Concacaf chief on WC joint bid: "It's time for it to come back"
Concacaf president Victor Montagliani said he "absolutely" expects the World Cup to be held in the region and expects a joint US-Mexico-Canada bid.Venezuela-England live online: Final World Cup U20
Representatives of the football associations of the United States, Canada and Mexico are expected to meet next year to discuss a joint bid for the 2026 World Cup, Concacaf President Victor Montagliani said on Wednesday.
FIFA confirmed on October 14 that co-hosting would be allowed at the 2026 tournament and that there would be no restrictions on the number of countries in a given bid.
"Each country could host it on their own"
"It's obviously a possibility," Montagliani told Reuters on the sidelines of a sports conference in Dubai. "We are fully aware that each country could probably host it on its own.”
Concacaf governs football in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
A successful joint bid would be the first World Cup in Concacaf since the tournament was held in the United States in 1994 and the first co-hosted World Cup since 2002 in South Korea and Japan.
WC 2026 "absolutely" in Concacaf region
"It's time for it to come back," Montagliani said, adding that Concacaf "absolutely" expects the 2026 tournament would be held by one of its 41 members.
Formal discussions over a possible joint US-Canada-Mexico bid are likely to start in 2017 once "all the rules and regulations" related to the bid are announced, he added.
FIFA is proposing to expand the 32-team World Cup to up to 48 teams, potentially starting with the 2026 tournament.