FIFA World Cup 2026: Colombia!

The stats you link to backup your claim of “world’s most dangerous country” were collated between 1998 and 2000. So nothing has changed anywhere since then has it? Bogota was indeed one of the world’s most dangerous cities, but today has a lower murder rate than (plucking a few random names) Washington DC, São Paulo, Mexico City, Detroit, Chicago and Rio de Janeiro. So does that mean Brazil and the USA are too dangerous to host a World Cup if you say that Colombia is?

Colombia today is a far safer country than it was, with tourism well on the increase and becoming a sizeable industry. I’m not saying for one second that it is as “safe” as say Germany for example, but your ideas are well behind the present day.

The player beign allowed to play after murdering a fan is utterly stupid of course – god knows why that was ok in Colombia, and agree on that point, but the rest is very outdated.

You eejit – Jack Warner lives in Trinidad, not Colombia.

I thought he lived in Dock Green.

Showing my age now.

I hate to come down on Warner’s side of any argument, but Aiden’s right about Colombia vastly improving in the last ten years. I’m not saying they deserve a WC bid, but the world’s most dangerous country just isn’t valid anymore.

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That being said, if we’re actually going to stick to the continental rotation (which I love in concept and hate in reality), I have no problem with the South American bids basically trading back and forth between Brazil and Argentina, at least for these first two. I’ve always wanted to go to Argentina, and if I haven’t by that point, that would be a great excuse.

They just need someone to bid against Australia or USA for 2026. Whichever country doesn’t get 2022. If USA gets 2022 then China will come in and bid for 2026, but if the Aussies get 2022 the U.S. needs someone to bid against itself for. Mexico’s already hosted 2, and Canada’s big whigs don’t really seem interested. So they need someone for the U.S. to bid against if the Aussies get 2022. Its all postering they aren’t as dumb as they seem.

That’s good and well statistically – and it’ll be nice to see the next UN crime study – but it doesn’t change the basic point.

I’d misread the home portion, what with it being so late. Whoa. Whoa.

But your argument that it was unsafe was based on statistics, and you own preconceptions about the place based on what it was like years ago.

You used murder rates to show Colombia as being the “world’s most dangerous country”, so it seems fine to use them to counter your argument. Colombia is no less safe than South Africa and Brazil – the next two hosts, both of which have significant problems with crime.

But your basic point was that Colombia was the world’s most dangerous country and that FIFA would do all they could to get Colombia the World Cup. The first point is totally wrong, and the second is speculation.

Anyway…like someone else said it’s probably all just political manoeuvering anyway.

I know this was not the point of the article at all but I just have to say that the thought of a cryogenically frozen Sepp is enough to give me nightmares for years.

I wouldn’t put it past Sepp to cryo-freeze himself and request that he be re-animated only when medicine has advanced enough that he can finally live – and therefore be FIFA president – forever.

The actual place on a statistical list isn’t the point. Colombia’s not terribly safe, FIFA’s not terribly kosher and these have a decent possibility of merging into a World Cup at some point.

And I think Matilda hit the tone of this quite nicely.

Blogger shows an ignorance today and moreover the projection of what Colombia would be SIXTEEN YEARS from now.

Colombia is by no means the most dangerous country in the world. It was close in the late 80’s-late 90’s. Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Mexico, and Venezuela I can guarantee you are 20x more dangerous than Colombia. At least your one of the ignorant people that can actually spell Colombia. Get your facts straight.

Yes, I think we can all agree, geopolitics aside, that a re-animated Sepp Blatter (who would, I assume, have somehow given himself relative ant strength or some other superpower) would be the end of everything we hold dear.

Yea, I don’t like the idea of robotic Sepp Blatter shooting laser beams through his eyes and being FIFA president forever. If he wasnt the FIFA president, i wouldnt mind so much.

You are an ignorant fool!

Please do your research before bashing on a Country that has come a long way from its “dark ages”. I suggest you look at Colombia’s economic development, increase in safety and fight against corruption before going out on a limb and crush with your statements an entire nation.

I am not denying that Colombia has internal conflicts or a high murder per capita ratio, but Colombia is a lot more than the media stereotyped guerrilla war and drug trafficking. Yes, there is still armed conflict going on in the south of the country and yes there are pockets of violence in other parts of the country. BUT, the cities (where the games will be played and the fans and players will stay) have become as safe as many other third world country cities. (its not fair to compare a third world country with a developed nation).

So, I suggest you take a trip to Colombia and actually experience what it is like before you go your way of bashing something you do not know.

