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Vancouver and Chigaco won’t be part of the US-led bid. The two cities withdrew from the united tender to be presented on the 16th of March because of the FIFA's huge and unpredictable costs.
In Fact, the Canadian city which was bidding to host around three games in the early stages of the completion has not been able to carry on after missing to submit its candidacy to the United Bid Committee. In a statement made public by Sportsnet, Vancouver’s mayor Gregor Robertson regretted the fact that the city is not participating to this bid, explaining that «major sporting events often have challenges around costs and managing financial risk».
To put it in other words, Vancouver couldn’t agree to the conditions set by the Football governing body. This was further explained by Lisa Beare, minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture at the provincial government of Vancouver insisting that they «cannot agree to terms that would put British Columbians at risk of shouldering potentially huge and unpredictable costs».
The same thing was announced by the Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office when the American city decided to give up on co-hosting the international competition. Reported by the Breaker News, Chicago referred to «cost uncertainty for taxpayers and the unwillingness of FIFA to negotiate».
«FIFA could not provide a basic level of certainty on some major unknowns that put our city and taxpayers at risk. The uncertainty for taxpayers, coupled with FIFA’s inflexibility and unwillingness to negotiate, were clear indications that further pursuit of the bid wasn’t in Chicago’s best interests», said the Chicago’s mayor office Wednesday as quoted by Chicago Sun Times.
Heavy costs await the bidders
To shed light on the FIFA’s conditions refused by the two cities, the Breaker took a look at a copy of these requirements. The Canadian online newspaper stated that the Swiss-based organization is asking potential host governments for «huge tax breaks for an entire decade» with the ability of «importing and exporting unlimited amounts of foreign currency».
FIFA also wants host countries to pay for safety and security bills. The winning bidder will be forced to grant the FIFA a vast tax holiday.
«The FIFA bid manual states must comprise all taxes that may be applicable in the host country/host countries. The sole exception to the general tax exemption is taxation on the sale of tickets to third parties (i.e. tickets not used by FIFA, the 2026 FWC [organizing] entity, the 2026 FWC subsidiaries (if applicable) or any other FIFA subsidiary for its own purposes), but limited to VAT, sales tax or the like at a unified rate of a maximum of 10%. No other taxes may be charged on any revenues or profits generated through the sale of tickets», wrote the FIFA.
For the record, Morocco as one of the bidding countries submitted its bid officially on Thursday. The FIFA will have to decide on the 13th of June during a conference in Russia.
A long way is awaiting Morocco achieve its objective for the organization of such a sporting event. The North African Kingdom has to meet the minimum requirements set by the FIFA for stadium capacities and team and referee facilities.
