Mexico to Bid for FIFA 2026 World Cup

The FIFA 2026 World Cup may be be staged in Mexico after Mexican Football Federation (FMF) President Justino Compeán revealed they are planning to bid for the prestigious tournament.

The country has staged the event twice before in 1970 and 1986 and hope to add a third to that list.

“Mexico was a great host in ’70 and ’86, so we are indeed going to fight, we want to have a World Cup (again),” said Compeán.

“There will be a strong competition with the United States [but] Mexico’s football infrastructure keeps growing and that World Cup can be feasible for Mexico.”

Mexico is one of four countries to have hosted the World Cup on two occasions, along with Italy in 1934 and 1990, France in 1938 and 1998, and West Germany in 1974 and as Germany in 2006.

“FIFA is always more demanding with all the structures that are needed,” said Compeán.

“The great competitor [for 2026] is the United States, which has great resources, great stadiums, triple the population we have and all that counts.”

Compeán also suggested that even if they lost out to the United States, who last hosted the competition in 1994, they will still reap the benefits.

“Assuming the United States were to get the [2026] World Cup, we would still win because on a sporting level we wouldn’t have to face each other in the qualifiers,” he added.

“We’re three hours from the border and we have millions of nationals living on the other side so we’d be playing as a home team.”