The World Cup 2030 will be a historic moment thanks to the 100th anniversary of the FIFA tournament. The decision to pick a host nation is really and many factors will be taken into consideration.
If we go with FIFA’s geographical rotation to allocate the World Cup, South America (CONMEBOL) and Africa (CAF) would have a decisive advantage to organize the event. 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.
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However, at this moment, the race to host the World Cup in seven years is totally open. Many countries like Spain, Portugal or Argentina are forming massive alliances trying to convince FIFA. Saudi Arabia was supposed to be one of them.
World Cup 2030: Why Saudi Arabia will not be host of the tournament?
In the last few weeks, a possible joint bid was gaining thousands of followers worldwide: Egypt, Greece and Saudi Arabia. This last country appeared as a major factor thanks to economic power. Their massive effort included signing superstars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema.
However, according to many reports, Saudi Arabia has officially informed the other countries in the bid, Egypt and Greece, that they’re out of the race to host the World Cup.
Of course, Lionel Messi could have been a key factor in the decision. He had an offer of more than $600 million to play in Saudi Arabia. That splash would have given a major boost to the nation with every star in the Saudi Pro League. Nevertheless, all those hopes derailed thanks to Inter Miami.
Furthermore, Saudi Arabia would have admitted other proposals are much stronger as time is a factor to play against and definitely 2034 seems more reasonable.
World Cup 2030: Which are the candidates to host?
On February 7th of 2023, the joint bid from South America was officially announced: 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.
Right now, the big question is definitely Morocco. Many experts believed the African country would go alone to bring the World Cup back to that continent (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.
Following Saudi Arabia’s announcement, Morocco could opt to join the candidacy of Spain and Portugal. Initially, it was only a bid 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.
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That ruling intervention at court by the local government in soccer matters is hugely penalized by FIFA and could be a turning point. With that and the war, Ukraine is almost out leaving the door open for Morocco.
