Violent crime statistics omitted from United 2026 bid book
According to FIFA’s guidelines for the World Cup bidding process, bidding nations must provide safety and security information, such as crime statistics, in Section 14 of their bid books. Such information is absent from the bid book of the United bid of the US, Mexico and Canada.
According to FIFA’s guidelines for the World Cup bidding process, bidding nations must provide safety and security information, such as crime statistics, in Section 14 of their bid books. Such information is absent from the bid book of the United bid of the US, Mexico and Canada.
By Lars Johnsen
On 14 February, Valentine’s Day, this year yet another mass shooting took place in the United States. At Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, a former student of the school armed with a semi-automatic rifle killed 17 people and injured a further 17. According to , Parkland was the 41st mass shooting in the US – in 2018. A “mass shooting” is defined by the US nonprofit research group Gun Violence Archive as incidents of gun violence where four or more people are shot or killed.
Four months previously, on 1 October, a gunman had killed 59 and wounded over 400 at a concert in Las Vegas. A month after Las Vegas, a man killed 27 church-goers and injured another 20 in Sutherland Springs, Texas. From 1 January to 30 April, masschootingstracker.org has registered 104 mass shootings on US soil resulting in 166 deaths and 357 people injured in 2018. For 2017 the total number was 427 mass shootings, 590 killed and 1852 injured.
In the aftermath of the Las Vegas shooting in October, the potential influence gun violence can have on tourism was debated in the American press. The number of foreign visitors to the US went down by four per cent in 2017, the country fell one place – from second to third – on the list of most visited countries. According to CNN, several governments list gun violence as a risk factor for people travelling to the United States.
“Will international tourists keep coming?, asked.
«I think it’s more international [tourists who] might cancel because they’re afraid of the gun violence in the United States,» a travel agent told CNN.
Safety and Security
The US, along with neighbours Canada and Mexico, are bidding to host the 2026 World Cup. Their only competitor is Morocco. If the “United 2026” bid wins the hosting rights, 60 World Cup matches will be held in the US. Millions of people from the US and elsewhere will watch the matches either at the stadiums or via public-viewing at designated “fan fests”.
According to , the latest available data show per year in Morocco, compared to , and .
The safety and security of the participating teams and other World Cup visitors is of the highest importance for FIFA. In its “guide to the bidding process for the 2026 FIFA World Cup”, the world governing body instructs how a bidding nation’s bid book should look like, what information it can and must contain.
The is 381 pages. is 474 pages. These are detailed documents.
A bid book must include a section called “Safety and Security”.