World Cup 2030, a certainty and many doubts
“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.