SBC News FIFA seeks 'stronger ethical code' for its World Cup 2026 bidding process

FIFA seeks ‘stronger ethical code’ for its World Cup 2026 bidding process

FIFA governance has presented its official guiding mandate for the bidding process to host its 2026 World Cup tournament.

World football’s governing body has presented its official guidelines to the committees representing North America’s joint bid of USA-Canada-Mexico competing against Morocco for the right to host football’s biggest tournament.

Presenting a 35-page document, FIFA governance has made bidding parties’ aware of key timelines, judging criteria, host evaluations, rules and conduct related to the 2026 World Cup bidding process.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup, will be the first tournament to be expanded to 48 national teams from its current format of 32.  The 2026 World Cup bidding process will feature no European or Asian countries, due to FIFA’s ‘rotation policy’ following the host nation wins of Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022.

Seeking to bring full-transparency to its bidding process, FIFA has pledged to publish all casted votes for its 2026 judgement which will take place on 13 June 2018 in Moscow.

Taking on his first World Cup bidding process, new FIFA President Gianni Infantino will be desperate to avoid the corruption and bribery scandals that marred the December 2010 Zurich bidding process in which Russia and Qatar were selected as host nations.

Combined FBI and Interpol investigations revealed numerous high ranking cases of corruption for World Cup hosting votes, which would ultimately lead to the downfall of former disgraced FIFA President Sepp Blatter.

Furthermore, FIFA has been pressured to adopt a stronger ethical and social code with regards to selecting World Cup host nations, following Russia and Qatar failures in regards to human rights violations, gender diversity, environmental impacts and racism.

Infantino and FIFA officials have moved to implement ‘four key principals’ guiding its bidding process’ ethics which include; bid transparency, human rights monitoring, event sustainability and overall tournament legacy.

Appointed FIFA President in 2016, Infantino stated that his tenure would focus on cleaning the governing body from corruption and cronyism, the process and outcome of the 2026 World Cup judgement will be Infantino’s first acid-test.

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SBC News FIFA seeks 'stronger ethical code' for its World Cup 2026 bidding process

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