Budapest conference held to discuss 2026 World Cup

The Hungarian Football Association under the leadership of FIFA Vice President Dr Sándor Csányi has, in recent years, co-operated with football associations in its region in order to develop a mutually-beneficial strategy with common interests and tasks.

On Tuesday, in the presence of football leaders from Poland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Slovakia, a meeting took place which was intended to help the leadership of the aforementioned countries to become acquainted with the details of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, a tournament which is planned to be the biggest event in FIFA's history with 48 teams and 1,100 players due to play 80 matches in eight years' time.

First up were officials responsible for the USA, Canada and Mexico joint bid who presented their idea that 16 of 23 possible venues would be included in the final project. This list of stadia includes the iconic Azteca stadium in Mexico, which has already hosted two World Cup finals, and the huge Los Angeles Rose Bowl, which was a leading venue in the 1994 FIFA World Cup. Noteworthy is that this may become the first World Cup jointly organised by three countries.

The visiting delegation was of the highest level: Carlos Cordeiro, President of the United States Football Association; Decio De Maria, President of the Mexican Football Association; and Steven Reed, Chairman of the Canadian Football Association, were all present in Budapest.

The second presentation was held by the Moroccan Football Association which is making its fifth attempt to host the tournament, one of their ambassadors this time being Germany's former world-class footballer and former Hungarian national team head coach, Lothar Matthäus. Beside him, Moncef Belkhayat, Moroccan Youth and Sports Minister, and Amaju Pinnick, Vice President of the African Football Association, represented the country of Morocco.

Based on feedback so far, there is huge support for the North African country's candidature. Organisers plan for Morocco to host an 'accessible' World Cup, which would welcome fans with favourable prices, and thanks to the nation being on a similar time zone to Europe, many Europeans would be able to comfortably watch the matches live on television. Each of the 12 host cities are very close to each other so travel times would be short for both teams and fans. Morocco could become the second African country after South Africa to host a FIFA World Cup.

The decision on which bid will be responsible for organising the 2026 World Cup will be made at the FIFA World Congress in Moscow ahead of this summer's 2018 FIFA World Cup tournament.