2030 FIFA World Cup: News & Analysis

I don't find the new UEFA format elitist at all, because not only does the top league consist of a lot of teams, but any team can play their way into the top 36 with a few good results. Its not like the FIFA rankings that take 6-8 years of good/mediocre results to move into a higher/lower tier (ahem Belgium). (I don't recall the C'CAF format proposed, but since they like to do things the dumbest way possible, I assume it placed teams in tiers based on FIFA rankings)

And, as you suggested, while details are still pending, league B teams' path to qualify may not be any tougher than the weaker teams in league A.

 

Portugal has 3 stadiums but only 2 cities hosting, right? So, yeah, 15 sounds about right. About 6 in Porto and 9 in Lisbon.

 

It is interesting to see an article that states the political machinations that could see the final in Morocco. It was bizarre that Morocco was added to the bid in the first place.

Spain should simply threaten to withdraw if they do not have the final. Consult with UEFA and put on an alternative European competition inviting others to join. A World Cup without Europe is pointless. The TV contracts would presumably also be void. FIFA is beyond it's useful life and needs to be replaced. Time for the Schism! Probably wishful thinking but you never know.

 

In 2018, the Spanish prime minister visited Morocco, and offered his Moroccan counterpart the possibility of submitting a joint application from both countries as well as Portugal to host the 2030 World Cup (SOURCE HERE). Now I wouldn't say that Morocco joined Spain & Portugal's Bid because there was no such thing as Spain & Portugal's Bid to begin with, it was only intentions, as Morocco too had their own intentions to make their own standalone Bid after they lost 2026 Bid. It just that the European media is strong that they can make up things and people will believe, just like how some people already think that the Final location is already decided for Madrid because the sources are Spanish media. But at the end reality is reality.

Now why would Spain and Portugal would want to partner with Morocco? well maybe they want to tighten their relations. But I can also argue that they had concerns that they can lose the Bid to Morocco, because the decisions for who gets to host is no longer up to FIFA committee any more, and that's because 2015 FIFA scandals showed that Morocco had won the 2010 Bid but FIFA still awarded it to South Africa (SOURCE HERE). The new process requires voting from all 211 federations (FIFA members), and whichever Bid gets the most votes will win. The voting would go according to the number of candidates, and since we would have had 3 Bids (ESP & POR - CONMEBOL - MAR), we will have two rounds, in round 1 the 3rd placer will get eliminated so the federations will vote again for the winner in round 2.

Now because Football associations will most likely agree to give all votes to the Bid of their continent, it is safe to say that CONMEBOL had no chance therefore they will be the ones to get eliminated in 1st round, (perhaps they are the main reason why we have such a mess of hosts in 2030 because they knew they had zero chances against the TRIO so asked FIFA to gave them one match each instead of getting nothing). Now back to the assumption that if "ESP & POR" were up against "MAR". In 2nd round all UEFA votes and most LAT-AM votes will go to "ES & PO", and all CAF votes and all Arab votes from Asia will go to "MAR", that leaves rest of Asia to fight for, But I wouldn't count that all UEFA will vote for the European Bid, because some of them has relations with Morocco that goes beyond sports. Only a nation like USA with strong ties with most of the world can get votes from other continents, and even in the 2026 Bid, Morocco was able to get votes of countries like France and Netherlands..., let alone if it was vs. Europe!

Therefore my best guess is that Spain & Portugal didn't want to gamble on the Non-Guaranteed voting thing, and decided why not bring Morocco in (if you can't beat them joined them right? joking) maybe thinking that they can give Morocco few matches here and there. But Morocco has been wanting to host World Cup since 1994 edition, and that FIFA wronged them in 2010 edition that they have won but not get (the source is in 2nd paragraph). So of course Morocco will agree to make a Bid with ESP & POR because that will mean build less stadiums and spend less money. But it doesn't mean they will have to settle, of course Morocco will want to go for more and better games because they are not stupid. BTW Please Note that I said "agree to make a Bid with ESP & POR" Not join a Bid, because the actual TRIO Bid of ESP & POR & MAR officially came in the form of a letter from the Moroccan King, On March 14th 2023, it was read publicly in Kigali, Rwanda, during the CAF Excellence Awards held ahead of FIFA's 73rd Congress in the presence of FIFA president.

