Gulati is still expected to continue to use his position on the FIFA Council to support the bidGETTY IMAGES
The committee for North America's joint '26 FIFA World Cup bid yesterday "shuffled its leadership," announcing in a letter to FIFA’s 211 member associations that bid Chair Sunil Gulati would "relinquish that role to the federation presidents of the three countries in a change that they hope will stress the joint nature of the bid," according to Andrew Das of the N.Y. TIMES. Gulati will "remain on the bid’s board and continue to be a conduit to global soccer’s top leadership through his position on FIFA’s leadership council." But he will be "replaced as the public face of the bid" by three co-Presidents: U.S. Soccer President Carlos Cordeiro, Mexican Football Federation President Decio De María and Candian Soccer Association President Steven Reed. The move "appears to be political and tactical." Gulati’s presence as Chair had "given the bid a distinctly American flavor." But three years after a DOJ investigation "revealed widespread corruption at the highest levels of FIFA," and as President Trump has "stoked fear about immigrants ... the prospect that the vote could descend into a referendum on the United States or its government’s policies was not an insignificant bit of political calculus." For the first time, each of FIFA’s member federations "has a vote on the World Cup host." So the decision to promote Cordeiro, De María and Reed to co-Chairs means "each can spend the next three months soliciting the support of other countries." But there are "risks to the strategy," as Cordeiro has been in his post for "less than a year, as has Canada’s Reed." There is a "chance they remain unfamiliar to some voters in the notoriously clubby world of FIFA politics." The North American and Morocco bids are due by March 16 (N.Y. TIMES, 3/7).
NEW TACTICS: ESPN.com's Jeff Carlisle noted the approach now is for "all three federation presidents to have equal responsibility to represent the bid and lobby other member associations on its behalf." Gulati and CONCACAF President Victor Montagliani are "expected to continue to use their positions on the FIFA Council to support the bid, but in a less visible way." Cordeiro has said that the North American bid is a "top priority as he begins his tenure" as U.S. Soccer President. De Maria last week said that he would be "stepping down from his role as president after this summer's World Cup" (ESPN.com, 3/6).
TROUBLE IN PARADISE: In Philadelphia, Jonathan Tannenwald notes until recently, the North American joint bid "seemed like a slam dunk." While the U.S., Canada and Mexico could "host a World Cup of any size at a moment’s notice, Morocco’s bid includes building seven new stadiums from scratch, and renovating others." Telemundo Deportes President Ray Warren before the announcement of change in leadership said that the bid had "hit some trouble." Warren said, “There’s a lot of other issues at the forefront of these decisions that as a sports guy, I don’t really want to talk about, that might be causing people to think about where they want to play the 2026 World Cup -- if they have to make a decision in the next two years, which they do.” FIFA changed the voting criteria "in part because of how many of those 23 members were bribed, or allegedly bribed, in the bidding cycle" that gave the '22 World Cup to Qatar (and this year’s World Cup to Russia)." It is "harder to bribe 211 national associations worldwide than 23 individuals." That was "initially expected to help cleaner bids, such as North America’s, prevail," but now it "might backfire" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 3/7).
