Scorecard: Who's supporting whom in World Cup 2026 bid race
- by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Apr 19, 2018
Morocco's fear is that the FIFA task force will disqualify it even before the FIFA Congress votes on June 13 in Moscow. If a vote is held -- assuming United 2026 and Morocco both pass FIFA's technical requirements -- one or two candidates will be on the ballot and up against "no vote" in a complicated voting systemthat might end up with no winner and both United 2026 and Morocco disqualified.
As FIFA's task force wraps up its tours of the four bidding
nations this week, both candidates have touted their support in what reports suggest is a much closer race than originally anticipated. Public support has come from federation soccer officials
themselves (eg. French federation president Noel Le Graet), government ministers
(eg. Caribbean islands of Dominica and St. Lucia) and confederations or
regional bodies (eg. Conmebol and Uncaf). Some of the statements of
support have come from Moroccan federation officials themselves following meetings with federations.
There is nothing to say that federations or confederations can change their support or
changes are made because of internal shakeups -- or, for that matter, they support the statements of government ministries.
In April 2017, the Oceania Football Confederation came out in
support of the United 2026 bid, but its president, David Chung, recently resigned, citing personal reasons but amid a financial probe into the construction of new OFC "Home of Football"
headquarters and in-fighting within soccer groups in his native Papua New Guinea.
On Wednesday, Congolese soccer federation president Constant Omari, who is also a FIFA council
member, was detained in an embezzlement probe.
South Africa was considered a potential United 2026 supporter, but South African Football Association president Danny Jordaan gave
his "unqualified support" for Morocco. (South Africa president Cyril Ramaphosa's brother-in-law is billionaire Patrice Motsepe, whose insurance company, Sanlam, recently bought the
Moroccan insurance company, Saham, owned by Moulay Hafid Elalamy, the head of the Maroc 2026 organizing committee.)
In the end, the only support that will matter is the support
United 2026 and Morocco have on June 13 if the bid campaign gets that far. There are 211 FIFA members, though as things stand now only 206 members are eligible to vote. The four bidders aren't allowed
to vote, while Guatemala is currently suspended by FIFA.
If Guatemala votes, the winner will need 104 of 207 votes. If Guatemala doesn't and there's a tie at 103-103, FIFA has put a
tiebreaker in place -- the 2026 World Cup hosting rights will go to the bidder with the higher technical score.
Here are the 211 FIFA members, by confederation, and those for which there
are public expressions of support.
Africa (54 votes):
Algeria (Morocco-minister)
Angola
(Morocco-federation)
Benin
Botswana (Morocco-federation)
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Cape Verde Islands
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Congo
Congo DR
Côte d'Ivoire
Djibouti
Egypt (Morocco-federation)
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gabon
Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau (Morocco-federation)
Kenya (Morocco-federation)
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mauritania
Mauritius
Morocco (ineligible to vote)
Mozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria (Morocco-minister)
Rwanda
Sao
Tome e Principe
Senegal
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Africa (Morocco-federation)
South Sudan
Sudan
Swaziland
Tanzania
Togo
Tunisia (Morocco-minister)
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Asia (46 votes):
Afghanistan
Australia
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Brunei Darussalam
Cambodia
China
Chinese Taipei
Guam
Hong Kong
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Japan
Jordan
Kuwait
Kyrgyz Republic
Laos
Lebanon (Morocco-FRMF)
Macau
Malaysia
Maldives
Mongolia
Myanmar
Nepal
North Korea
Oman
Pakistan
Palestine (Morocco-FRMF)
Philippines
Qatar
Saudi
Arabia (United 2026-minister)
Singapore
South Korea
Sri Lanka
Syria
Tajikistan
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Turkmenistan
United Arab Emirates
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
Yemen
Concacaf (35 votes):
Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda
Aruba
Bahamas
Barbados
Belize (United 2026-Uncaf)
Bermuda
British Virgin Islands
Canada (ineligible to vote)
Cayman Islands
Costa Rica
(United 2026-Uncaf)
Cuba
Curacao
Dominica (Morocco-minister)
Dominican Republic
El Salvador (United 2026-Uncaf)
Grenada
Guatemala
(suspended)
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras (United 2026-Uncaf)
Jamaica
Mexico (ineligible to vote)
Montserrat
Nicaragua (United 2026-Uncaf)
Panama (United 2026-Uncaf)
Puerto Rico
St. Kitts and Nevis
St. Lucia (Morocco-minister)
St. Vincent & the Grenadines
Suriname
Trinidad &
Tobago
Turks & Caicos Islands
US Virgin Islands
USA (ineligible to vote)
Conmebol (10 votes):
Argentina (United 2026-Conmebol)
Bolivia (United 2026-Conmebol)
Brazil (United 2026-Conmebol)
Chile (United 2026-Conmebol)
Colombia
(United 2026-Conmebol)
Ecuador (United 2026-Conmebol)
Paraguay (United 2026-Conmebol)
Peru (United 2026-Conmebol)
Uruguay (United 2026-Conmebol)
Venezuela (United 2026-Conmebol)
Oceania (11 votes):
American Samoa
Cook Islands
Fiji
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tahiti
Tonga
Vanuatu
UEFA (55 votes):
Albania
Andorra
Armenia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Belgium (Morocco-FRMF)
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
England
Estonia
Faroe Islands
Finland
France (Morocco-federation)
Georgia
Germany
Gibraltar
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Kazakhstan
Kosovo
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg (Morocco-FRMF)
Macedonia
Malta
Moldova
Montenegro
Netherlands
Northern Ireland
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia (Morocco-federation)
San Marino
Scotland
Serbia (Morocco-federation)
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
Ukraine
Wales
Public vote? FIFA will do more backdoor soliciting for the the highest price and call it tranparent. The organization's cancer has not been removed.
We're not going to win this.
You want to be fleeced J.M?
This does not look good for Uniited 2016 if confederations are voting according to what time zones make sense for their TV broadcasting rights. Africa will all want the games broadcast from Morocco. Europe will want the games in the Moroccon time zone. I do not see how this is "fair" in evaluating actual bids. On a side note, I am a bit bitter that the World Cup used to rotate between confederations until it came to CONCACAFs turn and CONCACAF got snubbed. I know Morocco has tried several times in unsuccessful bids, but I think this should go back to a rotation between confederations so we do not have the North America/South America time zones competing with African/European time zones.
You may recall that FIFA made Western Hemisphere games start early so they would air in prime time in Europe.
Lotta negative feeling about USA from countries that were not amused because our legal system exposed their corruption and threatened their source of cash legally or illegally. If asia and africa are 100 votes before you consider the UEFA friends like france (remember their 2022 vote for the soccer in the dessert) and belgium, this could get ugly for USA once voting progresses remember in first round a choice is abstain.
i have visited Morocco twice as a tourist. beautiful country. Looks like a third trip. But i would prefer to see some games a bit closer like the 2 nj venues
Personally, I’d like to see us get it, but I certainly don’t want to appear desperate. Morroco would probably do a decent enough job of hosting. Rotations within the confederations is/was a good way of spreading it out. I’m not going to Russia and probably not Qatar and by the time 2026 gets here I might not be. I really wants us to focus on putting a more technical team out there, where we have a roster capable of playing anyone.
Right now Morocco has no facilities on hand. It's bid proposes that it will build all stadiums and the 130 training facilities necessary for a 48-team field for a total of only $3 billion dollars. If FIFA actually means what it says about hosting, Morocco's bid will be disqualified.
South Africa, Brazil, Russia and then Morocco is following a pattern of financial failure. The expansion of the field only aggravates the host nations' financial problems.
Morocco was selected to host the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, a 16 team tournament, but backed out in October 2014.