'We will be watching': Trump defies Fifa with repeat threat over World Cup bid

Donald Trump repeated his appeal to foreign nations to support the United States’ joint bid with Canada and Mexico for the 2026 World Cup during a press conference on Monday in defiance of last week’s warning by Fifa against the use of political influence during the bidding process.

“I hope all African countries and countries throughout the world, that we also will be supporting you and that they will likewise support us in our bid, along with Canada and Mexico, for the 2026 World Cup,” Trump said in a joint White House press conference with Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari.

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“We will be watching very closely, and any help they can give us in that bid we would appreciate,” he said.

The US president was speaking in the Rose Garden alongside Buhari, the first African leader to visit the White House during his presidency, following their one-on-one bilateral meeting and working lunch. The comments on the World Cup directly followed Trump’s assertion that the United States hopes “to be the economic partner of choice for nations across the continent and all around the world”.

“You see what’s happening with respect to trade and the United States,” he said. “We are being respected again.”

Morocco is the lone competitor in the race to stage the quadrennial tournament to the ambitious three-country bid spearheaded by the United States, which under the current proposal would host 60 games – including every match from the quarter-finals onwards – with Mexico and Canada splitting the remaining 20 fixtures equally.

TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) Trump asks for support from Nigeria and all African countries in the Canada–Mexico–United States bid for the 2026 World Cup #tictocnews pic.twitter.com/INCzGKyMuD

Fifa will announce the host at a meeting in Moscow on 13 June.

Last week Trump issued a veiled threat against nations that may align in voting blocs against the North American bid.

“The U.S. has put together a STRONG bid w/ Canada & Mexico for the 2026 World Cup,” Trump tweeted. “It would be a shame if countries that we always support were to lobby against the U.S. bid. Why should we be supporting these countries when they don’t support us (including at the United Nations)?”

That prompted Fifa to refer to guidelines that warn against political influence over bids.

“As a general rule, we cannot comment on specific statements in connection with the bidding process,” the worldwide governing body said in a statement. “We can only refer to the Fifa regulations for the selection of the venue for the final competition of the 2026 Fifa World Cup, and in particular to the bid rules of conduct incorporated therein.”

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The bid rules contain an explicit warning against activities by bidding country governments which “may adversely affect the integrity of the Bidding Process and create an undue influence on the Bidding Process”.

The North American bid is bolstered by a fleet of gleaming new NFL stadiums built over the past two decades that are suitable for international matches, which puts it in step with the cost-conscious, infrastructure-ready leanings of the day.

But Morocco, which would become only the second African nation to host a World Cup after South Africa in 2010, has six soccer stadiums with 45,000 seats or more already in use, meaning it would not require as much new construction as previous host nations.

The North African country with long coastlines along the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea previously bid for the World Cup in 1994, 1998, 2006 and 2010. Their bid is expected to receive strong backing from Fifa’s African and Middle East members.

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France plans to back Morocco, the country’s football federation president told local media recently, while Russia, which will host the 2018 tournament this summer, has said it will also vote for the Moroccan bid. Other potential supporters reportedly include Spain, Portugal and Belgium.

The United States previously hosted the World Cup in 1994, and that 24-team, 52-match tournament still holds the all-time attendance record (with nearly 3.6m spectators), despite a subsequent expansion of the format to 32 teams and 64 matches. Mexico hosted the tournament in 1970 and 1986, while Canada hosted the women’s World Cup in 2015.

Fifa’s 207 member countries receive one vote each, regardless of size.

Trump’s remarks on Monday came after he articulated a desire for Nigeria to remove trade barriers to allow additional US investment in the African nation.

He noted that the US provides Nigeria with more than $1bn a year in foreign aid and wants Nigeria to renegotiate trade policy in return.

“We think that we are owed that,” Trump said.