2026 FIFA World Cup sites revealed for 16 cities in Canada, Mexico ...

CNN —

Matches for the 2026 World Cup will be held in 11 US cities as well as three host sites in Mexico and two in Canada, soccer’s world governing body, FIFA, announced Thursday.

The 16 host cities will be: Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Guadalajara, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Miami, Monterrey, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto and Vancouver.

FIFA officials will decide at a later date which of the 16 cities will host group play and which will host elimination round matches.

“We congratulate the 16 FIFA World Cup Host Cities on their outstanding commitment and passion,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a news release. “Today is a historic day – for everyone in those cities and states, for FIFA, for Canada, the USA and Mexico who will put on the greatest show on Earth. We look forward to working together with them to deliver what will be an unprecedented FIFA World Cup and a game-changer as we strive to make football truly global.”

The 2026 men’s World Cup will be the first edition to feature 48 teams and it is the first time matches will be played in three countries.

It will be the second time the US has hosted the World Cup after the first in 1994, and a record third time for Mexico, which also hosted in 1970 and 1986. It will be the first time a men’s World Cup match has been held in Canada, though the country did host the Women’s World Cup in 2015.

The host cities that are successful in their bids could reap huge financial benefits, according to a 2018 US Soccer study, with more than $5 billion in economic activity created in North America.

The study said that those cities chosen to hold World Cup matches could see an estimated $160-$620 million in economic activity.

READ: Harry Kane reveals discussions on taking collective stand on human rights in Qatar

Correction: A previous version of this story gave an an incorrect year for a past World Cup in Mexico. It hosted World Cups in 1970 and 1986.

Matt Foster Matias Grez
Matt Foster
Matias Grez

World Cup 2026: Host cities picked, now the real work begins

NEW YORK — FIFA president Gianni Infantino playfully warned this part of the world does not really know what’s coming in 2026.

"We often say it's like 64 Super Bowls, in terms of audience, right?" Infantino said. “World Cup 26 is 80 Super Bowls, 80 incredible games, 80 finals.

Thursday's official announcement of the 16 host cities for the joint 2026 men’s World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, shed a little light on what’s to come and where people will convene.

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"These three countries will be upside down, flipped back again," Infantino said during an event to reveal the hosts. "The world will be invading Canada, Mexico and the United States. They will be invaded by a big wake of joy and happiness."

He added 2026 will be "much bigger" than the last time the United States hosted the World Cup in 1994.

FIFA and Concacaf — the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football — narrowed 22 finalist locations to 16 cities that will host games in 2026.

That includes 11 U.S. cities: Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle.

There will be three host cities in Mexico: Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey; and two in Canada: Toronto and Vancouver.

One of the biggest surprises was Washington, DC not making the list. It will be only the second time in the men’s tournament history that a host nation's capital does not host a game. Bonn was the other capital city snubbed when West Germany held the competition in 1974. (In 2002, when Japan and South Korea held the tournament, the closest game to Tokyo was in Yokohama — a suburb of the city.)

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"This was a very, very difficult choice," FIFA chief tournaments and events officer Colin Smith said. "You can't imagine a World Cup coming to the U.S. and the capital city not taking a major role as well. So, we'll be engaging with all the cities that weren't chosen to host matches. There's still lots of other areas of cooperation and working together and celebration.

"We know what a fan fest on the National Mall would be like (on the) 250th anniversary of the U.S.A. on the Fourth of July."

Infantino confirmed a fan fest will still be held in D.C., which combined its bid with Baltimore in April 2022 in an attempt to strengthen its hosting chances.

United States Soccer Federation president Cindy Parlow Cone didn’t want to focus on the cities not selected Thursday, but rather celebrate the ones that will host games.

"This is an exciting day, right? One that we have been waiting for a long, long time to announce who are going to be the host cities," Parlow Cone said. "And look, our nation's capital is very much going to be a huge part of this World Cup, even though they're not hosting games."

And there will be another chance, if the U.S. hosts the women’s World Cup in 2027 or 2031. Parlow Cone said U.S. Soccer plans to bid for those tournaments, but is waiting on further guidance from FIFA.

The 1994 World Cup holds the record for highest attendance. About 3.58 million spectators watched, with an average match attendance of 68,991, according to U.S. Soccer.

Boston, Dallas and San Francisco hosted games in 1994 and will again in 2026. But Los Angeles, Atlanta and New York could really compete for record crowds based on stadium capacities and their appeal as international hubs.

"This is really a luxury problem that we have (selecting a location for the final) that is probably unique to this part of the world." Infantino said. "We have cities here that are not just important cities in America, but global capitals."

In Los Angeles County, matches will be held at the splashy SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, which opened in 2020 to the tune of $5.5 billion. The venue has a 70,000-person capacity and is home to the NFL's Los Angeles Rams and Chargers. It also hosted the most recent Super Bowl in February.

The LA metropolitan area is no stranger to record soccer crowds. The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California hosted the 1999 women’s World Cup final in front of 90,185 people. The attendance set the world record for a women’s sporting event for nearly 23 years.

The record was broken this year. In March, 91,553 fans packed Camp Nou in Barcelona to watch the UEFA Women's Champions League quarterfinal between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Mercedes-Benz Stadium has also become a soccer hub. The Atlanta venue has superb appeal thanks to an investment from owner Arthur Blank. Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United has experienced early success by winning the MLS Cup in 2018 in its second season.

Atlanta United holds the league's attendance records for a regular-season match (72,035, March 2018 vs. D.C. United), MLS All-Star game (72,317, August 2018 vs. Juventus) and for single-game attendance (73,018, December 2018 vs. Portland Timbers for the 2018 MLS Cup final). It also owns a Campeones Cup record (40,128, August 2019 vs. Club América).

New York/New Jersey is a host with a particular edge at nabbing the 2026 World Cup final because MetLife Stadium, home of the NFL’s New York Giants/Jets has a capacity of 82,500.

But the location for the culmination of the tournament has not yet been determined.

"We haven't even started that process," Concacaf president Vittorio Montagliani said. "We've been laboring at the last four years of venue visits to get to this point. There'll be a whole other process to pick — and it's not just the final, there's a lot of big matches, knockout matches and the opening match."

FIFA and Concacaf will have to consider multiple factors, including the impact of travel across an entire continent, with multiple time zones and weather conditions.

The 2026 World Cup will be the first hosted by three countries. Nearly 3,000 miles separate Mexico City (the southern-most host) and Vancouver (the farthest north); Los Angeles (farthest West) and Boston (farthest East).

It will also be the first World Cup with an expanded 48-team field, which will be divided into 16 groups of three teams to begin play. Thirty-two teams will advance to the knockout stages.

For comparison, the 2022 World Cup taking place in Qatar in November has 32 teams total, with a 16-team knockout round.

"When we design the calendar, when we decide on the kickoff times, when we look at the different schedules . . . in such a big region like North America, we need to make sure that teams are playing in clusters that the fans don't have to travel crazy distances, and the teams as well," Infantino said.

Announcing the host cities was just the start. Now the real work begins, according to Parlow Cone.

"We know we feel like 26 is far away," she said, "but it will be here before we know it."

Where is the 2026 World Cup? US, Mexico, Canada host cities, tickets

The next FIFA World Cup is coming to North America. Sixteen cities across the United States, Canada and Mexico will host soccer’s most prestigious tournament in what could be a boon to the sport’s growing popularity among Americans.

