October 14 – Next week, FIFA scrutineers will return to conduct World Cup 2026 bid city inspections, visiting all of Kansas City, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Monterrey, San Francisco and Seattle.
The world federation confirmed the second leg of its bid inspections on Thursday, saying that “the FIFA delegation will meet with local stakeholders and discuss key topics such as venue management, infrastructure and sustainability as well as commercial, legal and legacy matters. The visits will also comprise inspections of essential infrastructure, such as stadiums, training facilities and potential FIFA Fan Festival venues.”
Last month, FIFA completed its first round of visits to 2026 World Cup host city candidates, with inspections of Boston, Nashville, Atlanta, Orlando, Washington DC, Baltimore, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia and Miami.
The second round, led by Concacaf president and FIFA vice president Victor Montagliani, will once again focus on candidate host cities in the United States before a third and final round by the end of November will scrutinise cities in Canada and Mexico as well.
The 2026 World Cup will be the first global finals in an expanded 48-team format, with the tournament expected to be hosted across 15 or 16 venues in the United States, Canada and Mexico, who outbid Morocco for the global finals at congress in 2018.
The United States will become the epicentre of the competition with 60 matches from a total of 80 and 10 host cities. North of the border, in Canada, Montreal dropped out of the race, leaving only Edmonton and Toronto bidding.
FIFA is expected to finalise the host city election in the first half of 2022. The global health crisis delayed the world federation’s original timeline.
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