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What the FIFA indictments could mean for the U.S.'s 2026 World Cup bid

Prior to Wednesday, when the Justice Department decided to rattle FIFA’s cage, causing soccer officials to be hauled out of their swanky Zurich hotel beds to face indictments and extraditions, the United States was a favorite to host the 2026 World Cup.

Even without bribing anyone. Seriously.

The expected U.S. bid remained preposterously strong – an endless parade of massive, modern and available NFL stadiums, airports, hotels and infrastructure, plus corporate power, a huge population and a fast-growing passion for the game. And North America is overdue to host the World Cup (U.S., 1994).

U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati likes to say we could host the World Cup “tomorrow.” He’s only slightly kidding. Even FIFA strongman Sepp Blatter acknowledged the seeming inevitability, calling it a “big commercial opportunity.”

Of course, the U.S. should have won the Cup for 2022 but didn’t. It lost to Qatar, which had no stadiums built at the time, needed to construct housing, rails, even cities itself (again, seriously), was awash in human rights and environmental concerns, and whose plan hinged on importing hundreds of thousands of migrant workers into a labor system that is about as close to slavery as modern humanity tolerates.

How will Sepp Blatter and FIFA react to the U.S.'s actions? (AP)
How will Sepp Blatter and FIFA react to the U.S.'s actions? (AP)

Oh, and it’s 130 degrees there in the summer, which means the Cup was rescheduled for November and December, screwing up major professional league seasons.

The vote went Qatar 12, U.S. 8 anyway.

It was ridiculous. It was almost assuredly rigged. It was FIFA at its Sepp Blatter-led worst. As a result, thousands of those Third World laborers – industrious, desperate young men – are expected to die due to accident or sheer exhaustion amid extreme conditions.

“Power,” an old British aristocrat, Lord Acton, declared back in the mid-1800s, “tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Qatar 2022 is FIFA’s proof that the adage remains true. The 2018 bid to Russia – over England and others – isn’t far behind.

Now, though, authorities in the U.S. and Switzerland have done what was long, long overdue … they stood up to FIFA, the first check on an organization that for decades under Blatter operated without concern for outside authority, legal statutes or basic human decency.

[More FIFA coverage: John Oliver was right about FIFA all along]

You could argue the U.S. is the chief enemy of FIFA officials who will determine the site of the 2026 World Cup, a process that begins later this year and will come to a vote in 2017. Vengeance and political payback are all but written in the FIFA manual. You could also argue that everyone is now scared to even appear corrupt, that the party is over and penance is the preferred route, at least for appearance’s sake.

So did Wednesday’s legal actions doom the expected American bid?

Or did it assure its success?

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Getting into business with FIFA by hosting a World Cup might seem repugnant. That’s because it is.

FIFA is what it is however and right now it is all the sport has. U.S. Soccer has taken a quiet approach in attempts at reform, never lashing out, even after the ridiculous loss to Qatar. In contrast, when England garnered a meager two votes as it saw its 2018 bid go instead to Russia, the head of its football association, Greg Dyke, told the BBC that it won’t “bid while Mr. Blatter’s there.”

Gulati, a Columbia University professor, prefers the thoughtful long play, and that means working within the system. He acknowledges problems but believes change is coming. He’s now on FIFA’s powerful executive committee – even positioning himself as a potential candidate to one day succeed Blatter.

While it hasn’t officially declared its intention, there is little doubt the U.S. would like to host in 2026, and it’s generally a good idea. Since pretty much everything is already in place, the costs are minimal and there won’t be any white-elephant projects rotting in the future.

[FC Yahoo: Sepp Blatter responds to FIFA corruption probe in written statement]

The event would bring in hundreds of thousands of international tourists and would be exciting for domestic fans. As a nation, it’s far better to host a World Cup than an Olympics (run by the almost equally loathsome IOC) because the latter requires so many more resources, benefits just one city and offers questionable long-term practical use.

Mostly though, this is just the reality of the global sporting scene, where corruption, greed and backroom dealings are never going away.

This isn’t ever getting scrubbed clean, even if everyone flips like we expect manicured soccer officials to do (these aren’t Gambino family soldiers) and Blatter himself even gets caught up in the swirl.

The world business and political climate is inherently venal, far more than anyone or anything in the United States can get away with. Everywhere, but especially in impoverished, unstable countries, some extra bucks will always supersede some nebulous threat that the authorities are coming.

The world keeps building more prisons, not less.

Sunil Gulati has taken a measured approach to the U.S.'s bid process. (AP)
Sunil Gulati has taken a measured approach to the U.S.'s bid process. (AP)

While Wednesday’s actions were important because finally someone was taking on FIFA, this is like a local police department rounding up a dozen drug dealers, a few big bags of heroin and a cache of handguns, and declaring on the six o’clock news that the streets are cleaned up.

Everyone knows that more drugs and guns and dealers will just swoop in to fill the gap. It’s naive to think anything changes here, either. FIFA can be more diligent, for sure, but avarice is an original human condition.

U.S. Soccer will have to maintain its path of pushing forward with its own high ethical standards in a difficult environment. Either that or wait until the end of time for full transparency and honesty to exist.

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The U.S. bid would again be impossible to match. And it’s North America’s time. By 2026, the World Cup will have been staged three times in Europe, twice in Asia and once each in Africa and South America without returning to this continent.

Most notably, FIFA’s current rotation rules eliminate candidates from Europe and Asia due to recent hosts Russia and Qatar being from those regions. That takes out strong contenders such as England or Spain/Portugal (favorites for 2030) and China (2034). It also means it may be now or not anytime soon.

Colombia says it will make a run out of South America, but the Cup was just in Brazil for 2014. Argentina and Uruguay have also talked about teaming up, and that would be interesting but, again, Brazil. Morocco says it may represent Africa, but that candidacy would be a long shot.

It almost certainly has to be the U.S., Canada or Mexico; the other two say they will bid. The Americans undoubtedly have the strongest case among those three.

Of course, America had the strongest bid last time, and FIFA chose migrant worker deaths, Middle East heat and a restructured calendar to prove Lord Acton was absolutely correct. Canada and Mexico are far more palatable secondary options than that.

Qatar came before Wednesday though. Now FIFA is in the crosshairs for that decision and so many others. Now FIFA is facing real push back and two forthcoming Cups that will be shadowed by controversy, ongoing criminal investigations and even outrage.

Now the power structure that has operated for decades with impunity is at least on notice, all the rumors of kickbacks put down in ink in federal cases.

Everyone has always cowered to these guys until the U.S. Justice Department stood up and said we don’t care, perhaps because this may be the only country with the resources and nerve to do it.

The United States went front and center to demand a new, better FIFA.

So by trying to clean up the mess did it just assure itself the 2026 World Cup? Or is the list of enemies so deep now that America won’t be hosting anything, any time soon?

FIFA’s litmus test may be coming.

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