

FIFA President Sepp Blatter (Pilar Olivares/Reuters)

The soccer world howled when Qatar beat out the United States to host the 2022 World Cup in December 2010. Nearly four years later, FIFA President Sepp Blatter has a new message for U.S. soccer fans: Be patient.

Speaking in a video interview broadcast at the Soccerex Convention in Manchester, England, Blatter all but said the 2026 World Cup should be hosted by the United States.

“If you look at the rotation of the World Cup then it should go back to Africa or go to the Americas,” Blatter said, per Richard Jolly of ESPNFC.

More from Blatter:

“And as we have been in South America, I think North America has a better chance than South America — if I’m looking on the, let’s say, the logic of the turnaround of the World Cup. “Perhaps there’s a big commercial opportunity arising now in the United States because of the tremendous television audiences that are booming and that the World Cup has also encouraged in its domestic game as well. We did well with football when it first went to the United States but the opportunities are bigger now. Could you just have a look at those possibilities as to where the World Cup might travel from Qatar?”

But Blatter also raised the possibility of a joint bid from Uruguay and Argentina in 2026, four years before the 100th anniversary of the first World Cup, hosted by Uruguay in 1930.

“Uruguay [has a] great history in the game but [is] a very small country. It is difficult for them to host a World Cup. Uruguay-Argentina together? Yeah,” Blatter said.

Qatar’s successful bid for the 2022 World Cup was eyed with suspicion practically since it was announced in December 2010 (along with Russia’s successful bid for the 2018 World Cup, which also has been questioned). FIFA commissioned an investigation over possible corruption regarding the bid, a report that recently was submitted for FIFA to review.

Blatter also is expected to be elected to a fifth term as FIFA’s president, and when placed in that context, there are two ways to look at his comments about the 2026 event.

1) Despite running more or less unopposed, he is ever the politician and is trying to build North American support… or — John Infante (@John_Infante) September 8, 2014