ABSTRACT On 20 May 1983, the FIFA Executive Committee convened at the Sheraton Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden. The last item on its agenda was to determine a host country for the 1986 World Cup. Following presentations by the three final candidates – Canada, Mexico, and the United States – the meeting culminated in what many considered to be a foregone conclusion: the selection of Mexico as host. This paper reconstructs the American bid, from its promising start to its disappointing end. In doing so, it focuses on how American officials sought to influence the game’s foremost decision-makers through a combination of economic attractiveness and diplomatic pressure. It also uses the bid to elucidate the tenuous and often tense relationship between officials in the United States and Zurich, while highlighting the broader decline of American soccer during the 1980s.

中文翻译：

---

竞标被拒绝：美国申请主办1986年世界杯

摘要1983年5月20日，国际足联执行委员会在瑞典斯德哥尔摩的喜来登酒店召开会议。议程上的最后一项是确定1986年世界杯的主办国。在加拿大，墨西哥和美国这三个最终候选人的演讲之后，会议最终得出了许多人认为已成定局的结论：选择墨西哥作为东道国。本文从有希望的开端到令人失望的结尾重构了美国的出价。在此过程中，它着眼于美国官员如何通过经济吸引力和外交压力相结合来影响游戏最重要的决策者。它还使用出价来阐明美国官员与苏黎世官员之间的脆弱关系，而且这种关系通常很紧张，