The three nations' joint bid to host the 2026 World Cup beat Morocco's bid in 2018. It will be the second time the U.S. hosts the men’s competition, after hosting the 1994 World Cup. It will be Canada’s first time hosting the men’s tournament, and Mexico’s record third time as World Cup hosts after hosting it in 1970 and 1986.Here's what to know about the next FIFA World Cup, including host cities, tickets and a new expanded field.

2026 World Cup host cities and stadiums

FIFA announced the list of host cities in June.

United States: 11 cities

Mexico: 3 cities

Canada: 2 cities

USA eliminated:Netherlands knocks off USMNT in World Cup round of 16 with dominating 3-1 win

Why is the 2026 World Cup between three countries?

The soccer federations of the U.S., Canada and Mexico agreed to submit a joint bid to FIFA to host the competition. The bid won in 2018, with a majority of FIFA’s congress voting to grant rights to the three nations.

The World Cup has been jointly hosted once before, in 2002 by South Korea and Japan. This is the first time three nations will host the World Cup.

The North American nations called the bid “United 2026” and contended that their combined sporting event infrastructure made them the best equipped to handle an expanded 48-team tournament.

What are soccer's yellow card rules? How players get red cards, suspensions in World Cup

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Prior World Cups, including Qatar 2022, Russia 2018 and Brazil 2014, have been marred by human rights abuses of workers tasked with hurriedly delivering brand new stadiums. In Brazil’s case, some locals were displaced from their homes to make way for new World Cup stadiums, according to the Washington Post.

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“Without a need to worry about construction timelines or its related risks, the focus of the 2026 FIFA World Cup can be on welcoming, inspiring, and empowering the world to contribute to the future of football,” states United 2026’s bid book.

How does the World Cup work? The ultimate soccer showcase, explained

Are 2026 FIFA World Cup tickets on sale?

No not yet, according to FIFA’s website. Tickets will go on sale in 2025, according to the United 2026 World Cup bid book.

For reference, Qatar 2022 tickets went on sale in January, 10 months before the tournament’s start.

What happens if a World Cup game ends in a tie?FIFA extra time and penalty shootouts, explained

How much will 2026 FIFA World Cup tickets cost?

FIFA has yet to provide pricing information, but ticket prices for the opening match of the 2022 World Cup were as low as $54 for Qatar residents and $302 for non-Qatar residents as of Nov. 16. The cheapest group stage match tickets were priced at approximately $11 for locals and $69 for fans from abroad.

The cheapest tickets for the 2022 World Cup final were roughly $604 for fans from abroad and $206 for locals.

It’s unclear if FIFA will offer discounted ticket prices for U.S., Canada and Mexico residents as it did for the residents of 2022's host nation.

USMNT World Cup roster:Surprises, heartbreak and the countdown to Qatar

An expanded tournament

FIFA in 2017 voted to expand the 2026 World Cup from 32 teams to 48 teams. It will consist of 16 groups of three, with the top two teams in each group advancing to a round of 32.

What time of the year will the 2026 World Cup be?

The 2026 World Cup is slated to return to the summer. Final dates have yet to be announced, but the tournament will likely span from June to July in line with past World Cups. FIFA pushed the 2022 Qatar World Cup to November and December due to the country's extreme summer heat.

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Contributing: Jason Anderson, Pro Soccer Wire

US remains unbeaten against England at World Cups after goalless ...

Al Bayt Stadium, Al Khor, Qatar CNN —

There were no goals in Friday’s game between the US Men’s National Team (USMNT) and England in a key World Cup game at Qatar 2022, but the result spoke volumes as to where this American team looks to be heading.

Facing an England team full of superstars that reached the European Championship final last year is no easy task, but the Americans looked more than at home.

Indeed, the USMNT players appeared disappointed as they were cheered off the field – frustrated, perhaps, that they couldn’t find the winner they might well have deserved.

“We had the majority of the chances, we were more dangerous, but just couldn’t get in the back of the net,” midfielder Weston McKennie told reporters after the match.

Any annoyance is unlikely to last too long with the USMNT still unbeaten against England at World Cups.

The sides have now met three times on the world stage with the USMNT winning once and the other two matches ending as draws.

The USMNT’s hopes of progressing into the knockout rounds are still very much in its own hands, knowing a win against Iran on Tuesday will see it through to the last 16 from Group B.

England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford makes a save against the USMNT. Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images

Despite England getting the better of the early exchanges, the USMNT grew into the match and looked the most threatening by halftime.

Christian Pulisic saw his effort crash off the crossbar as England struggled to cope with the intensity of the American team.

It felt reminiscent of the USMNT’s previous match against Wales when it started in brilliant form. On that occasion, this young side – with an average age of 25 years 214 days when the World Cup began – struggled to keep up the intensity and suffered a late equalizer through Gareth Bale’s penalty.

But against England, Gregg Berhalter’s side doubled down after the break and continued its waves of attacks against the opposition’s nervous-looking defense.

Pulisic, the player of the match, was orchestrating the US fans behind the goal, whipping them into a frenzy as they started to believe their team could beat England, which is ranked fifth in the world.

The breakthrough never came but the USMNT coped well with a late surge from England, which finally seemed to wake up with no more than five minutes to play.

“I thought it was a really solid performance from the team against a good opponent,” Pulisic told reporters after the game.

“A draw is not the worst thing but I felt there were stretches of the game where we showed dominance […] We even could have won the game.”

He added: “This team has come a very long way and I think we should be proud of the performance but most of all, it should spark confidence in the team.”

US defenders did well to keep England's star striker Harry Kane quiet. Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters

Iran next

England missed the chance to qualify for the next round but would need to lose heavily to Wales to miss out on a place in the knockout stages.

For the USMNT, all eyes turn to the game against Iran, which beat Wales 2-0 in the earlier Group B match.

“Pleased with the performance of the group and most importantly the belief of the group – that never wavered,” Berhalter told reporters after the match.

“We win [against Iran] or we’re out of the World Cup. That will be the focus for us.”

The match against Iran will have added significance given the political tensions between the two countries.

Berhalter, though, says the team’s focus is not on the politics but more on rewarding its fans with a place in the knockout stages.

“The thing about soccer is you meet so many different people from around the world and you’re united by the common love of the sport of soccer,” he said.

“I see the game being hotly contested for the fact that both teams want a place in the next round, not because of politics.

“We are soccer players and we are going to compete and they are going to compete and that’s it.”

Along with Canada and Mexico, the US will host the 2026 World Cup.

And Berhalter said that growing the men’s game is something that the whole squad and staff take very seriously.

“We’re not done, our focus it to keep going and hopefully by the end of the tournament we’ll give people something to talk about,” he added.

A guide to FIFA's options for expanding the 2026 World Cup

AP

FIFA is preparing to decide Tuesday on adding 16 more teams to the 2026 World Cup for a 48-team tournament.

President Gianni Infantino's favored format would break with soccer tradition to play in groups of only three teams. Two would advance from each group to a Round of 32 knockout bracket.

If agreed by the Infantino-chaired FIFA Council in Zurich, the 2026 hosting contest could formally open in weeks. A co-hosted North American bid is widely seen as the best option.

