country.

We had the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and it was conducted without any safety issues. The same can be said about the 2014 World Cup, which was held in Brazil. Both these countries do have very high murder rates. And in Brazil and South Africa (and in Mexico as well) the crime ridden areas are located far away from the major urban centers. On the other hand, in the United States the major urban metropolitan areas are more crime ridden when compared to the rural localities. If you are concerned about crime, then I guess you need to worry about the US more than the case with Mexico.

The reason why I checked the murder rates in countries hosting the next World Cup was because I had a feeling that the number of murders in USA is not bigger than in Mexico. It turns out I was wrong but it could be that my gut had me believe the numbers are similar because of what you say. The murders in USA are closer to urban areas and because of that they are probably more exposed trough media.

I'm sure that everything will go smooth just like it did in South Africa and Brazil.

[Japinat]

Canada and Mexico will host only 10 games each. USA will host 60! Total of 80 matches for the next World Cup. Probably there will be logistics to not exhaust players when travelling from one place to another.

I didn't know that and doesn't feel fair at all because the ones who will print with that event will be USA while the 3 of them have to spend a lot of money for the event. I think the matches should be split into the same amount of games for each country because doesn't worth making the infrastructure and the conditions in a country only for 10 games. I feel like Mexico and Canada will lose a lot of money with this.

Maybe they did like this exactly because USA already has the infrastructure to host more games, while Canada and Mexico are in humbler conditions. It was said no stadiums are going to be built, and I imagine they want to reuse most buildings as possible which already exist in their countries so they decrease the investment and maximize financial returns from tourists.

As it stands, the format for 2026 will mean 80 matches across the tournament - although that could still change. The United States would host 60 matches, including every match from the quarter-finals onward, while neighbouring Canada and Mexico would each host 10 matches.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/64032538

Yes, that's likely the case why the USA will have to host more games than Canada and Mexico. It says in the article that I've provided that the USA will most of the games during the quarter-finals onward because they have the biggest stadiums that can cater tens of thousands of people who will match the said matches during the event. Meanwhile, The FIFA Council will release more information in the coming weeks regarding the upcoming 2026 World Cup that will be hosted by 3 countries in North America.

Indeed, the biggest one is in Texas (AT&T Stadium in Arlington) and support almost 100,000 people! What games must they be going to play there, finals, maybe? That is huge, but personally I wouldn't go to a stadium like that, because the more overcrowded a building is, the more dangerous it's going to be in case of emergencies. Imagine if people have to leave the place instantly the turmoil, chaos and despair around.

No mate, AT&T Stadium isn't even on America's Top 10 list of Biggest Stadium because the one you've mentioned only have a capacity to hold 80,000. Their biggest was the Michigan Stadium that can hold as much as 107,600 people and that's what is really insane! But anyway, as I said above, the FIFA council will release more details soon and I'm also sure that AT&T is one of the stadiums that will host one of the 60 games in the next FIFA World Cup, and I agree with you, it's still best to see it in television rather than seeing it live to be safer.

[nullama]

~snip~
The reason why I checked the murder rates in countries hosting the next World Cup was because I had a feeling that the number of murders in USA is not bigger than in Mexico. It turns out I was wrong but it could be that my gut had me believe the numbers are similar because of what you say. The murders in USA are closer to urban areas and because of that they are probably more exposed trough media.

I'm sure that everything will go smooth just like it did in South Africa and Brazil.

Yeah, on average the US is safer than Mexico, but it depends on which specific city you're looking at.

For example, St. Louis, Baltimore, and San Juan in the US have more than 50 homicides per 100k people. Source: https://usabynumbers.com/cities-with-highest-murder-rate/

On the other hand:

Mexico City's Murder Rate Is Lower Than Portland Or Dallas

So it really depends on the actual city you're comparing, not the average of a huge country.

[Sithara007]

The reason why I checked the murder rates in countries hosting the next World Cup was because I had a feeling that the number of murders in USA is not bigger than in Mexico. It turns out I was wrong but it could be that my gut had me believe the numbers are similar because of what you say. The murders in USA are closer to urban areas and because of that they are probably more exposed trough media.

I'm sure that everything will go smooth just like it did in South Africa and Brazil.

A large share of the murders in Mexico result from the ongoing drug war, which mostly occurs along the US-Mexico border. After peaking a decade or so ago, the drug cartels are now in a disorganized state and their activity is greatly reduced. And this has a lot to do with the military aid that the United States has offered to Mexican government. But even if they are still powerful, I don't believe that the drug cartels are foolish enough to attack football fans during the world cup. In case they do so, then they will attract unwanted attention and end up brining foreign military intervention to Mexico.

