ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA – SEPTEMBER 16: UEFA Fourth Vice President Giancarlo Abete speaks during the FIFA/UEFA Conference for National Coaches and Technical Directors 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazill, on September 16, 2014 in St Petersburg, Russia. (Photo by Harold Cunningham/Getty Images for UEFA)

The 2026 World Cup is very likely to go to “North America,” as the United States, Mexico and Canada have all bid together for a continent-wide tournament.

The U.S. would handle the majority of the tournament, receiving 60 of the 80 games, including every match from the quarterfinals on, while Mexico and Canada would received 10 games each.

But even though the bid is extraordinarily likely to go to North America, FIFA can no longer fast-track the bid to the continent, because another country got a bid in before the deadline: Morocco.

There are a number of reasons why Morocco is unlikely to get the World Cup, not the least of which is that the country doesn’t currently have the infrastructure for an 80-game tournament. Moreover, Morocco’s confederation, CAF, last hosted the World Cup in 2010 (South Africa), while CONCACAF, the confederation of the U.S., Canada and Mexico, last hosted in 1994 (USA).

There’s more, from The Washington Post:

Morocco’s bid may be undermined by the fact that it backed out of its last major hosting duties, when it won the rights to but then declined to stage the 2015 African Cup of Nations because of fears over the spread of the Ebola virus.

Morocco has failed in four previous World Cup bids; in 1994 — when it lost to the U.S. — 1998, 2006, and 2010 — when it lost to South Africa.

Overall, it’s probably good if Morocco doesn’t get this bid. Without the infrastructure in place to host the tournament, the country will have to spend billions on stadiums that will go to ruin, and past World Cups have shown that the event can devastate poor communities if the country doesn’t already have the infrastructure in place.

This is likely a moot discussion, since there’s almost no chance Morocco wins the bid, but now FIFA has to go through the entire process of voting on who gets the 2026 World Cup.

About Kevin Trahan

Kevin mostly covers college football and college basketball, with an emphasis on NCAA issues and other legal issues in sports. He is also an incoming law student. He's written for SB Nation, USA Today, VICE Sports, The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal, among others. He is a graduate of Northwestern University.