(ATR) A contender emerges from Africa to the joint Canada, Mexico and United States 2026 FIFA World Cup bid .
Morocco is submitting its fifth bid to host the world’s most prestigious football tournament and seeking to become just the second country in Africa to host the World Cup. South Africa hosted the 2010 World Cup.
The bid is supported by the Confederation of African Football and was submitted by the Aug. 11 deadline imposed by the FIFA Executive Council in May.
The submission follows the denial of a request by the joint North American bid to fast-track the bidding process. The bid from North America believes it has the required infrastructure and venues to host the expanded 48-team World Cup. The FIFA Council rejected this request at its meeting May 9 and opened the bidding process to other countries.
Morocco and the Canada, Mexico and U.S. bidders must now officially register their bids and agree to a new bidding process that will conclude at the 68th FIFA Congress in Moscow on the eve of the 2018 World Cup next June.
Both the North American and African bids are eligible based on FIFA’s rotational policies that dictate the World Cup must not be held in the same continent in consecutive editions. Europe and Asia are the only continents excluded from 2026 given their hosting rights in 2018 (Russia) and 2022 (Qatar).
The official bids are due to the FIFA Council in March 2018 so the Council can conduct an evaluation and a report to be submitted to FIFA’s Member Associations.
The 211 Member Associations will then vote on the host city of the 2026 World Cup at the June 13 Congress, well before the date in 2020 once planned for that decision.
Written by Kevin Nutley
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