Here are some things to know about overhauling the greatest competition in the world's most popular sport:

___

WHY EXPAND?

A bigger World Cup was an Infantino campaign promise before his election last February, when his plan was 40 teams.

It might have been key. Infantino's momentum for victory in a second-round poll was a three-vote lead over Sheik Salman of Bahrain in the first. Sheik Salman had promised only to review if more World Cup teams were wanted.

Infantino also pledged to give more of FIFA's money to member federations — all 211 are now entitled to $5 million from each World Cup — and send more to continental and regional soccer bodies.

So, more teams also had to mean more games, earning more revenue from broadcasters and sponsors.

The "16x3" format arguably works better with only group winners advancing. But that would leave total matches unchanged at 64.

Infantino also wants to create fervor in the extra countries which would qualify.

In the short-term, competing national teams attract more sponsors. The long-term goal is appealing to more young people who are the future players, fans and officials.

Expect to hear much FIFA talk of helping the next Costa Rica or Iceland — feelgood stories at the 2014 World Cup and Euro 2016 — by inviting 16 more teams to the party.

___

48-TEAM OPTIONS

A near-consensus is growing around the "16x3" option revealed just one month ago.

All 80 games would be played in exclusive time slots. That's more hours of TV exposure for sponsors and sales time for broadcasters in the same 32-day tournament period.

By advancing two teams from each group, a Round of 32 ensures most teams still play at least three matches.

FIFA's own analysis predicts this format will raise revenue by 20 percent from the equivalent $5.5 billion forecast from the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

The flaw for purists is planning for penalty shootouts to settle drawn group matches. If each game has a "winner" that guards against teams colluding on a mutually favorable result in the last group games.

Previously, Infantino suggested an opening playoff round of 16 matches to decide who would join 16 seeded teams in a traditional 32-team group phase.

That was unacceptable to many FIFA members federations who said "one-and-done" teams were not part of a real World Cup.

It also would stretch the tournament to 39 days.

___

40-TEAM OPTIONS

Infantino's plan from one year ago is now almost friendless.

Either of two options, 10 groups of four teams or eight five-team groups, gives lopsided or weak match schedules, FIFA judged.

In "10x4," only 76 matches are played and only six group runners-up advance from a muddled tiebreaker process to a Round of 16.

In "8x5," the 88 matches include meaningless ones in a flabby group phase ripe for collusion. Also, the four semifinalists would play eight matches and that workload is unacceptable to European clubs releasing employees to national-team duty.

___

PROVEN 32-TEAM FORMAT

Why fix something that is not broken? Germany, the defending champion, has publicly asked this question.

The 32-team format and perfect 64-match bracket has worked well since being introduced at the 1998 World Cup in France (where Europe had 15 teams).

FIFA acknowledged that it produces the best soccer — "the highest absolute quality" of games pitting high-ranked teams against each other.

Recall that former winners Italy, England and Uruguay were drawn in the same 2014 World Cup group — and yet Costa Rica finished top.

Still, enough of FIFA's 211 members want change and their chance to play.

___

WHO WILL PLAY?

A big question is likely not being resolved Tuesday.

FIFA has yet to announce exactly how many entry slots each of six confederations would get for their own qualifying program.

Quotas for a 40-team World Cup were proposed in December 2015 by a FIFA advisory group that included Infantino, then UEFA's general secretary.

Some saw a cynical move to sweeten skeptical FIFA voters who were being asked to vote through modernizing and anti-corruption reforms on the same day they picked a new president.

Then, assuming a single host nation would get automatic entry, the proposal for sharing 39 qualifying slots was: Europe 14; Africa 7; Asia 6; South America 5; North, Central America and Caribbean 5; Oceania 1; plus a final slot awarded "based on sporting merits using a method yet to be defined."

Going from 40 to 48 can add at least one more from each continent.

Who could those new teams be?

On current form, maybe Wales and Panama, Congo and Burkina Faso, Uzbekistan and Oman, will bring something new to the 2026 World Cup.

Migrant workers helped build Qatar's World Cup tournament, now ...

CNN —

Kamal was standing outside a shop with other migrant workers, having finished yet another grueling working day, when he and – he says – a few others were arrested this August. Without explanation, the 24-year-old says he was put into a vehicle and, for the next week, kept in a Qatari jail, the location and name of which he does not know.

“When they arrested me, I couldn’t say anything, not a single word, as I was so scared,” he told CNN Sport, speaking at home in southern Nepal where he has been working on a farm since being deported three months ago.

Kamal – CNN has changed the names of the Nepali workers to protect them from retaliation – is one of many migrant workers wanting to tell the world of their experiences in Qatar, a country that will this month host one of sport’s greatest, most lucrative, spectacles – the World Cup, a tournament which usually unites the world as millions watch the spectacular goals and carefully-choreographed celebrations.

It will be a historic event, the first World Cup to be held in the Middle East, but one also mired in controversy. Much of the build-up to this tournament has been on more sober matters, that of human rights, from the deaths of migrant workers and the conditions many have endured in Qatar, to LGBTQ and women’s rights.

Kamal says he has yet to be paid the 7,000 Qatari Riyal bonus (around $1,922) he says he is entitled to from his previous employers, nor 7,000 Riyal in insurance for injuring two fingers at work.

“I wasn’t told why I was being arrested. People are just standing there … some are walking with their grocery [sic], some are just sitting there consuming tobacco products … they just arrest you,” he adds, before explaining he could not ask questions as he does not speak Arabic.

A worker is seen inside the Lusail Stadium during a stadium tour on December 20, 2019, in Doha, Qatar. Francois Nel/Getty Images

Describing the conditions in the cell he shared with 24 other Nepali migrant workers, he says he was provided with a blanket and a pillow, but the mattress on the floor he had to sleep on was riddled with bed bugs.

“Inside the jail, there were people from Sri Lanka, Kerala (India), Pakistan, Sudan, Nepal, African, Philippines. There were around 14-15 units. In one jail, there were around 250-300 people. Around 24-25 people per room,” he says.

“When they take you to the jail, they don’t give you a room right away. They keep you in a veranda. After a day or two, once a room is empty, they keep people from one country in one room.”

Using a smuggled phone, he spoke to friends, one of whom, he says, brought his belongings – including his passport – to the jail, though he says he was sent home after the Nepali embassy had sent a paper copy of his passport to the jail. CNN has reached out to the embassy but has yet to receive a response.

“When they put me on the flight, I started thinking: ‘Why are they sending workers back all of a sudden? It’s not one, two, 10 people … they are sending 150, 200, 300 workers on one flight,’” he says.

“Some workers who were just roaming outside wearing (work) dress were sent back. They don’t even allow you to collect your clothes. They just send you back in the cloth you are wearing.”

Kamal believes he was arrested because he had a second job, which is illegal under Qatar’s 2004 Labour Law and allows authorities to cancel a worker’s work permit. He says he worked an extra two to four hours a day to supplement his income as he was not making enough money working six eight-hour days a week.

Qatar has a 90-day grace period in which a worker can remain in the country legally without another sponsor, but if they have not had their permit renewed or reactivated in that time they risk being arrested or deported for being undocumented.

He says he received paperwork upon his arrest, which Amnesty International says would likely have explained why he was being detained, but as it was in Arabic he did not know what it said and no translator was provided.

