The World Cup 2030 will be one of the most special events in soccer history. Thanks to the 100th anniversary of the FIFA tournament, many countries are ready to become host nations. Many factors will be taken into consideration. Joint bids, confederations, tradition, stadiums, tourism and all type of infraestructure to guarantee a competition format which should be ofat least 48 participants.
According to FIFA’s geographical rotation to allocate the World Cup, South America (CONMEBOL) and Africa (CAF) would have the lead to organizethe tournament. That’s because North America (CONCACAF) is host for 2026, Asia (AFC) was in 2022 with Qatar and UEFA did it at Russia in 2018.
However, the race to host the World Cup 2030 is widely open. In a historic move, many countries are forming alliances to present stronger bids trying to convince FIFA that revenue could be above tradition. Now, in a shocking turn of events, there’s a major change in one of the candidacies.
World Cup 2030: Morocco could replace Ukraine in potential host bid
Even though that project had been in theworkssince 2017, the joint bid from South America was officially announced on February 7th of 2023: Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Paraguay. It’s important to remember that this candidacy advocates for history and tradition as Uruguay was the first host of the World Cup exactly a 100 years prior to 2030. By the way, Bolivia could also be included in the proposal.
Furthermore, in the last few weeks, a recent possible joint bid is gaining thousands of followers worldwide: Egypt, Greece and Saudi Arabia. This last country is a major factor thanks to economic power. That’s why, to no suprise, they’re in a massive effort to sign superstars to their league such as Cristiano Ronaldo.
However, the big question mark is definitely Morocco. Many experts believed the African country would go alone to bring the World Cup back to Africa. Only once in history that continent has been host (South Africa 2010). After losing the 2026 race with the United States, Mexico and Canda, Morocco wants a new chance and that’s why it has started to organize many important tournaments such as the FIFA Club World Cup.
The fourth option was a joint bid between Spain, Portugal and Ukraine. Initially, it was only a proposal of the first two, but, as an emotional boost, Ukraine was included to honor and recognize their resistance during the war. The problem is that the president of the Ukrainian Football Association,Andriy Pavelko, has been suspended in his country for possible corruption in the construction of stadiums. That ruling intervention at court by the local government in soccer matters is hugely penalized by FIFA and could be a turning point.
What will happen then with Spain and Portugal? Their Plan B could be to talk to Morocco about a new joint bid. Of course, this would have the advantage that the three countries are really close to each other regarding logistics. If we add the cultural aspect of an African-European united project, that could be huge to beat South America.