US Wants Changes to Process Before Bids for World Cup

The American member of FIFA's executive committee says further changes to the World Cup bidding process must be implemented before his country tries to pursue the event again.

Sunil Gulati, who is also president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, is still concerned about the process that led to Qatar beating his country and others to the 2022 World Cup.

Addressing the Leaders in Football conference, Gulati says: "We are not going to conduct a foreign policy based on hosting a World Cup ... it's just never going to be important."

Gulati says "nation states are now essentially bidding" which makes it "a very difficult situation" for the U.S., which hosted the World Cup in 1994.

Gulati wants FIFA to make it clear in future if — like with the 2022 bid — it was seeking to take the World Cup to a new nation, and for the inspection reports to be a key factor.

[Associated Press]