Here is the 2021 murder dates by state for Mexico:

[Juggy777]

Well, many think that Mexico is just drugs, cartels and things like that...

I wonder if mexico would be an appropriate place to organize the world cup since they are a very insecure country:

“You could hear the shooting – huge blasts, so much noise,” said the Mexican businessman, who had planned to board a flight to the eastern city of San Luis Potosí.[/size]

source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/06/terror-cartel-violence-engulfs-mexican-city-el-chapo-son

reading the article, and just do more research that anyone can see that this type of news is very frequent in mexico, I can not understand why they are putting mexico to organize the world cup when they know the issue of crimes they have, I know that in every country in the world the number of crimes varies, but the difference between Mexico and other countries is that in Mexico they are dealing with drug crimes in which criminals already have evolved weapons and fight against the police, the brazil for example has this, they organized the world cup, but in brazil drug dealers stay in their territory, they have no power in the cities where the police are, whereas in mexico all institutions are corrupted by drug dealers

It's true that Mexico is currently facing a lot of issues with drug crimes and it's understandable that some people may be concerned about the country hosting an event as big as the World Cup. But we can't deny that Mexico is also a country with a lot of potentials and we should also look at the positive side. Hosting the World Cup can be a great opportunity for Mexico to show the world that they can organize a successful event and also to show that they're making progress in dealing with their issues.

One way to look at it is, hosting the World Cup can be a way for Mexico to show the world that they're taking a stand against drug crimes. Maybe the criminals will think twice about causing trouble during the World Cup, knowing that the whole world will be watching. It's also important to remember that the World Cup is not just about soccer, it's also about bringing people together and creating a sense of unity. So let's not just focus on the negative, let's also think about the positive impact the World Cup can have on Mexico.

If something bad happens during the event, moving the rest of the match to USA or Canada is still affordable.

@Slow death I believe that the authorities will do proper research, and will seek reassurances from Mexico’s government that they can organise the World Cup without any issue’s. Furthermore while it does looks risky to organise the World Cup there based on these stats, but I agree with @slapper that Mexico government will not want to ruin their image hence I have a feeling that the authorities may be tempted to give them the permission to host it.

[Slow death]

I wonder if mexico would be an appropriate place to organize the world cup since they are a very insecure country:

/snip

“You could hear the shooting – huge blasts, so much noise,” said the Mexican businessman, who had planned to board a flight to the eastern city of San Luis Potosí.[/size]

source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/06/terror-cartel-violence-engulfs-mexican-city-el-chapo-son

reading the article, and just do more research that anyone can see that this type of news is very frequent in mexico, I can not understand why they are putting mexico to organize the world cup when they know the issue of crimes they have, I know that in every country in the world the number of crimes varies, but the difference between Mexico and other countries is that in Mexico they are dealing with drug crimes in which criminals already have evolved weapons and fight against the police, the brazil for example has this, they organized the world cup, but in brazil drug dealers stay in their territory, they have no power in the cities where the police are, whereas in mexico all institutions are corrupted by drug dealers

I saw your post and wanted to check where Mexico stands in the list of countries by murder rate per 100k people. I was surprised to see that Mexico is in the 13th spot with 29,07 murders per 100.000 people. That measurement was taken in the 2018 year, but I don't think that anything has changed since then. For comparison, in the USA the murder rate per 100.000 people is 4,96. That still is a big number but it's nothing when compared to Mexico.
I really don't know how smart it is to hold such a big competition in such an insecure country.

fifa has become an organization of mercenaries who only care about money, there is a big difference between the news and data that governments put on the internet and the people who live in these places and witness all these horrors. I will give a good example from my country, for example, in my country there is a province that has a terrorist group that wants to control the sale and distribution of drugs, weapons and religion, these criminals have been waging war for over 4 years, and not even even with military intervention by many countries, the war did not end. going back to the basics let's see that the data from the internet and tv channels are data provided by the government of mexico, obviously this is data manipulated in favor of the government

But the central point I want to make is that the terrorists in my country, who are in Afghanistan... there is a difference with these criminals in Mexico, the criminals in Mexico, they will not be afraid to carry out a major attack in a city that is taking place. world cup games, this is because they want attention and spread terror so that the government is hostage to them and gives in to their demand, the criminal in mexico can bribe people, this is a great advantage they have. My country's terrorists are proud, they focus on combating the land they occupied, a telephone thief who kills a person is not on the same level with criminals in Mexico who want to control drug trafficking

let's look at brazil, in brazil's police and military there is little room for drug traffickers to bribe them, and in brazil's government there is not much room for them to accept bribes from drug traffickers, but the same cannot be said about mexico


Sinaloa cartel launches violent response as Mexico recaptures El Chapo’s son



these criminals in mexico are capable of burning a soccer field with people watching the world cup, i don't doubt that

[nullama]

Given that there will be more teams in the World Cup 2026, I wonder if there will be more matches played per team.

