“In a divided world, FIFA and football unite”. With this message, Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, confirmed the candidacy of Spain, Portugal and Morocco as the only project to celebrate the 2030 World Cup. Although it is assumed that the final will be at the Santiago Bernabéu (the excellent relationship between Real Madrid and FIFA helps a lot and it is really difficult to think of a different scenario) and that the semifinals will be distributed, a priori, between Portugal and Morocco, the truth is that, beyond what was announced on Wednesday by the governing body of world football, there is no official certainty.

At least in front of the gallery, far from establishing a united front, as Infantino requested, the three federations (Spanish, Moroccan and Portuguese) now seem to be bidding to host the most important matches in their territory.. “We hope to experience an extraordinary final that honors the continent and the young generations in a stadium in Casablanca that will be wonderful”. This is what the president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, Faouzi Kekjaa, requested this Thursday for the last match of the World Cup, on a radio in his country. And it stated that its six venues (Agadir, Marrakech, Casablanca, Rabat, Tangier and Fez) “will not only meet the demands of FIFA, but will also enjoy cultural diversity and geographical richness.”

For their part, the mayor of Madrid and the president of the Community were already celebrating that the final will be held in the capital. “Today we wake up with good news for Madrid, that the 2030 World Cup final will have our region, our capital, as the stage, the Santiago Bernabéu,” said Isabel Díaz Ayuso. While the president of Andalusia, Juanma Moreno, hoped that his Community would have “an important role” in the 2030 World Cup.

Morocco and Spain thus claimed their share of prominence in a candidacy that will have around 14 and 16 stadiums to host 104 matches of 48 teams.. There will be 12 groups of four teams, of which the first two will qualify directly and the 8 best third parties will qualify for the round of 32.. Portugal, for its part, has declined to talk about the number of venues it will present for the organization of the World Cup, although it is betting on Alvalade and Da Luz, in Lisbon, and Do Dragao, in Porto.

Conditions

FIFA's conditions to host the World Cup are multiple. The minimum capacity is 40,000 people and there must be seven stadiums built at the time of the election.. Meanwhile, the fields for the opening match and the final must have a capacity of at least 80,000 spectators, and the semi-finals must have a capacity of 60,000.. But FIFA not only requires capacity. It also requires infrastructure (an airport less than 40 kilometers away, a minimum of three five-star hotels, at least 5,000 parking spaces as well as ample space to install communications and security services, among others) to be completed a year in advance, that is, in 2029.

FIFA will also demand in the coming months and years at least 72 possible training and concentration places for those 48 teams.. The fact that the first three games of the tournament will be played in South America a week before the start of the tournament has caused Spain, which had between 11 and 12 venues, to be left with between 8 and 9, according to sources from the Spanish Federation. Fixed stadiums are Bernabéu, Metropolitano, Camp Nou, La Cartuja and one of the Basque stadiums, Anoeta or San Mamés.. From there, the rest must fight to be one of the chosen ones..

The management of all this, the selection process, the final election, will not be the responsibility of the Organizing Committee as was usual.. It will be FIFA itself, through a society created for this purpose, that will decide everything, as already happened in the Qatar World Cup.. If the official confirmation of this candidacy election will not take place until December 2024, the number of matches in each host and the exact number and name of the venues in each country will not be known until 2026.

South America

At the moment, those three matches that will be played in the countries that aspired, in another candidacy, to host the 2030 World Cup have been confirmed.. Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina will have those duels to honor the centenary of the World Cup while Chile, the last country to join the South American candidacy, has been left out. “It is a decision that is made by FIFA, not us,” the president of Conmebol, Alejandro Domínguez, discharged himself of responsibility. To which the Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, regretted that “there are institutions that function in an unserious and surprising manner.” Maybe football has not united everything that Infantino wanted.

The German derby on Thursday, on the first day of the Euroleague at the BMW Park, spoke Spanish. Pablo Laso won the game with his Bayern against Israel González's Alba. “We have Hispanicized German basketball,” celebrates the Cantabrian, heir in Berlin of Aíto García Reneses, who recounts: “Pedro Calles (EWE Oldenburg), Jesús Ramírez (Löwen Braunschweig), until recently Diego Ocampo (Skyliners Frankfurt)… “We are very well regarded here.”. And not only there: the top continental competition starts with six Spanish coaches (out of 18) on their benches, something never seen before.