Laborers rest in green space along the corniche in Doha, Qatar, on June 23. Christopher Pike/Bloomberg/Getty Images/FILE

A Qatari government official told CNN in a statement: “Any claims that workers are being jailed or deported without explanation are untrue. Action is only taken in very specific cases, such as if an individual participates in violence.”

The official added that 97% of all eligible workers were covered by Qatar’s Wage Protection System, established in 2018, “which ensures wages are paid in full and on time.” Further work was being done to strengthen the system, the official said.

Some workers never returned home

With the opening match just days away, on-the-pitch matters are a mere footnote because this tournament has come at a cost to workers who left their families in the belief that they would reap financial rewards in one of the world’s richest countries per capita. Some would never return home. None of the three Nepali workers CNN spoke to were richer for their experience. Indeed, they are in debt and full of melancholy.

The Guardian reported last year that 6,500 South Asian migrant workers have died in Qatar since the country was awarded the World Cup in 2010, most of whom were involved in low-wage, dangerous labor, often undertaken in extreme heat.

The report did not connect all 6,500 deaths with World Cup infrastructure projects and has not been independently verified by CNN.

Hassan Al Thawadi – the man in charge of leading Qatar’s preparations – told CNN’s Becky Anderson that the Guardian’s 6,500 figure was a “sensational headline” that was misleading and that the report lacked context.

A government official told CNN there had been three work-related deaths on stadiums and 37 non-work-related deaths. In a statement, the official said the Guardian’s figures were “inaccurate” and “wildly misleading.”

“The 6,500 figure takes the number of all foreign worker deaths in the country over a 10-year period and attributes it to the World Cup,” the official said. “This is not true and neglects all other causes of death including illness, old age and traffic accidents. It also fails to recognize that only 20% of foreign workers in Qatar are employed on construction sites.”

It has been widely reported that Qatar has spent $220 billion leading up to the tournament, which would make it the most expensive World Cup in history, though this likely includes infrastructure not directly associated with stadium construction. A spokesperson for the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) which, since its formation in 2011, has been responsible for overseeing the infrastructure projects and planning for the World Cup, told CNN that the tournament budget was $6.5 billion, without expanding on what that cost covered.

Eight new stadiums rose from the desert, and the Gulf state expanded its airport, constructed new hotels, rail and highways. All would have been constructed by migrant workers, who – according to Amnesty International – account for 90% of the workforce in a near-three million population.

An aerial view of Al Janoub stadium at sunrise on June 21 in Al Wakrah, Qatar. David Ramos/Getty Images

Since 2010, migrant workers have faced delayed or unpaid wages, forced labor, long hours in hot weather, employer intimidation and an inability to leave their jobs because of the country’s sponsorship system, human rights organizations have found.

However, the health, safety and dignity of “all workers employed on our projects has remained steadfast,” a statement from the SC read.

“Our efforts have resulted in significant improvements in accommodation standards, health and safety regulations, grievance mechanisms, healthcare provision and reimbursements of illegal recruitment fees to workers.

“While the journey is on-going, we are committed to delivering the legacy we promised. A legacy that improves lives and lays the foundation for fair, sustainable and lasting labour reforms.”

Last year, in an interview with CNN Sport anchor Amanda Davies, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said that while “more needs to be done,” progress had been made.

“I’ve seen the great evolution that has happened in Qatar, which was recognized – I mean not by FIFA – but by labor unions around the world, by international organizations,” said Infantino.

‘It was difficult to breathe’

We are, unusually, writing about a World Cup in November because the competition had to be moved from its usual June-July slot to Qatar’s winter as the heat is so extreme in the country’s summer months – temperatures can reach around 43 degrees Celsius (109 degrees Fahrenheit) in June – that playing in such conditions could have posed a health risk to players.

Hari is 27 years old and, like many of his compatriots, left Nepal for Qatar as his family – he was one of five siblings with just his father at home – desperately needed money, primarily to eat. Since 2013, Nepal’s government-mandated minimum wage has been set at $74 a month, according to minimum-wage.org. He says that his monthly wage in Qatar was 700 Rial a month ($192).

After moving to Qatar in 2014, he worked in four places during his four-year stay: at a supermarket, a hotel and airport, but the most difficult job, he says, was in construction when he had to carry tiles up buildings “six to seven stories above” in overbearing heat, plus lay pipelines in deep pits.

“It was too hot,” he tells CNN. “The foreman was very demanding and used to complain a lot. The foreman used to threaten to reduce our salaries and overtime pay.

“I had to carry tiles on my shoulder to the top. It was very difficult going up through the scaffolding. In the pipeline work, there were 5-7 meters deep pits, we had to lay the stones and concrete, it was difficult due to the heat. It was difficult to breathe. We had to come upstairs using a ladder to drink water.

“It never happened to me, but I saw some workers fainting at work. I saw one Bengali, one Nepali … two to three people faint while working. They took the Bengali to medical services. I’m not sure what happened to him.”

During his time in Qatar, government regulations generally prohibited workers from working outdoors between 11:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. from June 15 to August 31. He said one company he worked for followed these rules.

He added: “At some places, they didn’t have water. Some places, they didn’t provide us water on time. At some places, we used to go to houses nearby asking for water.”

In this photo taken in May 2015 during a government organized media tour, workers use heavy machinery at the Al-Wakra Stadium being built for the 2022 World Cup. Maya Alleruzzo/AP/FILE

Working long hours in extreme heat has, some non-governmental organizations believe, caused a number of deaths and put lives at risk in Qatar.

In 2019, research published in the Cardiology Journal, exploring the relationship between the deaths of more than 1,300 Nepali workers between 2009 and 2017 and heat exposure, found a “strong correlation” between heat stress and young workers dying of cardiovascular problems in the summer months.

The government official told CNN that there had been a “consistent decline” in the mortality rate of migrant workers, including a decline in heat stress disorders, “thanks in large part to our comprehensive heat stress legislation.”

“Qatar has always acknowledged that work remains to be done, notably to hold unscrupulous employers to account,” the government official added. “Systemic reform does not happen overnight and shifting the behavior of every company takes time as is the case with any country around the world.”

‘Heat does not typically injure on its own’

Natasha Iskander, Professor of Urban Planning and Public Service at New York University, tells CNN that heat can kill “in ways that are confusing and unclear.”

“Fatal heat stroke can look like a heart attack or a seizure. Sometimes, heat kills through the body, amplifying manageable and often silent conditions, like diabetes and hypertension, and turning them into sudden killers,” she explains.

“As a result, Qatar, in the death certificates that it has issued after migrant construction workers have collapsed, has been able to push back against the correlation between heat stress and deaths and claim instead that the deaths are due to natural causes, even though the more proximate cause is work in the heat.”

Determining the number of workers injured by heat is even harder, she says, because many injuries may not become apparent until years later, when migrants have returned home and young men “find that their kidneys no longer function, that they suffer from chronic kidney disease, or that their hearts have begun to fail, displaying levels of cardiac weakness that are debilitating.”

