FIFA: the host country for the 2026 World Cup to be designated at the Congress in May 2020

The FIFA Congress will appoint the host nation for the 2026 World Cup in May 2020, after a four phase procedure defined by the FIFA Council (the new body which replaced the Executive Committee) which was convened in Mexico City (MEX) on 09 and 10/05/2016. The four phases of the process will be:
• A new strategy and consultation phase (from May 2016 - May 2017)
• An enhanced phase for bid preparation (June 2017 - December 2018)
• Bid evaluations (from Jan 2019 - February 2020)
• A decision (in May 2020)

The Congress in 2020, will appoint a host for the World Cup, under Article 28, paragraph 2 of the new FIFA Statutes, which were adopted on 26/02/2016 and came into force on 27/04/2016. The host country of the XXIII World Cup will therefore be selected six years before the event, as was the case with France for the 1998 World Cup (which was appointed in 1992).

Other decisions made by the FIFA Council, include the recommendation at the 66^th Congress (on 12 and 13/05/2016 and Mexico) to accept the membership applications of the Federations of Kosovo and Gibraltar, "which would thus…