FIFA announced today that it will delay bidding for the 2026 World Cup as soccer’s top organization is still in the middle of the corruption scandal that has lead to Sepp Blatter’s resignation.
“It was decided to place the administrative process on hold for the 2026 FIFA World Cup bidding due to the current situation,” FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke said in a statement. “Further decisions regarding the 2026 FIFA World Cup bidding process will be discussed by the FIFA Executive Committee at a later date.”
According to CNN, FIFA was supposed to take a vote on the location of the 2026 tournament in 2017 and bidding would start soon. A new timetable was not set.
Late last month, the U.S. Justice Department surprisingly indicted 14 former and current top FIFA officials, while Swiss authorities have been investigating the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding processes. The 2018 World Cup went to Russia and the 2022 tournament will be staged in the tiny Middle East country of Qatar. FIFA insists that there are no reasons to change that.
After the indictments, FIFA re-elected Sepp Blatter for a fifth term, but just days later, he resigned. Blatter called for an “extraordinary congress” to vote on a new FIFA president before the regular conference in May 2016.
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