“Heat does not typically injure on its own,” she adds. “Workers are exposed to heat and heat dangers through the labor relations on Qatari worksites. The long hours, physically intense work, the forced overtime, the abusive conditions, the bullying on site all shape how exposed workers are to heat. Additionally, conditions beyond the worksite also augmented heat’s power to harm – things like poor sleep, insufficient nutrition or a room that was not cool enough to allow the body to reset after a day in the heat. In Qatar, the employer housed workers in labor camps, and workers as a matter of policy were segregated to industrial areas, where living accommodations were terrible.”

Foreign laborers working on the construction site of the Al-Wakrah football stadium, one of Qatar's 2022 World Cup stadiums, walk back to their accomodation at the Ezdan 40 compound after finishing work on May 4, 2015, in Doha's Al-Wakrah southern suburbs. Marwan Naamani/AFP/Getty Images/FILE

According to Amnesty International, Qatari authorities have not investigated “thousands” of deaths of migrant workers over the past decade “despite evidence of links between premature deaths and unsafe working conditions.” That these deaths are not being recorded as work-related prevents families from receiving compensation, the advocacy group states.

In its statement, the SC said that its commitment to publicly disclose non-work-related deaths went beyond the requirements of the UK’s Health and Safety Executive Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences regulations (RIDDOR), which defines and provides classification for how to document work-related and non-work-related incidents.

The statement added: “The SC investigates all non-work-related deaths and work-related fatalities in line with our Incident Investigation Procedure to identify contributory factors and establish how they could have been prevented. This process involves evidence collection and analysis and witness interviews to establish the facts of the incident.”

Amnesty International’s Ella Knight told CNN Sport that her organization would continue to push Qatar to “thoroughly investigate” deaths of migrant workers, including past deaths, to “ensure the families of the deceased have the opportunity to rebuild their lives.”

Barun Ghimire is a human rights lawyer based in Kathmandu whose work focuses on the exploitation of Nepali migrants working abroad. He tells CNN that the families he advocates for have not received satisfactory information on their loved ones’ deaths. “Families send out healthy, young family member to work and they receive news that the family member died when they were sleeping,” he says. In a separate interview, he told CNN last year: “The Qatar World Cup is really the bloody cup – the blood of migrant workers.”

Last year, Qatari legislation was strengthened regarding outdoor working conditions, expanding summertime working hours during which outdoor work is prohibited – replacing legislation introduced in 2007 – and additionally putting into law that “all work must stop if the wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) raises beyond 32.1C (89.8F) in a particular workplace.” The regulations also mandate annual health checks for workers, as well as mandatory risk assessments.

“We recognize that heat stress is a particular issue in the summer months in Qatar,” a Qatari government official said. “In May 2021, Qatar introduced a requirement for companies to conduct annual health checks for workers, as well as mandatory risk assessments to mitigate the dangers of heat stress. Companies are expected to adopt flexible, self-monitored working hours where possible, adjust shift rotations, enforce regular breaks, provide free cold drinking water and shaded workspaces, and adhere to all other guidelines with respect to heat stress outlined by the Ministry of Labour.

“Every summer, Qatar’s labor inspectors carry out thousands of unannounced visits to work sites across the country to ensure that heat stress rules are being followed,” the official added. “Between June and September 2022, 382 work sites were ordered to close for violating the rules.”

Workers walk to the Lusail Stadium -- one of the 2022 Qatar World Cup stadiums -- in Lusail on December 20, 2019. Hassan Ammar/AP

Iskander said a heat point of 32.1C WBGT was “already dangerous.”

“Working at the physical intensity that construction workers do in Qatar for any amount of time at that temperature is damaging to the body,” she explained.

“The regulation relied on the assumption that workers would be able to self-pace and rest as needed whenever they experienced heat stress. Anyone who has ever spent any amount of time on a Qatari construction site knows that workers have no ability to self-pace.”

Knight adds: “The fact investigations into migrant workers deaths are often not happening precludes the possibility of greater protections being implemented because if you don’t know what is really happening to these people how can you then implement and enforce effective measures to increase their protection?”

For the majority of his time in Qatar, Hari said he felt sad. He would watch planes take off during his six months tending the airport gardens and question why he was in the country. But he had paid 90,000 Nepali rupees ($685) to a Nepali recruitment company that facilitated his move. He was also told, he says, by the company he had joined that he would have had to pay 2,000 to 3,000 Riyal ($549-$823) to buy himself out of his contract.

His friends, he said, counseled him as he continued to work long, lonely days for, Hari says, not enough money to live and save for his family. Amnesty International says many migrants pay high fees to “unscrupulous recruitment agents in their home country” which make the workers scared to leave their jobs when they get to Qatar.

Now, he is a father-of-two, and work is plowing fields in Nepal as a tractor driver, but Hari hopes one day to work abroad again, his heart set on Malaysia. “I don’t want my children to go through what I did. I want to build a house, buy some land. That’s what I am thinking. But let’s see what God has planned,” he says.

‘Our dreams never came true’

Sunit has been back in Nepal since August after working just eight months in Qatar. He had expected to be there for two years, but the collapse of the construction company he worked for meant he and many others returned with money still owed to them, he says. He struggles to find work in Nepal, meaning feeding his two children and paying school fees is difficult.

He had dreamed of watching World Cup matches from the rooftop of the hotel he had helped build. One of the stadiums – the name of which he does not know – was a 10-minute walk from the hotel. “We used to talk about it,” he says of the World Cup. “But we had to return, and our dreams never came true. The stadium activities were visible from the hotel. We could see the stadium from the hotel rooftop.”

In helping construct the city center hotel, the name of which he doesn’t remember, he would carry bags of plaster mix and cement, weighing from 30 to 50 kilos, on his shoulders up to 10 to 12 floors, he says.

“The lift was rarely functional. Some people couldn’t carry it and dropped it halfway. If you don’t finish your job, you were threatened saying the salary would be deducted for that day,” he says. “The foreman used to complain that we were taking water breaks as soon as we got to work. They used to threaten us saying: ‘We will not pay you for the day.’ We said: ‘Go ahead. We are humans, we need to drink water.’

“It was very hot. It used to take 1.5 to two hours to get to the top. I used to get tired. I used to stop on the way. Then proceed again slowly. Yes, the supervisors used to yell at us. But what could we do?”

He says he had paid an agent in Nepal 240,000 Nepali rupees (around $1,840) before leaving for Qatar. He says he has filed a case with the police about the agent as he had been unable to fulfill his two-year contract, but there have been no developments. He says the owners of the company he worked for in Qatar were arrested because they did not pay laborers. The company did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment, neither did it respond to questions from the Business & Human Rights Centre, an advocacy group, about protests over unpaid wages.

Qatar has expanded its airport, constructed new hotels, and rail and highways over the last decade. Britta Pedersen/picture alliance/Getty Images

For a month, he says, he was in his accommodation with no work or money to buy food – he borrowed to eat – so he and his fellow workers called the police, who brought food with them.

“The police came again after 10-15 days and said we have arrested the company people. (The police) distributed food again,” he says. “They told us the company has collapsed and the government will send all the workers back home.”

“I’m extremely sad,” he adds. “I mean, it is what it is. Nothing would change by regretting it. I get mad (at the company) but what can I do? Even if I had tried to fight back, it would have been my loss.”

The SC said it has established what it claims is a “first-of-its-kind” Workers’ Welfare Forum, which it said allowed workers to elect a representative on their behalf and, when companies failed to comply with the WWF, it steps in, demands better and alerts the authorities.