I mean, of course there will be more matches in general, because there will be more teams to play, but the structure could be designed so that the total matches per team is kept the same as today.

This is because all the records from previous world cups would be a bit meaningless with more matches. For example, number of goals scored in a world cup, etc.

[Silberman]

Given that there will be more teams in the World Cup 2026, I wonder if there will be more matches played per team.

I mean, of course there will be more matches in general, because there will be more teams to play, but the structure could be designed so that the total matches per team is kept the same as today.

This is because all the records from previous world cups would be a bit meaningless with more matches. For example, number of goals scored in a world cup, etc.

FIFA is still thinking about this, right now it seems they will go with 12 groups of four teams each, so at least the number of games each team will have to play during this phase will remain the same, if despite the increase in the number of participants only 16 teams make it to the next round then those getting to the final will still only play 7 games each and a straight comparison among records will still be possible, but if FIFA adds a round of 32 then this will not be possible anymore as now the teams making it to the final will play 8 games instead.

[Sithara007]

Given that there will be more teams in the World Cup 2026, I wonder if there will be more matches played per team.

I mean, of course there will be more matches in general, because there will be more teams to play, but the structure could be designed so that the total matches per team is kept the same as today.

This is because all the records from previous world cups would be a bit meaningless with more matches. For example, number of goals scored in a world cup, etc.

Compared to the 2022 edition, the matches per team will increase by 1. Because back in 2022, we had the round of 16 after the group stage. And this time we will have the round of 32 after the first phase. One consequence of this is that there are greater chances of upsets and some of the top teams may get kicked out of the tournament mid-way (similar to what happened with Brazil when they lost to Croatia in the Quarter-finals). But IMO, it will make the tournament more exciting. There is no room for error, and teams such as Argentina and France need to be extra cautious this time.

[Strongkored]

Given that there will be more teams in the World Cup 2026, I wonder if there will be more matches played per team.

I mean, of course there will be more matches in general, because there will be more teams to play, but the structure could be designed so that the total matches per team is kept the same as today.

This is because all the records from previous world cups would be a bit meaningless with more matches. For example, number of goals scored in a world cup, etc.

FIFA is still thinking about this, right now it seems they will go with 12 groups of four teams each, so at least the number of games each team will have to play during this phase will remain the same, if despite the increase in the number of participants only 16 teams make it to the next round then those getting to the final will still only play 7 games each and a straight comparison among records will still be possible, but if FIFA adds a round of 32 then this will not be possible anymore as now the teams making it to the final will play 8 games instead.

The addition of the number of countries by 50% from before made FIFA have to make a lot of adjustments and there are several options that FIFA is currently considering, one of which is by dividing into 16 groups and each group consisting of 3 countries, but there is no certainty regarding all options, all are still under consideration but for sure the group phase will be the busiest times for the hosts

[KennyR]

Given that there will be more teams in the World Cup 2026, I wonder if there will be more matches played per team.

I mean, of course there will be more matches in general, because there will be more teams to play, but the structure could be designed so that the total matches per team is kept the same as today.

This is because all the records from previous world cups would be a bit meaningless with more matches. For example, number of goals scored in a world cup, etc.

FIFA is still thinking about this, right now it seems they will go with 12 groups of four teams each, so at least the number of games each team will have to play during this phase will remain the same, if despite the increase in the number of participants only 16 teams make it to the next round then those getting to the final will still only play 7 games each and a straight comparison among records will still be possible, but if FIFA adds a round of 32 then this will not be possible anymore as now the teams making it to the final will play 8 games instead.

The addition of the number of countries by 50% from before made FIFA have to make a lot of adjustments and there are several options that FIFA is currently considering, one of which is by dividing into 16 groups and each group consisting of 3 countries, but there is no certainty regarding all options, all are still under consideration but for sure the group phase will be the busiest times for the hosts

Participation into the FIFA World Cup is a big achievement for every nation. The 50% increase in the number of countries give opportunity for more football loving nations. Maybe it will be difficult task for the FIFA organisation, but it brings in more audience as well as big revenue than the previous editions. We don't know how the grouping to be done, but now itself the expectations on different countries have started growing.

