2026 World Cup: France, Italy and Belgium vote for Morocco who were defeated by Canada-Mexico-USA

France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands were among the 65 federations that voted in favour of Morocco as host country for the 2026 World Cup at the FIFA Congress in Moscow (RUS) on 13/06/2018.

Morocco was beaten by the trio of Canada-Mexico-USA: this joint bid named "United" received 134 votes (67%) out of the 200 votes cast, including votes from Germany, England, other Federations of the United Kingdom (Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales), as well as Russia, host country of the 2018 World Cup, which begins on Thursday 14/06/2018 (Russia - Saudi Arabia, at Luzhniki Stadium), in Moscow, kick-off at 17:00 CET).

Morocco, a candidate for the fifth time after failing to host the 1994 (organised in the United States), 1998 (France), 2006 (Germany) and 2010 (South Africa) editions, gained 65 votes (33 %). The third option, "neither of the two bids", received 1 vote.

This is the first time the FIFA Congress has named the organisers of a World Cup. Previously, it was the Executive Committee (the body replaced by the FIFA Council since the adoption of the new statutes in 2016) who made…