Since 2016, the SC said 69 contractors had been demobilized, 235 contractors placed on a watch list and a further seven blacklisted. “We understand there is always room for improvement,” the statement added.

‘Expertise and heroism’

Qatar, a peninsula smaller than Connecticut and the smallest World Cup host in history, is set to host an estimated 1.5 million fans over the month-long tournament, which begins on November 20. There are already reports of accommodation concerns for such a vast number of visitors.

The spotlight is no doubt on this Gulf state, as has progressively been the case since it was controversially awarded the tournament over a decade ago – though Qatari officials have previously “strongly denied” to CNN the allegations of bribery which has surrounded its bid.

Such attention has brought about reforms, significantly dismantling the Kafala system which gives companies and private citizens control over migrant workers’ employment and immigration status.

In Qatar, migrant workers can now change jobs freely without permission from their employer. But Knight adds: “Another aspect of the Kafala system, the criminal charge of absconding still exists, and this, along with other tools that are still available to employers, means that, fundamentally, the power balance between workers and employers, the imbalance remains great.”

Knight says unpaid wages is still an issue as the wage protection system “lacks enforcement mechanisms,” while she also says employers can cancel a worker’s ID at a “push of a button,” meaning they risk arrest and deportation. Additionally, labor committees intended to help workers are under-resourced and “lack the capacity to deal with the number of cases that are coming to them.”

Migrant laborers work at a construction site at the Aspire Zone in Doha on March 26, 2016. Naseem Zeitoon/Reuters/FILE

Ghimire agrees that there have been a few positive changes to employment laws but adds that it is “more show and tell.”

“Many workers who work in construction are untouched, so there’s still exploitation going on,” he tells CNN.

Qatar’s government official told CNN work remained to be done but that “systemic reform does not happen overnight, and shifting the behavior of every company takes time as is the case with any country around the world.

“Over the last decade, Qatar has done more than any other country in the region to strengthen the rights of foreign workers, and we will continue to work in close consultation with international partners to strengthen reforms and enforcement.”

Human Rights Watch’s #PayUpFIFA campaign wants Qatar and FIFA to pay at least $440 million – an amount equal to the prize money being awarded at the World Cup – to the families of migrant workers who have been harmed or killed in preparation for the tournament.

Families of workers who have died face uncertain futures, HRW says, especially children. Those who survived and returned home, cheated of wages or injured, remain trapped in debt, it says, “with dire consequences for their families.”

Ghimire says compensation is key, but so too is making the world aware of what has taken place to make this tournament happen.

“People are concerned about clothing brands, and the meat they eat, but what about mega events? Isn’t it time we ask how this was possible?” he asks.

“Everyone who will watch should know at what cost this was even possible and how workers were treated. Players should know, sponsors should know.

“Would it be the same situation if it was European workers dying in Qatar? If it was Argentinean workers, would Argentina be concerned about playing?

“Because it’s migrant workers from poor south Asian countries, they’re invisible people. Forced labor, death of workers, while making a World Cup is unacceptable. As a football fan, it makes me sad; as a lawyer, it makes me really disappointed.”

Earlier this month, Qatar’s Labor Minister Ali bin Samikh Al Marri rejected the prospect of a remedy fund.

A Qatar government official said the country’s Workers’ Support and Insurance Fund was “effective in providing compensation for workers and their families” with the fund reimbursing workers with more than $350 million so far this year.

In terms of the SC’s efforts to ensure repayment of recruitment fees, as of December 2021, workers have received $22.6 million, with an additional $5.7 million committed by contractors, according to FIFA.

Last month, FIFA’s Deputy Secretary General Alasdair Bell said “compensation is certainly something that we’re interested in progressing.”

A general view shows the exterior of the Al-Thumama Stadium in Doha -- one of eight stadiums that will host World Cup matches KARIM JAAFAR/AFP/AFP via Getty Images

It has been widely reported that FIFA has urged nations participating in the World Cup to focus on football when the tournament kicks off.

FIFA confirmed to CNN that a letter signed by FIFA President Gianni Infantino and the governing body’s secretary general Fatma Samoura was sent out on November 3 to the 32 nations participating in the global showpiece but would not divulge the contents. However, a number of European federations have issued a joint statement saying they would campaign at the tournament on human rights and for a migrant workers center and a compensation fund for migrant workers.

The motto for Qatar’s bid team in 2010 was ‘Expect Amazing.’ In many ways, this year’s World Cup has replicated that maxim.

As NYU’s Iskander says: “One of the things that is not really covered in the coverage of the World Cup and the coverage of this enormous construction boom is the expertise and heroism of the workers who built it.

“They built buildings that were unimaginable to everyone, including the engineers and designers, until they were built. They performed acts of bravery that are unsung. They operated at levels of technical complexity and sophistication that are unparalleled. And yet their contribution to building the World Cup is really rarely featured, downplayed.

“They are represented, generally speaking, as exploited and oppressed. And it’s true that they have been exploited and oppressed, but they are also the master craftsmen that built this Cup, and they are enormously proud of what they have built.”

Hosting this tournament has undoubtedly put Qatar under the global spotlight. The question is whether the world can enjoy watching what the migrant workers built, knowing the true cost of this billion-dollar extravaganza.

Aimee Lewis Pramod Acharya Sugam Pokharel

World Cup 2026: FIFA to announce US host sites for soccer ...

Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — As FIFA prepares to announce the 2026 World Cup sites on Thursday — and make high-profile cuts — Alan Rothenberg thought back to when stadiums were picked for the 1994 tournament he headed in the United States.

“They gave the rights to the host country, and the host country basically ran the whole thing,” he said. “Here, everything is done in-house by FIFA. So it’s been a really long and arduous process. The terms have been incredibly difficult for cities to cope with.”

Seventeen stadiums in 16 areas remained in contention to be among 10-12 selected from the U.S. for the tournament, which will be co-hosted with Mexico and Canada. The U.S. will host 60 of the 80 games under FIFA’s plan, including all from the quarterfinals on, and there was little doubt over the venues for 10 games each in the other nations.

Last time, the nine U.S. stadiums were announced during a Waldorf-Astoria news conference 816 days before the opener. This time, the decisions will be revealed by FIFA in a Fox television studio 1,456 days before the likely start (Thursday, 5 p.m. ET on FS1).

MORE:The 23 venues bidding to host World Cup matches in 2026

In handicapping the bidders, there appeared to be several tiers:

Locks: AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and Met Life Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, along with SoFi Stadium in Inglewood or the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

In the hunt: Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta; M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore; Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts; NRG Stadium in Houston; Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri; Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida; Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee; Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia; Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California; and Lumen Field in Seattle.

Least likely: Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati; Empower Field at Mile High in Denver; and Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida.

In the other countries: Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca, which hosted the 1970 and ’86 finals and will become the first stadium in three World Cups; Guadalajara’s Estadio Akron; Monterrey’s Estadio BBVA; Toronto’s BMO Field and Vancouver, British Columbia’s B.C. Place. Edmonton, Alberta’s Commonwealth Stadium was likely to be dropped.

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“This country has even more than 17 cities capable of hosting the World Cup, and it will be a pity for those that miss out,” said Telemundo’s Andrés Cantor, who has broadcast the tournament since 1990 and will co-host the announcement. “But I don’t think it’s going to take away from the desire of the soccer fan to attend the game, wherever their country lands in 2026.”

