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| Sunil Gulati, sinistra, presidente della Federazione Calcio USA, Decio de Maria, centro, presidente della Federazione Calcio del Messico e Victor Montogliani, presidente della Federazione Calcio del Canada, ripresi durante la conferenza stampa a New York del 10 aprile 2016 in occasione dell'annuncio della candidatura congiunta per la World Cup 2026. (Photo AP. Mark Lennihan) |
E' ufficiale : Canada, Messico, Stati Uniti si sono
accordati per presentare alla FIFA la loro candidatura per ospitare le gare
della Coppa del Mondo di calcio 2026.
E' interessante notare che la proposta avanzata dalle tre
federazioni ha avuto l'appoggio anche da parte del presidente americano Trump,
di cui alcuni dubitavano.
The
documents signed and the hands shaken, U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati and
his counterparts from the Mexican and Canadian soccer federations had every
reason to smile broadly on Monday as the photographs were made. Each knew the
hard work was behind him.
Their public bid to co-host to
2026 World Cup, less than 20 minutes old in strictly legal terms, was already
off to a great start. Their biggest rivals had been sidelined from bidding by
FIFA rules. Most of the stadiums, hotels, highways and airports were already
built. President Trump, the one wild card none of them could control, had sent
word that he, too, was behind the plan.
Even the toughest task of all —
negotiating the division of the matches for what will be the first expanded,
48-team version of FIFA’s quadrennial championship — was detailed in the
paperwork.
The United States, they had
agreed, would be the senior partner in the three-nation bid, and would host 60
of the 80 games and every game of the quarterfinals through the final. Mexico
and Canada would each host 10 games. FIFA would manage the rest of the details
— “It’s their tournament,” Gulati said — but the broad picture of a plan that
most think will come to fruition was already done.
It was not what everyone had
wanted, the Mexican federation president, Decio de María, acknowledged, “but it
is what we got.”
Gulati acknowledged the
difficulty of negotiating the split of the matches. “I think it’s safe to say
both countries would have liked more games,” he said, “and they will say it was
hard to sell me on 60.”
What they agreed on in the end
was this: As soon as this week, the United States, Mexico and Canada will
present to FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, a paradigm-shifting plan for
the World Cup that will involve more cities, more teams, more players and,
perhaps most important, more profits.
The 2026 event will be the first
to comprise 48 teams instead of the current 32, an expansion approved recently and one that a newly populist
FIFA has billed as an opening to more countries. Critics have derided the
change as both a watering down of the event and a brazen money grab.
It is quite possibly all of those
things, but the sheer scope of an 80-game event (up from the current 64) played
out over more than a month requires a reserve of stadiums, practice sites,
hotels and transportation infrastructure that few countries can offer. By bidding
as a unit, the three rivals from Concacaf, the regional confederation that
encompasses North and Central America and the Caribbean, most likely assured
that their bid will be accepted.
Andrew Das, 10 aprile 2017, NYT
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| Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Lockhart Stadium 2015 : La squadra nazionale canadese in occasione dell'incontro vittorioso contro il Guatemala. |
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