How USA was chosen to host World Cup 94: the inside story of a historic day

The tension was building on the third floor of the Movenpick Hotel in Zurich on 4 July 1988.

Three delegations – the United States, Brazil and Morocco – were waiting patiently in their respective rooms for the decision on which country would be chosen as the 1994 World Cup host.

At about 1pm, the Fifa executive committee summoned the heads of delegations, including Werner Fricker, then United States Soccer Federation president, to inform them of its decision.

Of course, we already know that the US had secured the World Cup and how that became a flashpoint in American soccer history. Major League Soccer celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. The USA men’s team has become Concacaf power and the American women has become a world power. That would not have happened so quickly if not for the World Cup.

So just what transpired behind the scenes that day 27 years ago?

In retrospect, Fifa’s decision to award its 15th World Cup to the USA looked like a slam dunk, but it was far from it. The United States was not considered a soccer country, not by a long shot.

There was this little matter that the USA hadn’t qualified for a World Cup in 38 years – since 1950 – as it was about to embark on its journey to Italia ‘90 with a home-and-home series with Jamaica that month. Reaching that tournament was far from a lock.

The USSF had wanted to host the World Cup for years.

Standing in hall of a boys’ dormitory at Indiana Central University during the National Sports Festival in Indianapolis on July 30, 1982, USSF president Gene Edwards told me of the organization’s intentions.

While there were rumors of the USA putting in a bid for 1986 and 1990 competitions, the federation actually had its sights set on 1994.

“We did it to show an interest to host it at some time,” Edwards said. “We realize it goes back to Europe in 1990. I would say our chances in 1994 would be very good.”

Not surprisingly, Edwards’ statement did not exactly grab front-page headlines in the USA, or around the globe, because there was little or no respect for USA soccer back then.

In the months ahead, the USSF drifted off course from that plan, because an opportunity to host the 1986 cup was dangled in front of it. Colombia, selected to organize the event when included 16 teams, dropped out in October 1982, after failing to overcome problems trying to find enough first-class stadiums for a tournament that was increased to 24 teams.

US soccer officials wanted that World Cup badly, because professional soccer was faltering – and fading fast. The US’s predominant professional league, North American Soccer League, was teetering toward extinction; it folded after the 1984 season.

The bid turned out to an embarrassing fiasco for the USSF, which seemed to go out of its way to irritate Fifa virtually every step of the way; Fifa eventually awarded the tournament to Mexico. The USSF insulted the soccer world’s governing body, sending in a flimsy application, demanding that the organization fly over a stadium inspection team, making ridiculous threats, wailing about every decision that the organization ruled against it, and claiming that an agreement between Fifa and Mexico was made in secret.

“Fifa is run a bit like a country club,” said Clive Toye, the former New York Cosmos general manager, who signed Pele in 1975. “They have to get to know you before you’re accepted … If you’re going to join a club, you abide by the club’s rules. When you become president, you can change them. But you don’t change them by standing outside the door, kicking at it, and then spitting in the eye of the man who opens it.”

With a new administration in place in 1987, the USA decided to pursue the 1994 World Cup, against Brazil and Morocco.

This time, the federation got it right.

“There is a strong desire by Fifa and most people to have the World Cup come to the United States,” Fricker said at the time. “A lot of people see the United States as a white spot on the map of soccer in the world … They [Fifa] would very much like to see development in soccer in the United States and to see it grow in a very big way.”

Despite facing financial problems, Brazil was considered the favorite. Even a hopeful and optimistic Fricker admitted Brazil had a lot going for it. “It would appear to me if I looked at it: ‘My God, Brazil has to be the country from a soccer sense. They’re done it before,’ “ he said.

Instead of a frivolous application, World Cup USA 1994 handed in a 381-page document that cost $500,000 to compile. “Phone books”, Fricker liked to say.

Those phone books encompassed a multitude of documents of federal government guarantees, including the government allowing players, coaches and representatives of countries such as Iran and Iraq to obtain visas for the tournament, a selection of 18 potential stadiums, transportation system (road, train and plane routes and naps), tickets and media and marketing.

Toye was privy to both the 1986 and 1994 bids.

“The big thing this time is manners, superb, minute detail, which Fifa wants,” he said at the time. “It’s thicker than Tolstoy’s War and Peace and will put you to sleep a lot faster. It’s been approached with greater dignity than arrogance. The US made itself contenders by the professionalism and dignity of its approach.”

Over the ensuing months, World Cup USA and the federation would be in constant communication with Fifa, making sure every I was dotted and every T was crossed.

