May 4 – The joint North American bid to host the 2026 World Cup insists its campaign has not been damaged by U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial series of tweets calling for support from Africa and beyond.
Bid co-chair Carlos Cordeiro suggested Trump’s apparent warning of repercussions against countries who vote for Morocco – which prompted FIFA to issue a reminder of its ethics code of conduct — has been widely misconstrued and misunderstood
“I don’t see it as threatening,” Cordeiro told Reuters. “I think you have got to appreciate how he says things. I think what was implicit in what he said was that he would like to see people support our bid and that is what I like my head of state to say.”
“We have had extensive conversations with the White House going back months, as have Canada and Mexico (with their governments). Why? Because FIFA require a number of assurances, warranties and guarantees on behalf of each of our governments in terms of access, taxes, work-permits, security, airport facilities – these are all part and parcel of submitting a bid which we did in March.
“You do that with the cooperation of your government – we have had a lot of contact with them, including meetings last week.”
“Mexico and Canada tweeted on the same day (as Trump) and no-one talks about their tweets. But the reality is that all three heads of states have been very vocal in support of our united bid. I think that is fantastic.”
Both bids made presentations before the Nordic grouping of nations on Thursday before Morocco moved on to Germany and United 2026 to Dubai.
Cordeiro believes the powerful economic argument of North America’s bid will outweigh politics in next month’s vote.
“We’re going to get strong support across Europe regardless of the geopolitics,” he said though the United States-Canada-Mexico bid could struggle to pick up votes from eastern European federations when the ballot takes place on June 13 in Moscow. Morocco has also already been promised support from France and Spain due to shared historical ties.
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