Morocco is touting its low gun circulation as one of the reasons why it should be allowed to host the 2026 World Cup, ahead of its U.S. rival. This isn’t the first time that the dominant North American World Cup bid has faced pushback from Morocco. In January, Sunil Gulati, former head of the U.S. Soccer Federation, said that worldwide negative perceptions of the Trump administration could devastate the North American bid. The North American World Cup bid is not necessarily destined to fail: considering that the United States hosted a World Cup previously in 1994, and North America has the infrastructure, space, and stadiums to be able to effectively manage 48 teams and their legions of fans, there’s still a chance North America’s bid could come out on top. But the official U.S. stance on gun control, coupled with the increasing unpopularity of the Trump administration abroad, threatens to upend that bid regardless.

Source: The North Africa Journal March 26, 2018 19:45 UTC