Because the two German teams are joined by the four national teams, no foreign coach in Real Madrid (Chus Mateo), Barcelona (Roger Grimau replaces Sarunas Jasikevicius), Baskonia (Joan Peñarroya) and Valencia (Alex Mumbrú). Xavi Pascual could be on that list, who is still in charge of the Russian Zenit, expelled from the Euroleague. Or Joan Plaza, in the legendary AEK in Athens. In the Endesa League, it is close to full, 16 out of 18, in contrast to the number of Spanish players, which does not reach 30% one more year. Only Veljko Mrsic (Breogán) and Jaka Lakovic (Gran Canaria) break the norm, both former ACB players. The conclusion seems obvious: “There is a Spain seal on the benches.”

It is pronounced by Juan María Gavaldá, president of the AEEB (Spanish Association of Basketball Coaches), who reasons the reasons – “Ingenuity, talent and method” – and vindicates the training: “There is an enormous self-demand that begins with the Higher Course of Coaches, which is the highest level in Europe and the World.”

Peñarroya, with Baskonia. ADRIAN RUIZ HIERRO EFE

Like the Balkans years ago, Spain is now a technical export machine. Not only at the first level. There are more than 400 spread around the world, in places as remote as Costa Rica or China.. “We have dared to take the leap outside, maybe that happened less before,” admits Israel González. One of those pioneers in packing his bags was Piti Hurtado. In 2013 he became the first Spanish coach in the Japanese league (Levanga Hokkaido), two years later he also coached in Venezuela. “The dominance of the 80's generation took a few of us abroad, but what is happening now has to do with the last 10 years, with a less technically gifted generation,” reasons the Movistar commentator who mentions Sergio Scariolo, “the epitome”. “He is the shuttle of all this, the hand that rocks the cradle. Many countries hire Spanish coaches because they have been won by Spain,” adds Gavaldá. “The successes of the national team help us to be promoted, as well as the level of the ACB, which is very high,” adds González.

Because there is a common style that is more a way of understanding basketball. “Jordi Fernández has put that seal on an NBA team like Canada, order against individualism, until he led it to win a medal in the last World Cup,” highlights Gavaldá about another clear example of the courage of the Spanish coach: “Jordi is the example. “He went as a young man with a suitcase to a Campus in Las Vegas and is about to become the first Spanish coach in the NBA.”

Alex Mumbrú, during a recent Valencia match. Álvaro Carbrera EFE

“The fact that there are six Spaniards in the Euroleague is a consequence of the very broad tactical control that the representatives of the Spanish school have exercised, not leaving any loose ends, having everything quite tied up and, above all, the ability of the small schools to insist on the pass, to find the best option. We are not great scorers, but we are players in all positions who know where to put the ball. There are very few selfish players and that is a product of how basketball is taught in our country,” explains Hurtado, who talks about the method, the “playbook” against individualism, of “sublimating intelligence due to the lower physical capacity we have.” always had.”

Grimau, with Barça. SERGIO PEREZ EFE

But, to understand this phenomenon you have to look deep down, at grassroots basketball, the key to so many things.. “I never cease to be surprised by the people below, anonymous people who do a priceless job.”. Educating and growing basketball, you 'freak out' with the content and tactical and technical wisdom. People who then have their jobs, some of them at a high level, lawyers, professors, who do it in their free time.. “They are the key, hand in hand with the clubs and the Territorial Federations,” explains the president of the AEEB, who fights for all of them to have labor recognition and for their training to be recognized when they leave the country.

Behind Spain, and far away, some of the countries that tyrannized the benches. Serbia, Greece, Italy and Turkey each have two coaches in the Euroleague. In the Endesa League, the best on the continent, it is a common phenomenon of recent times. In the 14/15 season all 18 teams started with Spanish coaches and in the 18/19 season they were all except Svetislav Pesic at Barça.

Real Betis came back (2-1) this Thursday against Sparta Prague on the second day of the Europa League in Group C with the four teams tied on three points, a vital victory that was served by Isco Alarcón, with a header and which striker in the 79th minute.

The brain of the Andalusian team this season was also the stiletto that gave the first European points to Manuel Pellegrini's team. In the heat, literal and metaphorical, of Benito Villamarín, Isco was the thermometer of a Betis that improved in the second half after suffering in the first with a 1-1 at halftime.

