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All three Mexican candidates — Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara — were chosen, while Toronto and Vancouver will represent Canada.
Baltimore-D.C., Cincinnati, Denver, Edmonton, Nashville and Orlando did not make the cut.
Baltimore and Washington merged their bids to improve the region’s chances, but because of FIFA’s growing concerns about FedEx Field in Landover, Md., the matches were to be staged at M&T Bank Stadium.
The District was to host fan festivals on the National Mall and other ancillary events, a consolation prize after hosting matches in the 1994 World Cup (at RFK Stadium) and the Women’s World Cups in 1999 (FedEx Field) and 2003 (RFK).
Sixty of the 80 matches in the 48-team tournament will be played at U.S. stadiums, including all games from the quarterfinals and beyond.
Every U.S. and Canadian stadium is a large-scale football venue, except Toronto’s BMO Field, an MLS facility that will undergo expansion to meet FIFA’s 40,000-seat minimum.
FIFA has yet to designate the number of games each city will host or the venues for late-stage matches. MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., and AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Tex., are believed to be the top contenders to stage the final.
The selection of venues capped a four-year bidding process since FIFA awarded the men’s tournament to the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The only other time a World Cup was played in multiple countries was 2002, when South Korea and Japan shared the tournament.
The North American bid won hosting rights in 2018, easily defeating Morocco. That victory came eight years after FIFA, in a vote later deemed tainted by U.S. federal investigators, chose tiny Qatar over the United States, Australia, Japan and South Korea to host the 2022 World Cup.
Because of intense summer heat in the Middle East, this year’s tournament will be played in November-December.
This is a developing story and has been updated.
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