Originally, the day of decision was set for June 30. But Fifa on March 3 changed it to July 4, Independence Day, making some observers claim the USA was a shoo-in because it was on the 212th aniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

The Americans were hardly a shoo-in, though. While its bid was solid, there were a number of concerns. There was a question of whether grass could be placed over the artificial turf football fields of proposed stadiums, which included the Pontiac Silverdome and Giants Stadium. There was no strong national pro league. And there was the question whether the USSF could find a TV network to originate a strong signal for not only the games in the States, but for the rest of the world.

With all that in mind, the US, Brazil and Morocco had one last meeting with the Fifa Executive Committee at the Movenpick Hotel in Zurich, Switzerland the morning of July 4 1988 and this is how it all went down:

9am The committee began its session in the Regulus Room. The committee held a draw to determine the order of the final presentations. Three egg shells were placed in an oversized brandy sifter. The order: Brazil, Morocco and the United States.

The committee also outlined the procedure it would follow the next four hours. “We struck fairly rigidly to it,” says Fifa senior vice-president Harry Cavan, who chaired the meeting. FIFA president Dr Joao Havelange, a Brazilian, did not chair, so there would be no conflict of interest.

The committee received a report from the technical committee and took a break to read it.

10am The Brazilian delegation, including Brazilian Football Confederation president Octavio Pinto Guimares and confederation administrator Moacir Peralta, gave its presentation. Each delegation was limited to 30 minutes. Cavan later said: “We had quite a bit of emotion collectively from all three, least of all from the United States.”

The US delegation, Cavan added, was “very level voiced, very quietly put and very effectively put.”

10.40am The Moroccan delegation, including minister of sport Abdellatif Semlali, met with the committee. Semlali said that he urged Fifa to continue helping soccer in developing countries. “I tried to prove that the United States does not need such competitions,” he said. “They have so many already.”

11.25am The US delegation was called in and gave a 22-minute presentation, including a two-minute speech on videotape by President Reagan. The five men who met with the committee were Fricker, Edwards, World Cup USA 1994 director Paul Stiehl, World Cup USA 1994 counsel Scott LeTellier and Rey Post of Eddie Mahe Jr and Associates, which prepared the bid.

“It was exactly, give or take a minute, how long we thought the presentation would be,” Stiehl said. “We didn’t want to make it so long that it would have bored everybody to death. At the same time, we couldn’t cut it too short.”

We were all very satisfied. I think we were able to optimistically read some of the faces.”

1.05pm The delegation heads were called into the executive committee meeting, and were told the news. Fricker, showing no emotion, walked back to the US room, where he slammed the door. “He’s stone-faced,” Stiehl said. “He’s very good at that.”

Fricker put his right thumb up to signify victory (one observer said that Fricker had such a sour look on his face it was as though Fifa told him: “Not only will the US not host this World Cup, it’ll never stage one at all”).

Several minutes later, the Brazilian and Moroccan delegations walked over to the US room to congratulate the Americans.

1.21pm Before about 100 members of the international media, Havelange let Cavan make the historic announcement.

“After very careful and very responsible consideration of all the information that has been brought to us today,” Cavan said, “the executive committee of Fifa has, in a very democratic way, arrived at a conclusion that I am happy to announce on behalf of the president of Fifa, the executive committee of Fifa, the following results.”

It was a card vote, a secret vote. It resulted as follows: Brazil two, Morocco seven, the United States 10.

Cheers emanated from the audience.

Cavan continued: “I declare on behalf of Fifa that the host country for the 1994 World Cup will be: the United States of America.”

Cavan, who chaired the executive committee meeting, tried to measure the World Cup’s impact on soccer in the US.

“I think obviously it will have a tremendous development exercise on United States football,” he said.

“I noticed this morning, if I am allowed to repeat something, I noticed the delegation of the United States the word football. I was quite happy about that because I have for years been trying to get them to do it.”

While Morocco presented an excellent bid, it had only two world-class stadiums, 10 short of the FIFA requirements.

“In the opinion of the executive committee, perhaps it was wiser to accept the infrastructure that was existing than the ones that were planned,” said FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who was then general secretary. “Also consider … that the World Cup is not a development program for the basic infrastructure of a country.”

Several hours later, several members of the US delegation gathered together in the lobby of the Zurich Hilton. Champagne was passed around, and Fricker lifted his glass in a toast.

“It was very nice to work with a wonderful group of people and thanks for all your support from the people back home,” he said.

There was plenty of work to be done.

“We now have the timetable set for us,” he said. “We do not have the privilege to say, ‘We’ll do it someday.’ We must do it now.”