The approval by the FIFA Council of the single candidacy of Morocco, Portugal and Spain, together with the dispute of three opening matches in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay, to host the 2030 World Cup means that for the first time the event will be held. compete on three continents.
The president of the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL), Alejandro Domínguez, announced this Wednesday that Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay will host the opening matches of the 2030 World Cup, when the centenary of this event will be celebrated.
“We believed in Big. The 2030 Centennial World Cup begins where it all began. “Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay will host the opening matches of the #MundialCentenario”he wrote on his account on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
In a later press conference, Domínguez announced that the tournament will begin in South America.
“There will be a time before the game where we will be celebrating the anniversary both in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay. There are going to be three inaugurations, they are not just three games, there are three inaugurations that are going to be held in these venues, in these countries, and also all the previous celebrations,” he added.
The leader, who thanked the full FIFA council for accepting the South American proposal, highlighted that he announced it as a “historical fact” and indicated that football “united three continents” and “united six countries.”
The fact that the tournament is going to start at the Centenario stadium in Montevideo, along with the matches in Argentina and Paraguay, represents a return to the origins and the commemoration of the Centenary of the World Cup, whose first edition began to be played on the 13th. July 1930.
South America, therefore, will host World Cup matches for the sixth time after the editions of Uruguay 1930, Brazil 1950 and 2014, Chile 1962 and Argentina 1978. Spain will host the tournament for the second time after 1982 and Morocco and Portugal will debut.
The joint candidacy of Spain, Portugal and Morocco is the only one to organize the 2030 World Cup, which will host the celebration of the competition’s centenary in Montevideo, a match in Argentina and another in Paraguay, countries that were part of the other project to host the event.
FIFA confirmed this Wednesday this decision adopted unanimously in the videoconference meeting of its Council, “after extensive consultations with all confederations and given the importance of commemorating the centenary of the FIFA World Cup”, which was held in Uruguay in 1930.
Spain, Portugal and Morocco will qualify directly for the competition, whose candidacy as organizer must be ratified by the 2024 FIFA Congress, which launched an invitation to the associations of Asia (AFC) and Oceania to present bids for the 2034 World Cup.
FIFA highlighted that “in 2030, the World Cup will unite three continents and six countries, inviting the entire world to join in the celebration of the beautiful game, the Centennial and the World Cup itself.”
After the announcement, the president of the organization, Gianni Infantino, assured that “in a divided world, FIFA and football are coming together” and noted that “the FIFA Council, representing the entire world of football, unanimously agreed to celebrate the centenary of the World Cup, the first edition of which was played in Uruguay in 1930, in the most appropriate way.”
South Africa 2010 has been the only edition in which Africa has hosted the tournament, which will return to Europe twelve years after Russia 2018.
The one in 2030 will, on the other hand, be the third time that the competition will be played in more than one country, after the precedents of South Korea and Japan 2002 and the one that will be played in 2026 in Canada, the United States and Mexico.
Soccer World Cup venues:
- 1930 Uruguay
- 1934 Italy
- 1938 France
- 1950 Brazil
- 1954 Switzerland
- 1958 Sweden
- 1962 Chile
- 1966 England
- 1970 Mexico
- 1974 West Germany
- 1978 Argentina
- 1982 Spain
- 1986 Mexico
- 1990 Italy
- 1994 United States
- 1998 France
- 2002 South Korea and Japan
- 2006 Germany
- 2010 South Africa
- 2014 Brazil
- 2018 Russia
- 2022 Qatar
- 2026 Canada, United States and Mexico
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