Mexico out of World Cup Bid Running

One country just couldn’t stand the heat I suppose. Mexico announced today that they will not be placing a bid for two future World Cups, 2018 and 2022. Mexican federation President Decio de Maria basically said the money wasn’t there for the country to do a good enough bid right now.

First of all the stadium situation in Mexico isn’t that great to go head-to-head with countries like the US for a World Cup bid. Sure Mexico is soccer-hungry but the cost right now to redo a good chunk of their stadiums or even build new ones would be pretty high for a country with a fairly weak economy.

The US is now the only CONCACAF country bidding for the two Cups. The US is now in competition with Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands (joint bid), England, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Spain and Portugal (joint bid), Qatar, and Russia for one of the two World Cups up for grabs.

Strong bids from England and the two joint bids are what is standing in the way of the 2018 World Cup for the US. More than likely as we’ve discussed before here the World Cup will likely go to a European country in 2018 while the US likely stands to be the best bid for the 2022 Cup.

What do you make of Mexico dropping out of the running here? Surprised at all?