PS: I can think of many countries (and many sports) where a player has returned to the “field” after being accused of a crime. “American Football” comes to mind…

It’s intersesting that people routinely claim Washington, New Orleans or Johannesburg as the world’s murder capital unchallenged, yet when Colombia or it’s cities (which have stronger claims than all those places) is called the same, there’s often a huge backlash. Why??

Bogota’s more dangerous than Washington, Detroit and Chicago. The problem with IUS cities? Very narrow boundaries around comparitively ghettoized central cores which have large moving populations = artificially high murder rates. The experts know this and recommend using metropolitan area stats for the US especially.

Chicago city has a lower murder rate than Bogota anyway I didn’t get that one at all, and Bogota may also be more violent thatn Sao Paulo and Mexico City there’s a lot of silly comparisons just being thrown about here.

As far as Latin America I’d only put Venezuela and possible Brazil ahead of Colombia – and it’s a LOT more dangerous than Mexico. Not only thast the murder rates’ rebounding.

We need to stop pretending Colombia is miraculously safe, especially as much of the’peace’ it experienced in recent years in places like Medellin was purely down to paramilitaries taking over the city and enforcing a police-like state. Not innocent at all.

The articles slightly off, only slightly.

It’s intersesting that people routinely claim Washington, New Orleans or Johannesburg as the world’s murder capital unchallenged, yet when Colombia or it’s cities (which have stronger claims than all those places) is called the same, there’s often a huge backlash. Why??

Bogota’s more dangerous than Washington, Detroit and Chicago. The problem with IUS cities? Very narrow boundaries around comparitively ghettoized central cores which have large moving populations = artificially high murder rates. The experts know this and recommend using metropolitan area stats for the US especially.

Chicago city has a lower murder rate than Bogota anyway I didn’t get that one at all, and Bogota may also be more violent thatn Sao Paulo and Mexico City there’s a lot of silly comparisons just being thrown about here.

As far as Latin America I’d only put Venezuela and possible Brazil ahead of Colombia – and it’s a LOT more dangerous than Mexico. Not only thast the murder rates’ rebounding with Medellin fast beconming the world’s murder capital again with Cali not far behind. The current government are increasingly mired in a n appalling list of human rights violations – it really is shocking you might get fooled by some of the comments I recommend unbiased people to read up. It’s a joke. Murderers are consistently let off the hook like the football player and soldiers who’ve murdered poor people from Bogota slums that nobody cares about while dressing them up as dead guerillas.

We need to stop pretending Colombia is miraculously safe, especially as much of the’peace’ it experienced in recent years in places like Medellin was simply down to paramilitaries taking over the city and enforcing a police-like state. Not innocent at all though I guess it’s alright if you’re some rich kid who’s safer from the crime and has regular internet access and possibly lives in another country anyway. The poor of Colombia? WHO CARES??

The articles slightly off. Only slightly.

@Grant: Check your facts!! Crime rates in Chicago and NY City rival those of Bogota, it isn’t any different than any other big city. As far as venezuela goes, I was there a few weeks ago due to work and let me tell you that it feels just like when I used to travel to Poland or the USSR back in the 70s, except that crime rates and murder rates have skyrocketed. Just one example: During a weekend in Bogota, there is about 5-15 murders whereas in Caracas(Venezuela) in one weekend the reached the 175 deaths due to crime, in the metropolitan area only.

As for the author of this article, check your facts, FOOL!! Colombia is nowhere near the country it used to be 12 years ago, with killing rates going down a 75% during the last 8 years, 95% of kiddnaping has dropped, and Colombia’s cities and roads are almost terrorist-activity free. I think it is rather an insult to say that they cannot host the WC because of violence. Back in 86 they were offered the tournament (with Pablo Escobar, drugs, guerrilla and paramilitary problems)and no one said a word about how wrong would that be. They hosted the Coup America in 2001 and there were no hostilities against the visitors neither agains the players and delegations. In fact, they all claimed they felt safe. And now just recently they hosted the South American olympic games with a worderful show(that had nothing to envy the one in Beijing, or Sydney)and the delegations once again, felt safe and welcomed by the people and the city. I suggest you visit Colombia instead, because it sounds like you’ve never been there. These kinds of biased articles are the ones that ruin a nation’s hard effort to move on and succeed. You should be ashamed of yourself for such an empty and idiotic article.

2030 World Cup will go to Uruguay, so Colombia will not be given the 2026 one.