The 2030 World Cup is to be played on three continents after Morocco, Portugal and Spain won the race to host the 48-team tournament but Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay were gifted the opening three matches.
The decision is likely to catch even seasoned Fifa watchers by surprise. World Cup 2030 will involve teams playing in six countries, each of which will qualify automatically. The tournament has never been played on more than one continent.
The decision was made at a virtual meeting of the Fifa council on Wednesday . It will need to be confirmed in a vote taken by all 211 Fifa members in the final months of next year.
The news follows months of speculation over the likely destination of the tournament and political jostling between continental confederations over who earns the right to play host.
The Morocco, Spain and Portugal bid is a collaboration between Uefa and the African federation, Caf, and was considering including Ukraine as a host, a gesture of solidarity in the face of the ongoing conflict. It is understood that the Ukraine component was not part of the final bid. Rival bids had been expected from South America, where Uruguay and Argentina, alongside Chile and Paraguay, had been expected to team up, and another cross-continental bid that would have paired Greece with Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Fifa is committed to rotating World Cups between confederations and although the Uefa/Caf bid was the favourite for 2030, Conmebol – the South American confederation – has not hosted a World Cup since 2014 and was looking to commemorate the centenary of the first World Cup, held in Uruguay in 1930.
As a result of the decision taken on Wednesday, the 2034 World Cup will be staged in a host country (or countries) represented by the Asian or Oceania confederations. Effectively this means a Saudi Arabian bid is almost inevitable, with the disruptive Gulf nation likely favourites to win. However it is anticipated that Australia will bid, perhaps alongside Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country. There may also be interest from China, which once set its sights on hosting the World Cup by 2030.
“In a divided world, Fifa and football are uniting,” said Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino. “The Fifa council, representing the entire world of football, unanimously agreed to celebrate the centenary of the Fifa World Cup, whose first edition was played in Uruguay in 1930, in the most appropriate way. As a result, a celebration will take place in South America and three South American countries – Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay – will organise one match each of the Fifa World Cup 2030. The first of these three matches will of course be played at the stadium where it all began, in Montevideo’s mythical Estádio Centenário, precisely to celebrate the centenary edition of the Fifa World Cup.”
Infantino described the Morocco, Portugal and Spain bid as “a great message of peace, tolerance and inclusion”.
