TORONTO 鈥� Chicago and Minneapolis have joined Vancouver in dropping out of the bid group that鈥檚 trying to bring the 2026 World Cup of soccer to North America.
The three cities expressed concerns about FIFA鈥檚 demands.
Twenty-three North American cities are on the bid group鈥檚 list, with sa国际传媒 represented by Edmonton, Montreal and Toronto.
The Alberta government said Thursday that it would not commit to providing funds for Edmonton鈥檚 participation in the bidding because there isn鈥檛 enough information about how playing host would affect taxpayers.
FIFA, the world governing body of soccer, will select up to 16 host cities from the list of 23 if the so-called unified bid of sa国际传媒, Mexico and the U.S. gets the nod over Morocco at the FIFA Congress in June.
Should North America win the bid, Peter Montopoli, sa国际传媒 bid director and general secretary of the Canadian Soccer Association, said FIFA is likely to announce the host cities in 2020.
The candidate cities were announced in advance of the final bid submission today to the world governing body of soccer in Zurich. That milestone has been overshadowed by complaints over the demands of FIFA, which essentially uses the men鈥檚 World Cup to bankroll all of its tournaments and operations.
The sa国际传媒 government said it could not come to an agreement with the bid committee. 鈥淭here鈥檚 very large concerns with the bid,鈥� sa国际传媒 Tourism Minister Lisa Beare said. 鈥淥ne of them being with FIFA to unilaterally change the stadium agreement at any point. That adds unknown costs and unknown risks to the sa国际传媒 taxpayers.鈥�
The Minneapolis group said it had concerns about 鈥渇uture liability and unforeseen changes in commitments.鈥�
A spokesman for Chicago鈥檚 mayor said FIFA 鈥渃ould not provide a basic level of certainty on some major unknowns that put our city and taxpayers at risk.鈥�
Montopoli downplayed the city defections. 鈥淚t鈥檚 part of the process 鈥� required to get down to 16 at the end of the day,鈥� he said in an interview. 鈥淲e鈥檙e comfortable where we are with the three that are in sa国际传媒. There are still some excellent cities left in America and in Mexico. 鈥淎t the end of the day we would wish for every city to be part of it but that鈥檚 not a reality,鈥� he added.
Montopoli declined to speak on the Chicago and Minneapolis situations but said Vancouver 鈥渨anted to be part of [the tournament] on their own terms and conditions.鈥�
He said that while Vancouver seemed willing to talk about the costs of being a host city, it had neglected to discuss the revenue potential 鈥渨hich would be enormous from the provincial point of view because they own sa国际传媒 Place and they own the convention centre.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 the unfortunate part of any of the communications that鈥檚 gone out in the last 24 hours,鈥� he said.
The Vancouver convention centre might have staged tournament-related events.
Montopoli also said he did not believe all four Canadian cities would have made the final cut if Vancouver had stayed in the fold. He said his hope is that the three remaining cities be involved in the tournament.
The united bid plan calls for 10聽matches in each of sa国际传媒 and Mexico, with 60 of the 80 games in the new expanded 48-team tournament format to be held in the U.S.
The American candidate cities are: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Los聽Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New聽York/New Jersey, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
The Mexico candidate cities are Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey.
The bid group sent bid packages to 41聽cities, with 32 continuing with the process. That number is now down to 23.
In addition to the three cities that withdrew, Charlotte, Detroit, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Tampa did not make the cut.
The new World Cup competition format will feature 16 groups of three, with the top two from each pool advancing to a 32-team knockout. The tournament will remain 32 days long.