[Sithara007]

The addition of the number of countries by 50% from before made FIFA have to make a lot of adjustments and there are several options that FIFA is currently considering, one of which is by dividing into 16 groups and each group consisting of 3 countries, but there is no certainty regarding all options, all are still under consideration but for sure the group phase will be the busiest times for the hosts

We already had a lengthy debate on this topic. Previously FIFA was planning to have 16 groups with 3 teams each, but now they are planning to have 12 groups with 4 teams each. But one negative from this is that the qualification gets complicated. For the round of 32, 24 of the teams will be 1st and 2nd placed teams from each group. But the selection criteria for the next 8 teams (out of the 12 third placed teams) is a bit tricky. Anyway, this expansion is a positive step from FIFA to give adequate representation to all the confederations.

[BobK71]

Well, many think that Mexico is just drugs, cartels and things like that...

I wonder if mexico would be an appropriate place to organize the world cup since they are a very insecure country:

“You could hear the shooting – huge blasts, so much noise,” said the Mexican businessman, who had planned to board a flight to the eastern city of San Luis Potosí.[/size]

source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/06/terror-cartel-violence-engulfs-mexican-city-el-chapo-son

reading the article, and just do more research that anyone can see that this type of news is very frequent in mexico, I can not understand why they are putting mexico to organize the world cup when they know the issue of crimes they have, I know that in every country in the world the number of crimes varies, but the difference between Mexico and other countries is that in Mexico they are dealing with drug crimes in which criminals already have evolved weapons and fight against the police, the brazil for example has this, they organized the world cup, but in brazil drug dealers stay in their territory, they have no power in the cities where the police are, whereas in mexico all institutions are corrupted by drug dealers

FIFA takes any decision after observing the overall affairs of a country for a long time. As we have seen the Qatari security forces provided security across the country in cooperation with 13 countries to ensure security for the World Cup in Qatar. During that time Qatar signed many security cooperation agreements with several countries. In a showdown we saw the participation of 32,000 government security force and 17,000 private security force. Various countries also helped in this regard. Turkey sent more than 3,000 riot police officers. Not only that, they also provided special training for security. In this way, about 13 countries were given a lot of emphasis on this issue. I hope that all the problems that have been reflected in the present time. Those will be fixed in due time.

[mm2543363580]

Well, many think that Mexico is just drugs, cartels and things like that...

I wonder if mexico would be an appropriate place to organize the world cup since they are a very insecure country:

“You could hear the shooting – huge blasts, so much noise,” said the Mexican businessman, who had planned to board a flight to the eastern city of San Luis Potosí.[/size]

source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/06/terror-cartel-violence-engulfs-mexican-city-el-chapo-son

reading the article, and just do more research that anyone can see that this type of news is very frequent in mexico, I can not understand why they are putting mexico to organize the world cup when they know the issue of crimes they have, I know that in every country in the world the number of crimes varies, but the difference between Mexico and other countries is that in Mexico they are dealing with drug crimes in which criminals already have evolved weapons and fight against the police, the brazil for example has this, they organized the world cup, but in brazil drug dealers stay in their territory, they have no power in the cities where the police are, whereas in mexico all institutions are corrupted by drug dealers

FIFA takes any decision after observing the overall affairs of a country for a long time. As we have seen the Qatari security forces provided security across the country in cooperation with 13 countries to ensure security for the World Cup in Qatar. During that time Qatar signed many security cooperation agreements with several countries. In a showdown we saw the participation of 32,000 government security force and 17,000 private security force. Various countries also helped in this regard. Turkey sent more than 3,000 riot police officers. Not only that, they also provided special training for security. In this way, about 13 countries were given a lot of emphasis on this issue. I hope that all the problems that have been reflected in the present time. Those will be fixed in due time.

This is the role of media in destroying a country's image just because of any incident that happened in that particular country. Same thing happens with Pakistan all the time , bad media coverage and wrong reporting unfact exaggeration makes any country an insecure country to live in .
All countries have their good and bad points and I am sure mexico is not just about drug cartels or criminals there will be  uch more than that and for fifa fans there will be much more to explore and experience.

[GxSTxV]

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Wednesday his government will consider Guzman's plea to serve out the remainder of his sentence in Mexico source: dailymail

After all what El Chapo’s gang did to Mexico from spreading drugs to killing innocent people and destroying public property, i don’t understand how the mexicain president is really considering to bring back that criminal to Mexico which everyone knows the situation of the prison there and controlled by whom just as the story of Pablo Escobar who built his own prison.
Fifa should really do something about the world cup in Mexico 2026 if the police couldn’t protect themselves and many other innocent people how they can do it when many football fans travel there to watch their favorite team, it’s totally unsecured country and it’s unfortunate that Fifa is only seeking for their interest and never cared about the innocent people. I hope they will change the three matches hosted by Mexico to be played in Canada or any other safe country.