This archive report was first published on 7 July 2020.
Published on July 7, 2020, FIFA's chief tournaments and events officer Colin Smith announced that the selection process for the 2026 World Cup venues has been delayed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The initial plan was to finalize the venues by spring 2021, but this timeline was based on starting the process in March and conducting two rounds of inspection visits by the end of the year.
However, with the virus still affecting the world, it is difficult to give a final date for the selection process. Smith stated, "It is very difficult to give a final date because we don’t know when the start date is."
“Obviously now we have had to delay that,” Smith said on a conference call ahead of Tuesday’s virtual workshop with the 17 U.S. cities under consideration. “It is very difficult to give a final date because we don’t know when the start date is.” The workshop, originally set to be held in March in person, was delayed due to the virus. Canada and Mexico, who each have three candidate cities, held their workshops earlier this year before COVID-19 lockdowns. Smith emphasized that the decision on which venues to pick will be made based on criteria like their location, time zones, and weather conditions rather than simply trying to showcase different parts of the country. “Nothing is set in stone from our point of view. We want to look at the whole picture,” said Smith. The U.S. candidate cities include Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York/New Jersey, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Francisco Bay area, Seattle, and Washington. FIFA will select up to 16 of the 23 venues put forward in the joint bid.
