By Andrew Warshaw
April 9 – The next crucial stage in the race to stage the 2026 World Cup gets under way today when FIFA begins the all-important process of evaluating the respective bids of USA-Canada-Mexico and Morocco by sending its panel of technical experts into the respective regions.
The five-man Task Force, whose composition has been the subject of fierce controversy, begins its tour in Mexico City before travelling on to Atlanta tomorrow, then heading north to Toronto before finishing up in New York on April 12-13.
The Moroccan dates are Marrakech on April 16, Agadir the following day, then Tangier and Casablanca.
The purpose of the visit is to check whether both bids meet strict eligibility criteria in terms of infrastructure amidst complaints by the Moroccan underdogs that new conditions were imposed by FIFA at the 11th hour.
Following the team’s assessment and report, the decision on which of the two to select will be taken by FIFA’s 207 members at its annual Congress in Moscow on June 13.
“The main objective of the trips, which will comprise visits to specific locations as well as working meetings with the bid committees, will be to clarify certain technical aspects contained in the respective bid books,” FIFA said in a statement.
“The visits to the member associations represent only one part of the overall assessment process implemented by the 2026 bid evaluation task force. FIFA will publish additional information, including the evaluation reports, upon conclusion of the evaluation process by the task force.
“Following the assessment by the task force – and provided the FIFA Council submits a designation – the decision on whether to select one of the above bidders to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be taken by the 68th FIFA Congress, which will convene in Moscow on 13 June.”
The recommendations of the panel will go a long way to determining whether Morocco has done enough to make it to the ballot alongside United 2026. While members of the Task Force will be able to visit already existing stadia in north America, Morocco will need to convince the team of its plans to either build from scratch or renovate 14 venues, five of which will be “modular” stadiums that can be reduced in size after the tournament.
Despite the obvious commercial appeal of the north American bid, Morocco insists the gap is narrowing but is uncomfortable with the makeup of the five-strong task force and its back-up team.
They include Zvonimir Boban, FIFA’s joint deputy general secretary and a close associate of Gianni Infantino who is reported to be favouring the heavyweight north American bid.
The quintet also includes long-standing FIFA heavyweight Marco Villiger, audit chair Tomaz Vesel, governance committee chief Mukul Mudgal and competitions committee representative Ilco Gjorgioski.
None of them are independent voices, rather appointees or allies of the FIFA president himself according to African football insiders who further emphasise that the FIFA Council should have a say in the allocation of World Cup hosts rather than be compelled to accept whatever the Task Force recommends.
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