Wei Di, head of the Chinese Football Association, has spoken. China wants the 2026 World Cup. Given China’s explosion over the past decade, it might be hard to say no to the world’s most populous nation, even with the recent corruption scandals in Chinese soccer.
According to Wei, “It really moved us to see all the social benefits South Africa got from hosting the World Cup.”
And by social benefits, we should probably assume that he also means financial and publicity benefits.
Wei continued, “Everyone has been debating whether China should bid for the World Cup or when to bid, but seeing how successfully South Africa hosted it, I have to say that China has no reason not to bid and now is the best time.”
And there you go.
So prepare yourself for forty-nine year old Shakira with an umbrella under the hot Beijing sun singing an English version of some Chinese song over and over again in the summer of 2026 if the Chinese bid is successful. But first, there is a bid process to navigate.
Now the World Cup bidding process is fascinating and everything, but aren’t you getting the feeling that we’ll be seriously discussing bids for the 2046 World Cup come January? The dates for bid submissions and the final decision to award the tournament sometimes occur so far in advance of the event that it’s hard to even forecast what countries might look like, especially now that FIFA is beginning to look past the usual suspects. The duration of the process is particularly interesting for developing nations given that they are more susceptible to political, social and economic developments drastically changing their national landscapes over a few short years. The fact that nations must decide to start the internal process of preparing their bids far in advance of the deadline for bid submissions further opens the door to significant landscape shifting during this long and arduous road.
Over the years, the time between announcing the host and the start of the tournament has varied. South Africa had six years from winning the right to host the World Cup to delivering the tournament. This December, FIFA will be voting on who wins the right to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. The year 2026 may seem far away, but in FIFA time, 2026 is right around the corner.
But can we even begin to fathom what nations will look like in 2026? That would be like the U.S. starting the 1994 World Cup bidding process in 1978. The twelve year period between 2010 and 2022 also isn’t exactly a negligible window. Whether it’s twelve or sixteen years, we’re talking about a different audience, different country demographics, different leaders, different wars, and a host of different, unforeseeable challenges.
Applying a twelve to sixteen year gap to other countries highlights the different permutations of these projections. Think back to what China was like twelve to sixteen years ago, or even South Africa or Russia or India. Twelve to sixteen years is enough time for a familiar world to become unrecognizable.
On average, FIFA has announced the World Cup host 6.6 years in advance of the tournament. Only three times since the first World Cup in 1930 has FIFA selected the host country twelve years or more ahead of time. In 1966, FIFA awarded the 1978 World Cup to Argentina and the 1982 World Cup to Spain. In 1974, FIFA awarded the 1986 World Cup to Colombia (although Colombia withdrew as hosts in 1982). And this December, FIFA will be determining the host country for the 2022 World Cup, a tournament twelve years down the road.
Could there be a such thing as allowing too much time between the bid and the tournament? Perhaps. But apparently that’s not too much of a concern for the power brokers at FIFA. And as long as FIFA is okay with it, everyone else will be too. Maybe Sudan should start preparing its bid for 2030, filled with assurances of good behavior by the time the event date rolls around.
Anyway, while many of us are hotly debating who will win the right to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, the wheels are already spinning for 2026. Aside from China, other nations, thus far, that have expressed an interest in hosting the 2026 World Cup include Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Peru and Turkey. FIFA giving South Africa the World Cup and South Africa successfully pulling off the tournament has clearly inspired some new faces to dream about one day hosting one of the world’s greatest spectacles.
Although many of these countries bring a range of unique challenges to the table, the prospect of opening new doors is intriguing. Maybe a longer period between bidding and hosting ensures that some of the newer prospective hosts on the scene have sufficient time to get things right if they win.
But for 2026, China must already feel good about their position, having already hosted the Summer Olympics. In 2026, if China has its way, the world will be landing on its shores for a month of soccer. Given China’s drastic changes over the past sixteen years, we can only imagine what a China 2026 World Cup would look like. But especially after the South African World Cup, it’s not hard to imagine that China 2026, or even a World Cup in Colombia, Ecuador, India, Peru or Turkey would be an eye opening spectacle for the world.
If early selection is what it takes to make the list of World Cup hosts more inclusive, I’m all for it. Of course, early selection, particularly with certain countries, is more risky than with others. But we’ve seen what the trade off is in South Africa. The reward for hosting World Cups in new countries is that it might be the most efficient way to educate a public that largely wears blinders when it comes to seeing many parts of the world. The World Cup in South Africa didn’t create a new new generation of African historians, but it did introduce many people to a part of the world and customs that were previously completely unfamiliar. And that can only be a good thing.
Educating the world, even if only for a month, might be South Africa’s World Cup legacy, and if that’s the case, it may be time to take the World Cup show on the road. Whether to China or Peru, whether we need to plan 6 years in advance or 16, the ultimate return may well be worth it.
[...] Since then, the World Cups have gone to the United States (1994), France (1998), South Korea/Japan (2002), Germany (2006), South Africa (2010), Brazil (2014), Russia (2018), and Qatar (2022). The pool of hosts that FIFA is willing to consider is becoming broader; a reality that reflects a changing world and evolving markets. And as markets continue to evolve, the road map between 1994 and 2022 suggests that FIFA will continue expanding its base by reaching out to new, untapped markets (think China 2026). [...]