Soccer World Reacts to D.C. Missing Out on 2026 World Cup

It’s official: the 2026 FIFA World Cup will not be coming to Washington, D.C.

FIFA revealed its host cities for the 2026 event, which is being co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada. Of the 16 cities selected, 11 are in the U.S.—though the nation’s capital is not one of them.

The decision to leave Washington out of the mix is not entirely surprising. FedExField had been in the running to host World Cup games but dropped out in April, with Washington instead choosing to merge its bid with Baltimore. In that scenario, Washington would host World Cup fan events while games would be played at the Ravens’ M&T Bank Stadium. The joint Baltimore-D.C. bid was ultimately left out.

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This will mark just the third time in men’s World Cup history that the host nation’s capital will not feature games. The first time was in 1972 in what was then West Germany, then again in 2002 in Japan.

Even if the ultimate decision to leave Washington, D.C. out of the World Cup mix was somewhat expected, it still caused strong reactions from across the soccer world. Check out some of the standouts below.