FIFA President Gianni Infantino said that the 2026 World Cup "could be split between up to four countries," according to Tom Finn of REUTERS. He announced that FIFA would "encourage applications to co-host the tournament." Infantino: "(We could) ... maybe bring together two, three, four countries who can jointly present a project with three, four, five stadiums each. We will certainly encourage it. Ideally the countries will be close to each other." His remarks could "open the way" to a joint bid from the U.S., Canada and Mexico, which have "already said they intend to hold discussions over the possibility." Concern has been raised about the "financial burden placed on a single tournament host, and the bad publicity generated by stadiums built and then abandoned after use." Swedish FA Chair Karl-Erik Nilsson "quickly backed co-hosting for the World Cup too." He said, "It's a good idea, and Europe has of course previously worked in this way on the European Championships." The idea has "taken off" at the European Championship, with Belgium and the Netherlands co-hosting in '00, Austria and Switzerland in '08 and Poland and Ukraine in '12. The next tournament in '20 "has been designated as Pan-European" and is due to be staged in 13 cities in 13 countries (REUTERS, 2/16). In London, Ed Malyon wrote while "to some extent there is a justification, given the sorry state of Brazil and Greece after staging recent Olympiads and World Cups, it appears to be yet another vote-grabbing policy" from FIFA that does not necessarily have the game's best interests front and center. This would be "huge" for FIFA in terms of sponsorships and growing its "already huge tax-free revenues" from organizing the World Cup (INDEPENDENT, 2/16).
