Yep, sole bidder. Morocco awards $320m build contract for Casablanca showpiece stadium: https://www.insideworldfootball.com...-build-contract-casablanca-showpiece-stadium/
A Spanish venue bites the dust: Malaga city mayor announces his city will not host 2030 WC. He claimed its main city club has 26K season ticket holders, who would be affected by moving to a smaller venue (~12.5K) while its main stadium (~30K) is renovated for 2030 WC. Its stadium renovation cost is budgeted at EUR 270M, another reason why that cash-strapped city gov't could not deliver 2030 WC venue. Actual context: starting July 2025, Malaga city gov't rents its 12.5K-venue to a 3rd-div club which relocated from Murcia. As result, Malaga CF (2nd div club) would get bumped off the smaller venue when match dates overlapped. https://www-rtve-es.translate.goog/...=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
It's interesting It's interesting, that Málaga is doing what they think is better for their community and the local club. In my opinion it's better than spend lots of money into a stadium just to have 4-5 World Cup matches. I have read something similar from San Sebastian, that they also reject to host World Cup matches due to a high amount to invest.
It won't happen. UEFA has acquired enough soft power over the years from its support - both financially and in transferring expertise - to other confederations and national associations to count on their support against this "bad idea" (quote from the UEFA president).
It may not happen now but the negotiation is on the table. Let's just say this can be a bargaining chip for getting rid of the Club World Cup every two years idea being thrown around.
It would end my interest in the WC which has already been diminished by the dilution caused by the increase to 48 teams and the unprecedented length of 5.5 weeks. Already the quality of the group stage next year will be poorer with significantly more African and Asian teams , this would compound that and would extend it to at least 6 weeks.
Just start watching at the Round of 32 if it waters it down too much. That is what I did for Champions League and Libertadores. Do not need to abandon the tournament all together just cause of expansion.
I would wait and see what we see before commenting like that on quality. You have no idea what a 48 team tournament will look like at this stage, apart from making it harder to keep up with all games. With every other tournament that has expanded in recent times I've thought the same as you but have been pleasantly surprised that we still see plenty of good games with the newer teams being reasonably competitive. I don't really like the best 3rd placed teams advancing concept that we have with 48 and I think we need to wait a bit before expanding further (if we ever do). I think I am as concerned as you if we make the finals tournament too big with the length that it takes and the load on the players.
I tend to agree. I thought the recent expanded WWC would suffer from too many blowouts in the group stage. I was quite happy to be wrong about that and enjoyed more games than expected to.
It is not just being a bloated tournament but it makes the qualifying a joke. Presumably with 64 teams then all the South American countries, even Venezuela, would qualify.
Africa has only hosted a World Cup final once back in 2010, in 2030 it'll be 20 years past that, might be decades before the chance comes again, Europe has hosted 10 World Cups, and will probably host it more than once before it ever circles back to Africa, the fact that some football fans would consider others getting what's right for them as buying it, I find it unfair... Speaking of not being fair, as a Spanish football fan I wonder why Madrid stadium is even nominated over Barcelona's, the latter will have 25K seats more and it belongs to a historic club as well, so should we question if Real Madrid is doing some questionable under the table stuff with FIFA? anyways... Morocco's brand new HASSAN II stadium will hold 115K seats, it is under construction and it will be a football infrastructure of last generation, people can argue about the size but it’s not just about size, they're building a whole ecosystem around it, a high-speed rail line linking cities of Tangier, Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakech, and the stadium and the Airport near it, and unlike Santiago Bernabéu's area which suffers form traffic and parking problems along with immitted cars access, the area where the nominated Moroccan stadium is being built, is designed especially for the final, with transportation, spaces, facilities, and everything that FIFA wants, Spanish big clubs can use their weigh to press FIFA all they want but it will not change the fact that Shakira once said "This Time for Africa" SOURCE
So you think that more African & Asian teams are going to lower the quality of the world cup but not more of Concacaf teams & the Oceanian teams? at least most African teams have based in Europe players, in Africa there are 10 teams considered of similar football level and that's why you don't see the same teams qualify for each edition in the past decades, in Asia there are only about 5 teams and they are the same that always qualify, in North America you got only 3, well 4 if you add Canada, But in general yeah I agree with you on fans will not care to watch the whole world cup on TV anymore, maybe starting for the knockout phase... And As far as ruining the qualifiers goes, they are already ruined for me, this year I have not watched a single CONMEBOL game and I used to stay up at nigh for them, FIFA weeks used to work as a football festival for me, I'd watch the African & Asian qualifiers along with the game of USA vs Mexico, but this time I only watched my national team matches, and would just watch highlights for some matches, because qualifiers are so boring now, so many spots available, the true value of things comes in its rarity, with that being said... while the world cup with 64 teams is sure a bad idea, with 48 teams is even a terrible one, 3rd place teams should be sacking their coaches not consider themselves have made it to the playoffs, so yeah I prefer 64 over 48, but 32 is the best but I still would not want going back to it unless UEFA would agree to give up 3 of their 13 spots, and give one each for Africa Asia & Concacaf, cancel the two playoffs spots, give full seat to CONMEBOL and full seat to Oceania, yes Europe are the best at football but the gap is not as big as it was in 1998 where they first split the cake, here I am dreaming about going back to 32 teams even though I know FIFA doesn't care anymore about quality of the game.
Regarding the issue of increasing the number of spots for peripheral regions, I believe that would have been better implemented back in the 1970s, for example. I think it was a mistake by Havelange and FIFA not to grant a direct spot to the OFC. I’m certain that the possibility for Australia and to a lesser extent New Zealand, to qualify consistently for the World Cup during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s could have made football grow much faster in those countries, especially in Australia, with the sport gaining continuous and gradual media exposure through consecutive World Cup appearances.
Yes, for the development of football in Oceania they should have been given an automatic qualifying place to deter Australia from leaving. The European Qualifiers remain interesting with the smaller groups featuring fewer games played over a shorter period; already some major teams face crucial games this month. UEFA had 14 places - including hosts France - at the first 32-team edition in 1998, but this was already reduced to 13 by the 2010 edition despite the final week of the 2006 edition featuring all UEFA semifinals. No reason has been presented by Conmebol so far to justify such a significant expansion to 64 teams, other than, "not to leave anyone out of the centennial party." It's ridiculous!
Wouldn't this be something There’s a rumor that Japan, frustrated with Middle Eastern money and corruption in the AFC, might leave and form a new East Asian federation. 🇯🇵🇰🇷🇨🇳🇰🇵 and possibly 🇮🇩🇻🇳🇹🇭🇸🇬 — if that happens, it could become an incredibly powerful alliance. Interesting rumor 👀😳 https://t.co/g1UeDJFEvS— Japan Football News (@9aHcp7QTmc65091) October 17, 2025
I read an article the other day which said that only the hosts of the opening three centenary celebration games - Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay - what to expand the 2030 WC and that no other Conmebol member has yet supported the idea.
As much anything it will make the tournament so difficult to follow. In the past you can with effort watch 35-40 games and see every team at least once. Thus missing around 25 games. This time if that is the case and say make it 50 games you can see then you miss 54.
For me as most games are normally in the middle of the night I rarely watch group games in full, limiting myself to the matches my own nation plays and maybe one or two others. It's not until it gets serious that I watch all games. I do try and watch highlite packages of all games and now that I'm retired I have plenty of time in the day to do that.