North America’s request for a "fast-track award" of the 2026 World Cup hosting rights is "on hold, for a few months at least," according to Rob Harris of the AP. Sources said that FIFA’s ruling council "allowed three more months for rival proposals to be presented." The sources added that the "decision had not yet been announced by FIFA." The U.S., Canada and Mexico wanted FIFA to "confirm they would have a clear run to the hosting rights" during meetings in Bahrain. Now, bidders from Africa or South America can come forward before August. But even if North Americas "face a challenge, the FIFA Council still hopes for a decision to be taken at the congress in June 2018 in Moscow." If the congress "is not satisfied that the bid — or bids" conform to FIFA’s technical or human rights requirements, the process "would be re-opened and any country would be allowed to enter the race before a 2020 vote." U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati, who sits on the FIFA Council, said, "For us, the most important thing was having an expedited process rather than a two or three year process and the council agreed with that. We are happy to have competition because we are fully confident in the bid we can put together and the sort of World Cup we can put on." Asian Football Confederation President Sheikh Salman told CONCACAF President Victor Montagliani on Tuesday that the North American bid "will be the favorite" (AP, 5/9).
REPLACED: REUTERS' Simon Evans reported a FIFA source said that FIFA's chief ethics investigator and ethics judge "have both been replaced." Ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert and chief investigator Cornel Borbély will not have their mandates, which ran until Thursday's FIFA congress, renewed "despite expressing a desire to continue their work cleaning up FIFA." Colombian investigator Maria Claudia Rojas is the new head of the investigatory chamber, with Vassilios Skouris of Greece "taking over as head of the adjudicatory chamber" (REUTERS, 5/9).
