Edmonton approved to host FIFA 2026 World Cup

This is an Edmonton Oilers blog. You all know that. If you don’t want to tread any further, I won’t blame you.

We at ON are all proud of this city’s rich sporting history and while we focus on the Oil we celebrate along with the rest of Edmontonians when good things happen. Today, FIFA announced that Canadian (Edmonton, Toronto, and Montreal), United States, and Mexican united bid will host the 2026 World Cup.

There will be ten games in Canada out of the whole tournament depending on funding from different levels of government. Near as I can tell Edmonton will likely end up with two or three games when it’s all said and done.

There will be some detractors of this move. FIFA has less than a glowing reputation for its underhanded dealings, including allegedly taking bribes, it’s sponsorship deals and strong-arming of host countries.

Those reasons amongst others are what kept certain host cities away. Vancouver walked away from the idea at the mention of the ability for FIFA to change the stadium agreement at any time. All these issues are very valid points.

To those, I would argue that there are no bad sporting events for this city to host. Last year we brought in the inaugural 2017 PBR Global Cup, and this year we will host the inaugural Gretzky-Hlinka tournament. Add this to the list of amazing events that will bring the focus of the world onto this great city.