The Czech champion took the lead after three minutes with Veljko Birmancevic's goal that caught a boxed defense off guard once again in the absence of pure center backs.. The play in just three touches after a throw-in showed the dangers of a Sparta that gave away the tie shortly after with a serious error by its goalkeeper.

Peter Vindahl went for grapes and Assane Diao scored for the third game in a row. However, Betis continued at the mercy of the rival, without the ball to create or look for their men up front, Abde missing, and with a lot of arrival from the Czechs. Isco appeared before the break and in stoppage time Betis forgave the counterattack.

At the restart, the local team came out with the clear idea of pressing higher and being the protagonist. Isco led the locals with the first approaches, a direct free kick and a long shot, and the changes ended up giving Pellegrini's team control. Abner and Guardado gave the game on the wings that the rival had had and Aitor Ruibal had the clearest shot 20 minutes from the end, in the best moment of a Betis whose aim was failing.

Then, Isco read the gap to come from the second line and head a good cross from Guido into the net.. The former Real Madrid player, from Sevilla last year, gave a well-chased victory to a Betis team that tasted European victory on the second occasion. In the other game in Group C, Aris surprised Rangers (2-1), leaving the four teams with three points.

The director of the Spanish men's team, Albert Luque, traveled to Ibiza last August to try to convince Jenni Hermoso to declare in favor of Luis Rubiales. After the refusal of the player to assist him, who at that time was one of the people most trusted by the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), a series of messages were exchanged with a close friend of the player whom he had asked for help for the meeting.

In these WhatsApp messages, to which EL MUNDO has had exclusive access, Luque took the opportunity to harshly criticize the “unfair” attitude that Hermoso was having, going so far as to disapprove of his “human baseness” or his “little empathy and humanity” and He told him that life would end up punishing him and “giving him what he deserves.”

It is worth remembering that this director of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) is currently being charged by the National Court for an alleged crime of coercing the player for trying to get her to say publicly that the kiss that the former president of the club had given her Spanish football after the final of the Women's World Cup was consented. “It seems so unfair, so unfair, what is being done to Luis (Rubiales). Jenni's attitude seems so humanly base to me…. So little empathy and humanity,” Luque explained to Hermoso's friend.

He begged for “a simple gesture” from the soccer player to “take away” Rubiales the “biggest brown of his life”. Especially when, he added, Hermoso “knows that there is zero bad faith” on the part of the former head of the RFEF.. Along these same lines, Luque took the opportunity to recriminate the attitude of the world champion, whom he attributed for having “jumped on the bandwagon of killing” Rubiales.. But she also reprimanded her friend herself, with whom she had a wonderful relationship, for having previously told her that the player “was not going to comment” on the kiss.. Something she finally did when she reported that she was forced by Rubiales.

Luque felt betrayed because what he had been promised was not fulfilled and he insisted on getting the meeting.. “Not receiving the sports director of the RFEF and friend for two minutes?” he reiterated.

“I only wish that life gives you back what you are making a person pay unjustly,” Luque said in one of his messages.. To immediately add: “He doesn't deserve anything because of the little humanity he has…. Each one gives him what he deserves over time -sic-“.

Albert Luque.

The friend immediately apologized to Luque: “Jenni's agency was in charge of issuing the statement. My role here was to maintain Jenni's peace of mind during a few days of rest that she had to enjoy after everything she had experienced and achieved.”

“I'm sorry if the result is not what you would have liked, but this has gotten so far away that it is out of my hands personally.”. At the same time he “thanked” Luque for his “sincerity.”

The director of the national team responded by wishing the intermediary “the best” and emphasizing that the statement that Hermoso had made against Rubiales denoted the “coldness and lowest humanity” that he had ever seen.. «She is in a very difficult situation, as a friend you have to understand her. “I didn't tell you that he wasn't going to speak out, I told you that his agency was going to take care of this,” he clarified.

“I explained to you that she didn't see you because she was very affected by everything and the pressure she has on her and that I didn't want it to affect your friendship.”. “I'm surprised by your words about wishing Jenni ill when you told me that you have been friends for so long and that you didn't take a stand on either of them.”

Luque was initially summoned as a witness by the judge of the National Court Francisco de Jorge, but the instructor agreed to change his status to investigated.. The director of the men's team is scheduled to meet next October 10 with the head of Marketing of the RFEF, Rubén Rivera, who also went to the venue for the players' celebration with the same objective.. The situation of Luque and Rivera changed after the statements of Hermoso's brother and a friend, who accused them of coercion.