Last but not least, about these Exaggerated comments on the subject! "oh a World Cup without Europe is pointless!" "oh Spain should withdraw" or whatever! Really? I thought football is a universal thing, I thought football is about inclusion! or are hey just some slogans some people likes to use when they see fit? Why some people tends to hate on World Cup editions not hosted in Europe? I've read some negativity prior to and during Qatar WC2022, turns out it was the best edition ever up to then. Now I read some negativity about KSA WC2034 But this time I will not mind them, for me as a football fan it's enough for WC34 to be another version of WC22. And now I read these nonsense about Morocco 2030! if anything it was only obvious from the beginning that the Final should be in Africa, because Africa has only hosted the world cup once, and will probably not host it again in 40 if not 50 years, while Europe have hosted it so many time, Spain hosted it alone in 82, and Europe will probably get to host it again more than once (at least) before it can go back to Africa. if Spain has Mega stadiums well Morocco is building the mother of Mega stadiums, if Spain didn't get WC30 Final they can host CWC29 Final and might be better for their Clubs.

Oh and one more thing, no country can withdraw from the Bid because this is not child play, everyone already signed papers and there might be tough sanctions for such actions, now this last part is only to reply to some naïve opinions, as the decision makers are reasonable people, each will show their best to FIFA, and the latter will have the final say. Whichever party is selected to host the final will be accepted by the other, as the main goal is to work together to ensure the event's success.

 

- Well The first quoted paragraph does nothing to dispel the common misconception that Morocco joined the Iberian bid; as I mentioned earlier, there was no official bid to join in the first place. What you are referring to is an unofficial announcement made by ESP & POR in 2020, I could just as easily have cited much earlier reports from 2018 regarding Morocco's intention to bid alone; so should we now claim that Spain was the one that joined the Moroccan bid? see how talking is easy!

All I'm saying is that the very first official announcement encompassed all three parties from the start and I have provided proof of that in my previous comment (a 2018 visit by Spanish minister to Morocco, during which he proposed a joint bid. And the official announcement of the Trio Bid was in 2023 CAF Awards). so long story short, no body has joined the other one's Bid, and Morocco (just like Spain) has every rights to want to host the bigger match.

- As for the 2nd quoted paragraph, I actually forgot to walk through that scenario in my previous analysis, So yes I can understand the opinions claiming that FIFA wanted to make room for KSA2034, But not by making MAR & ESP & POR join together, because (and once again) there are too much proof that the Trio Bid was planned to happen longer ago, But maybe by making a compromise with the LAT-AM Bid to include them in 2030 so they wouldn't Bid for 2034, and maybe also by making hosting standards tougher (stadia and infrastructure...) to make it harder for the LAT-AM to go against KSA in 2034 (FIFA task force results gave LAT-AM Bid 3.6/5, and gave KSA 4.2/5).

Now if Morocco gets the Final it will have nothing to do with that 2034 compromise thing, it will more likely have to do with rotation and inclusion, as Africa have only hosted World Cup Final once, and will probably not host it again until after Europe does (more than once), and Morocco in 2030 will represent Africa.

 

European countries can bid for 2038, only Asian countries are prohibited.

 

Europe can just wait it out...and keep bending over for the NFL, NBA and college football in the meantime. Now -- join hands with me and sing... "We are the world, we are the..."

 

Final has to be in Spain because there has not been a WC final in Europe since 2018.

Infantino cannot do as he wants and Europe won't tolerate his autocratic tendancies (see hard UEFA statement on the Balogun case).

 

And a WC final hasn't been in Africa since 2010. Any reason you think Europe should get inherent priority?

 

Because Europe used to have alternative WCs, which has now become one in three, so WC final has to be held in Europe every 2-3 times.

Morocco was bolted onto the bid because they tried to host it alone several times but always lost, so this is a convenient way for them to host it and it's a great idea, but the primary host is Spain.

