Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced on Thursday that the city was pulling out of the 2026 World Cup bid (photo credit: Getty Images-Zimbio)
A spokesman for Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel has confirmed a report in the Chicago Sun-Times on Thursday morning that the city will be pulling out of the World Cup 2026 bid.
The mayor cites FIFA’s inflexibility in negotiation in regards to security and costs to taxpayers.
“FIFA could not provide a basic level of certainty on some major unknowns that put our city and taxpayers at risk,” the mayor’s office said in a statement Wednesday. “The uncertainty for taxpayers, coupled with FIFA’s inflexibility and unwillingness to negotiate, were clear indications that further pursuit of the bid wasn’t in Chicago’s best interests.”
US Soccer has yet to issue a comment.
Chicago pulled out of the 2022 US bid to host the World Cup days after the city came in last in the bidding to host the 2016 Summer Olympics which went to Rio de Janeiro.
This latest withdrawal comes a day after Vancouver pulled out of the bid, which features Canada and Mexico as co-hosts, for similar reasons.
The bid by the North American countries was once considered a shoo-in come the June decision by FIFA, but lately, Morocco is reported to have made in-roads in the bidding process. The USA lost out to Qatar in hosting the 2022 World Cup and the US Department of Justice has since launched investigations into FIFA corruption. It has been said that is one of the reasons why the joint-bid by the USA, Canada, and Mexico is not a sure thing.
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