Rothenberg said the decision remained uncertain in the final week between SoFi, which may need pricey renovations to create a wider field, and the Rose Bowl.

“Even to this moment, there’s calls going on all day long trying to sort it out,” he said Tuesday. “There will be discussions between the LA host committee and FIFA right up almost to the moment of the announcement. The costs of LA are a huge part of the difficulty.”

Just two of the contending stadiums hosted games in 1994, the Rose Bowl joined by Orlando. Dozens of training complexes have been built for MLS teams, creating a far better infrastructure than at the first World Cup in the U.S., when Italy worked out at The Pingry School in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and the U.S. practiced ahead of its opener on a wind-swept field at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.

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“It’s completely different from the standpoint that in a lot of these cities there’s a base of fans that have been sort of built up because of MLS,” said Tony Meola, the U.S. starting goalkeeper at that ’94 Cup. “We know Los Angeles and New York and Miami always had soccer fans, and they weren’t necessarily American soccer fans, but they were fans of some teams around the world. I think we’ve got just a little bit more of a fever for the game. From a fan’s perspective, the infrastructure in the cities are so much more developed. And tickets will never be a problem in our country if we host the World Cup every four years.”

All U.S. stadiums forecast capacities of 60,000 or larger. Three have retractable roofs and one a fixed roof. Ten have artificial turf but would switch to temporary grass.

This will be the first 48-nation World Cup, up from the 32-team format used since 1998. In a tournament likely to run from June 11 to July 12, but possibly start and end a week later, there will be 16 groups of three nations. Each team will play two first-round games instead of three as part of an awkward arrangement in which one nation in each group opens against an opponent who will have already played. The top two in each group advance to a 32-nation knockout bracket.

Revenue has skyrocketed: The 1994 Cup drew a record 3.59 million fans and grossed $580 million, which produced a profit of $133.25 million for FIFA and $50 million for the U.S. organizing committee. FIFA said the 2018 World Cup in Russia produced $5.357 billion in revenue over the four-year cycle and a $3.533 billion surplus.

FIFA requires bidders to obtain “a limited tax exemption” for FIFA, teams and other entities involved, and the Missouri Legislature last month approved a sales tax exemption for June and July 2026. Chicago dropped out in 2018 over FIFA’s demands.

Rothenberg anticipates many of U.S. states and cities will refuse to comply.

“I think that’s a fair assumption in most of the jurisdictions. Some of them, they may just build it into the stadium price and other things, but getting an actual waiver may be difficult,” he said. “Ultimately, it just means another cost that the host committee, host city, is going to be responsible for.”

US Soccer World Cup qualifying: USMNT-Mexico match sold out

The buildup and hype for the U.S. men's national team's FIFA World Cup qualifier against Mexico is really going to start picking up in the latter stages of this week.

U.S. Soccer was happy to begin stoking the frenzied environment around this storied rivalry match, which will be contested domestically in the current World Cup cycle at FC Cincinnati's TQL Stadium on Nov. 12, by announcing Monday the match was officially sold out.

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On Thursday around 11:30 a.m., attentions should shift to the match once again as U.S. Soccer will announce its travel roster for the upcoming two-match window of qualifying matches. USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter is expected to address media members around noon on the subject of the personnel selections for the games.

Excitement around the roster reveal was boiling over into Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Wednesday, a German news outlet reported 18-year-old defender Joe Scally of Borussia Mönchengladbach would be included in the roster.

American star Christian Pulisic, who plays his club soccer at famed English Premier League side Chelsea FC, is also widely projected to earn a call-up for this international window after missing three qualifiers in October through injury.

According to U.S. Soccer, fans from all 50 states and Washington, D.C. have purchased tickets, helping make this the third-consecutive sellout for the USMNT in the 2022 qualifying campaign.

The federation's Monday news release announcing the sellout didn't put an exact number on the sellout, but TQL Stadium has a capacity around 26,000.

By midweek, the secondary market for tickets looked slightly better than it had in recent weeks. On Wednesday, SeatGeek listed tickets for the match for $414. It wasn't long ago that tickets couldn't be had for less than around $500.

U.S. Soccer, which will reveal its roster for the upcoming two-match international window of World Cup qualifiers on Thursday, also announced further activities locally.

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Starting Friday, buildings in Downtown will be lit red, white and blue through Nov. 12 during nighttime hours.

U.S. Soccer and the American Outlaws, a supporters group for the men's and women's national teams, will host a kick-off party Thursday (6 p.m.) at The Pitch Cincy (1430 Central Pkwy.)

The party is open to attendees of all ages until 9 p.m. It will then turn to 21-plus for entry. National team merchandise will also be available for purchase at The Pitch on Thursday, as well as Friday.

A "FanHQ" will operate on Central Parkway on Friday starting at 5:30 p.m.

These and other activities lead into the scheduled 9:10 p.m. kickoff between the U.S. and Mexico on Nov. 12.

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Nashville bid for 2026 World Cup games: Did USA vs. Mexico help?

The main event was Tuesday’s United States-Mexico friendly at Nissan Stadium — the latest opportunity for Nashville to showcase its soccer devotion and make its case for FIFA World Cup games in 2026 — but serious action took place a night earlier at the governor’s residence.

“Aggressively touting the benefits” of Nashville as a host city is the way Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber described city and state officials who showed up at a gathering put on by Gov. Bill Haslam. The guests included Carlos Cordeiro, president of the United States Soccer Federation. He recommended the 17 cities that FIFA is considering for an expected 10 spots, and FIFA no doubt has his phone number as it whittles the list over the next couple of years.

So yeah, Butch Spyridon was pumped to do some aggressive touting Monday night. Or as the CEO of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp. put it before heading to the governor’s mansion: “I’m going to start talking and won’t stop until they shove me aside.”

Making the case for Music City

Presumably, then, Nashville should be closer to hosting the biggest sporting event in the world today than it was yesterday. This even though the crowd for Tuesday’s game, 40,194, was not an overwhelming turnout. It did exceed what Garber and Spyridon said they expected (about 35,000) for this weeknight exhibition.

Nashville made a bigger statement when 47,622 showed up at Nissan for a CONCACAF Gold Cup match between the United States and Panama on July 8, 2017 — a game that counted, played in the summer. Then a new record of 56,232 was set for a game between English Premier League rivals Manchester City and Tottenham.

Another Gold Cup opportunity comes next summer. That will count, too, toward a World Cup decision that is scheduled to be made in late 2020. As will the progress and embrace of MLS in Nashville, which is back on track after the $275 million stadium deal at the fairgrounds was threatened. As will the future of Nissan Stadium.

Sticking with Nissan Stadium

Amid this city’s soccer craze, we have more clarity on what American football will look like in the future. And the answer is, very similar, with upgrades planned for Nissan Stadium and no apparent desire for a new stadium. This will disappoint folks who envisioned a state-of-the-art dome that could attract a Super Bowl, a Final Four, a College Football Playoff game.

It’s good news for those who love the outdoor atmosphere and location of Nissan. It’s sensible news because, frankly, I don’t see how there’d be enough taxpayer support here for the kind of wallet hit a brand-new stadium would require. Nashville Mayor David Briley told The Tennessean's Joey Garrison that the Titans recently told him they “definitively don’t want a new stadium.”