 

WC final definitely does not "have" to be held anywhere. If Spain loses out on hosting the final in what was purportedly their own bid, I think that's on them.

 

Fair enough, I also just don't see a scenario where Morocco agrees to a joint bid where the final isn't in Morocco, giving the fact that they have bid 5 times before, do you really think that a nation has been trying to bring the world cup since ever will settle this time?

I also wouldn't worry about Spain that much, you said it your self: "this FIFA is about compromise", if Spain didn't get the WC30 final, they will get the CWC29 final, even more suitable for their clubs. And the announcement for the CWC29 hosts will happen in the upcoming FIFA congress where Infantino will probably get re-elected, and it is not a coincidence that the event will be take place in Morocco.

 

Europe hosted so many World Cups simply because FIFA in the past was not open to the idea of inclusivity, at one point, Africa had only half spot in world cup qualifiers (0.5 spots), a situation that drove African federations to boycott the 1966 tournament until FIFA finally "granted" them a single full spot in WC70. And If we were to limit the examples to the organization only, well if countries like Chile and Mexico were able to host it in 62 & 70 (by that I mean outside of rich European countries), I'm pretty sure you'd fine at least one or two African countries to host it at the time (e.g. Egypt). That of course if FIFA was more opened to the idea of Inclusivity, as the only reason why Africa have hosted WC in 2010 is because FIFA gave them an exclusive window.

Furthermore, the Morocco of the past is not the Morocco of today. Its failed bids for WC94 (to USA), WC98 (to France), and even WC26 (to USA) were logical, given that it was not as prepared as its competitors. However, it arguably should have won the 2010 bid—which went to South Africa amidst corruption within FIFA (Source Here), though you rarely hear about this because the Moroccan media lacks the global clout of its European counterpart.

Today, Morocco is capable of hosting (or Co-hosting) the World Cup, and the time has come for the tournament to return to the African continent because Football is for everyone; anything less would be nothing short of selfishness. Europe will probably host it in the future over and over again before it can even go back to Africa.

 

I guess enough said on my side. Whichever party is selected to host the final will be accepted by the other, as the main goal is to work together to ensure the event's success.

 

Morocco can host a 48-team WC on its own?

I'm not familiar with the country but I find that unbelievable.

 

My guess is Morocco can/will host something in the neighbourhood of 35-40 matches.

I'm judging that based on what I saw from the 2026 WC and how many matches some of the bigger stadiums hosted compared to the smaller ones. So, I'm thinking the 3 big stadiums in Morocco (Casablanca, Rabat, Tangier) get 7-8 matches each, and the smaller ~45,000 capacity stadiums more like 4-5 games each.

Using the same logic, that would suggest Portugal hosts around the same number of matches as Mexico in 2026 (about 15).
That leaves about 50-55 matches for Spain.

I guess its both logical and fair that Casablanca gets the final since Spain can more easily host more matches with 5 large stadiums of 70,000+ seats.

 

This is based on the 48-team format, there are reports that FIFA is going to bundle the English and Spanish language media rights in the USA for the 2030 WC so the same broadcaster or - more likely - streaming service would acquire both.

Industry commentators expect the value of the rights fees to be in the region of an astonishing USD$1.5-2bn!

 

Yeah that pretty much tracks. I'm going to be kinda pissed that they are packaging them together bc telemundo is so fantastic at it. My spanish is mediocre at best but it was such a better product.

My strategy was check to see if it was Zlatan/Henry on pregame so I could enjoy them roasting Lalas. If it wasn't, switch to Telemundo immediately; if it was, enjoy hating on Lalas and then switch to Telemundo.

In regards to the matches in 2030. I think @BocaFan is pretty spot on. 4 matches seems to be the minimum for a stadium and you can pinpoint about 6-7 that are locks to get that. All group stage.

 

Morocco can't host so many games. In the end there will be only 3 cities there: Tanger, Rabat and Casablanca. Stadiums and general infrastructure in Fez, Marrakech and Agadîr are not suitable for a World Cup.