Montreal is no longer a candidate for the 2026 FIFA World Cup

The city of Montreal announced, Tuesday, that the lack of funding caused by the withdrawal of support from the Quebec government prevented it from continuing the selection stages.

She says she has had constant and frequent discussions with her partners in order to evaluate different options and agree on next steps.

The press release notes that the city and its partners have Make all necessary efforts to participate.

The municipality wishes the cities of Toronto and Edmonton the best of luck in their nominations.

The North American Combined Show offers 60 matches in the United States, including all quarter-final matches. Canada and Mexico will host 10 each.

On January 28, the Quebec government, through the Office of the Minister of Tourism, decided not to provide financial support for Montreal’s candidacy, citing, in particular, the Capture the cost explosion.

According to Minister Caroline Proulx, estimated costs for Quebec have doubled in less than three years, from $50 to $103 million.

In the current context, we consider that the priority remains to support Quebec residents and businesses in times of the pandemic and towards economic recovery., she added.

After this announcement by Quebec, Montreal’s chances of being the site of the World Cup dwindled dramatically.

City applied to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup matches after obtaining written pledges from its government partners to receive a fair share of the costs of hosting this major event. Thus, withdrawing the Quebec government’s financial participation would jeopardize the candidacy of Montreal, the only French-speaking city in the race.Youssef Amin, director of communications for Mayor Valerie Plante and the Montreal Executive Committee, said.

Montreal was selected in 2018 as a candidate to host the matches.

FIFA said that FIFA would like to thank Montreal for its participation and all local stakeholders for their efforts. FIFA continues to work closely with the host associations from Canada, Mexico and the United States.

The news was received poorly by football organizations in Quebec.

The World Cup in Montreal would have been the perfect opportunity to celebrate our royal sport which is the most played sport in Quebec, Canada and the world at large., the Soccer Quebec Board of Directors said.

By mid-afternoon, CF Montreal responded to the news with a press release.

The team said in a statement that FC Montreal has learned with regret that the city of Montreal has been withdrawn from the selection process for candidate cities to host the 2026 World Cup. Being a stakeholder in the world’s leading sporting event presents a unique opportunity for our city, not only to grow our sport, but also to make our city shine even more in the whole world. We would like to wish the Edmonton and Toronto City Committees every success in the selection process for the 2026 FIFA World Cup™.