The Titans released a statement Tuesday that said, in part: “With over 10 years still remaining in the original lease for Nissan Stadium, we believe the correct course of action is to keep modernizing and improving the existing building, which is the approach we have taken since the building debuted in 1999.”

Plenty of competition for 2026

If there’s a plan in place by 2020 for significant improvements to be completed by 2026, that could help. Briley said he believes FIFA’s decisions will have “a lot to do with the facilities” in the respective cities.

New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Dallas, Washington, San Francisco and Boston seem like no-brainers to host World Cup games. That would leave Nashville, Philadelphia, Miami, Seattle, Houston, Orlando, Kansas City, Denver, Baltimore and Cincinnati to scrap for an expected three spots — assuming Canada and Mexico each end up with three host cities as planned.

“In my opinion, we’re all auditioning continuously,” Spyridon said. “I’d put our chances right now around 50/50. I feel good about it.”

Nashville MLS CEO Ian Ayre said Tuesday he believes the “experience around the games” is a lure for World Cup organizers and could serve as a Nashville advantage.

“One thing that helped us with the Gold Cup, we used Kings of Leon to push it,” Spyridon said of the popular Nashville rock band. “That ability to tap star power to promote events has resonated with U.S. Soccer, with Soccer United Marketing and with the NFL. They’ve all seen how we can talk to different audiences in a pretty impactful way. Because they know they can talk to soccer fans, but if they can reach a different audience, that’s what they want.”

The soccer audience on a cool Tuesday night in Nashville was rocking by 8:10 p.m. kickoff. It was easy to envision the same city, eight years from now, housing an updated venue with butts in every seat for the most important games the sport has to offer.

Contact Joe Rexrode at jrexrode@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @joerexrode.

U.S. is on the perfect team for a winning World Cup bid

Martin Rogers

USA TODAY Sports

It seems so long away, 2026, farther over the horizon than the 2024 Olympics that Los Angeles hopes for, more distant than the end of Donald Trump presidential reign even if he serves two terms, past the close of the soccer careers of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Yet the bid to host the FIFA World Cup nine years from now is a fight that could be won quickly and decisively, even if the ultimate decision will not be revealed until May 2020 and 3,000 days will have elapsed before the first ball is kicked.

The United States, Canada and Mexico launched a loud and bold three-pronged campaign on Monday with the clear intention of establishing itself as the primary, and perhaps only, legitimate contender to stage soccer’s grandest spectacle.

Thanks to a combination of timing, quirky soccer politics and FIFA’s own intricate and convoluted processes, it became an immediate favorite in a race that isn’t going to have a whole lot of runners.

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Barring another mental meltdown from soccer’s political powerbrokers, the CONCACAF collaboration is the surest of sure things, so much so that they might as well start printing the tickets now. Even the specter of Trump’s immigration policies is not necessarily a negative given that the president would be at least two and possibly six years removed from office by the time the tournament actually begins.

Trump, according to US Soccer president Sunil Gulati, has actively backed the bid and its nature of regional alliance. Yet for those opposed to Trump the combined formula of the bid could also be seen to fly in the face of the controversial president, which may sit well with some global FIFA delegates that could have held reservations about supporting the U.S. outright.

Canada, whose liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau has wanted little opportunity to tweak Trump, and Mexico, which Trump wants to isolate with a physical border wall, are ideal running mates in this instance.

For all the theme of international teamwork that will surely be trotted out again and again, make no mistake, this is a U.S.-driven bid. The U.S. would have the vast majority of the games, 60 out of the 80 total and all games from the quarterfinals on, and its infrastructure and size would be relied heavily upon. Under the formative plans, Canada and Mexico would host 10 games each.

Already, the United States/Canada/Mexico bid is its own to lose, because the competition this time is painfully thin. European bidders are out of the reckoning, as that continent will have hosted in Russia two editions earlier in 2018. Therefore, no “home of football” bid from England to beat out. No opposition from Spain or Italy with their wondrous soccer cultures.

Asia too, capable of mounting serious bids from nations such as China or Japan, will be excluded on account of the upcoming Qatar farce of 2022.

Other continental confederations will be permitted to apply, yet there hasn’t been much appetite for it yet. South America went 36 years between World Cups before hosting in Brazil in 2014, so it is a bit of a stretch to think that Colombia, Argentina or Uruguay would be selected with a gap of only 12 years. Furthermore, it could be that South American bids get out of the way this time in order to facilitate a Uruguayan bid for 2030 — which would be the 100th anniversary of the first World Cup, staged in Uruguay.

In Africa, Nigeria or Morocco have some serviceable stadiums but would have scant chance of toppling the CONCACAF effort, while a previously mooted composite bid of several West African nations was quickly deemed as being too risky and unwieldy.

Which leaves the Oceania region’s New Zealand, which doesn’t want it unless it is in combination with Australia. But Australia can’t bid because it is part of Asia for soccer purposes.

Game, set and match then, it would seem, even with the unpredictable nature of a governing body that saw fit to award the 2022 tournament to a miniscule enclave in the Middle East that has never qualified for the World Cup and that sees temperatures reach 110F during the period when the event is typically staged.

The U.S. has timed its run, and picked its partners, perfectly. This, remember, will be the first 48-team World Cup in history, up from the current number of 32. Bigger may not mean better in terms of the quality of soccer, but it certainly does in terms of providing a safe pair of hands with which to deliver an enlarged event for the first time.

Monday marked the opening salvo in what figures to be a short and decisive battle. By establishing itself as an organized, efficient and heavyweight bid right at the start, the triple bid might have knocked the fight out of its potential rivals before the opening bell has formally sounded.


Rolls-Royce gets £2.9m for 'James Bond' Moon project | The Week UK

Rolls-Royce has been awarded funding by the UK Space Agency to build a nuclear reactor to power a base on the Moon.

The idea “might sound like the setup of a James Bond film”, said Sky News, but is “part of a very real-world project that aims to see humans living and working on the lunar surface”.

Experts told The Guardian that nuclear power could “dramatically increase the length of lunar missions”, providing enough energy for communications, life-support and experiments.

Rolls-Royce plans to have a reactor ready to send to the Moon by 2029. The UK Space Agency has announced £2.9m of new funding for the project, which will deliver an initial demonstration of a UK lunar modular nuclear reactor. The cash injection follows a £249,000 study funded by the UK Space Agency last year.

Dr Paul Bate, chief executive of the UK Space Agency, said: “This innovative research by Rolls-Royce could lay the groundwork for powering continuous human presence on the moon, while enhancing the wider UK space sector, creating jobs and generating further investment.”

Work on the lunar base comes as humans prepare to return to the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. “As humanity begins to venture back into space”, said Gizmodo, the “technology that moves us throughout the solar system will be a pivotal part of that journey”.

With dozens of lunar missions due to launch over the next decade, the European Space Agency wants to give the Moon its own time zone and is collaborating with other space agencies including Nasa in a “joint international effort” to determine what a lunar time zone might look like, said Axios.

Across the Atlantic, Nasa recently announced funding for a nuclear-powered rocket that could “cut journey times to Mars from seven months to just 45 days”, the Independent reported.