Factbox on the joint North American bid by the United States, Mexico and Canada that was chosen to host the 2026 World Cup by the FIFA Congress in Moscow on Wednesday. Main points of bid * The success of the United Bid will make the 2026 World Cup the first to be hosted in three countries and the first since 2002 (South Korea and Japan) to be held in multiple nations. * The three countries will share the responsibility of hosting by staging 60 matches in the United States and 10 each in Canada and Mexico. * The 2026 tournament will be the first expanded tournament featuring 48 teams, up from the current 32-team tournament. * The final will be held at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, home to the NFL's New York Giants and New York Jets. The numbers * The United Bid received 134 votes compared to 65 for Morocco from members of the FIFA Congress. One member voted for "neither bid." * The members behind the United Bid pledged that a World Cup in North America would generate an $11 billion profit. * The United Bid also projected that a World Cup in North American would generate more than $5 billion in short-term economic activity, including the creation of 40,000 jobs and more than $1 billion in incremental worker earnings for the candidate host cities and countries. * The United Bid projects more than 5.8 million tickets will be sold, generating more than $2 billion in ticketing revenue. Venues * The United Bid has prospective stadiums situated across 23 candidate cities, from which 16 will be selected. * The 17 U.S. candidate cities are Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York/New Jersey, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington. * Canada (Edmonton, Montreal and Toronto) and Mexico (Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey) each have three candidate cities. Previous bids 1970 - Mexico was chosen ahead of the only other submitted bid from Argentina. The tournament was the first World Cup hosted in North America. 1986 - Mexico became the first nation to stage the tournament twice after they replaced Colombia as the host country when the latter dropped out for financial reasons. The replacement host beat bids from Canada and the United States. 1994 - The United States beat out Brazil and Morocco for hosting duties after one round of voting. The attendance of nearly 3.6 million remains the highest in World Cup history. 2022 - The United States reached the fourth and final round of voting but lost to Qatar in a 14-8 vote. Favourable conditions * Canada, Mexico, and the United States require no new stadium construction to stage the 2026 World Cup. * Each of the stadiums included in the proposal are already built and have an average capacity of more than 68,000. * Each country has the full support of its respective national and local government leaders, as well as business, civic, and sports champions. * All candidate host cities have existing transportation, accommodation, medical, technology, and other infrastructure that meet or exceed the requirements outlined by FIFA. (For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.)
