2030 World Cup

My understanding is the US is passing on 2027 in exchange for 2031.

One potential issue is the US already hosting the Rugby World Cup in 2031. It’s normally held in Sept-Oct, but there’s talk of moving it to June-July to avoid conflicts with the NFL. Scheduling wise they could work around NFL Sundays, but I think the issue is that many NFL stadiums would need to put down a grass surface for rugby. Not sure if they’d be able to keep that in place for football during the season.

If the rugby is during the summer, can a stadium swap back and forth between women’s soccer games and rugby? Doesn’t seem impossible, but it’d be a shame if the two tournaments are stealing the spotlight from one another.

 

And a 2031 Women's World Cup has to do with KSA's 2030 WC how?

 

There are enough stadiums in the country so that both tournaments could happen at the same time in entirely different venues, especially since Mexico would take some of the WWC inventory.

Swapping between the sports is possible if they need to do it--last year's RWC was mostly in Ligue 1 stadiums while the league was going on.

 

You can't play rugby in the summer. Think about it for a second.

No big deal having it run concurrently with the NFL season. The NFL schedule comes out in May so plenty of time to work out the scheduling across the stadiums.

As you kind of implied, its more problematic having the rugby WC run at the same time as the Women's WC, as it would defeat the whole purpose of having the rugby WC in the US

 

The Major League Rugby season runs through July, so it’s definitely possible. Probably shouldn’t be playing soccer in 100 degree humidity either, honestly. A lot of NFL stadiums are domes at this point anyway.

I’m sure the grass vs turf thing can be worked out. Maybe the NFL teams would play on grass for a few weeks. The players might prefer that anyway.

 

Any time of year is technically possible, its just stupid and unnecessary to play in July. I'm just failing to see the problem of having the rugby WC played during the NFL season. It could even be played in MLS stadiums. Plenty of rugby-shaped stadiums that hold at least 30k in this country that aren't NFL stadiums.

 

If it needs to be over 30k, it's going to be either NFL or college football, and the issue is the same. Also I wonder what the rugby people will think about having to play with the gridiron painted on the field.

 

Good question. Am not sure. What happens with Lumen Field in Seattle or Mercedes Benz stadium in Atlanta? Do they remove the gridiron markings for Sounders'/Atlanta FC matches?

 

They use removable paint on artificial turf. Is the Rugby World Cup going to accept artificial turf?

 

North America will have a big soccer tournament each of the next three years. Rugby can't counter-program everything.

 

Doubt it. Come to think of it, can't think of any reason why rugby WC couldn't take place during April-June if gridiron stadiums are a no-go in the Fall.

 

That would interfere with all of the significant club competitions.

 

My last Euros match is Italy v Switzerland on Saturday, so am thinking ahead for the next tournament that interests me, and I'm struggling tbh. The England Euros with token games in Glasgow and Dublin might sound fun if you don't live here, and the North American WC sounds horrendously expensive full of out of town stadia with crap public transport. So I'm thinking of starting to save up for just the South American trio of games in 2030, Spain, Portugal and Morocco will likely be horrendously hot going by recent summers. And I've never been to Uruguay, Paraguay or Argentina. Hope they're spread over a decent period of time though.

 

We are hosting just one match each, so I'm pretty sure that tickets will be outrageously expensive.

 

https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments...n-argentina-morocco-uruguay-portugal-paraguay

 

That's insane. Almost 2 weeks between matches for the South Americans and their first opponents? While the two groupmates have a relatively normal schedule?

 

I expect the Fifa bosses will all be thrown in jail for taking Saudi bribes and the actual 2030 WC will be solely in South America. Hope so anyway, I'll definitely be going.

 

One can only hope.

It would be difficult for South America to host a 48 team tournament though.

More than likely they would Host it in Qatar again lol.

 

Why would they take it away from Spain/Portugal/Morocco?

 

Alleged financial crimes that have not been proven yet.

 

all nothing but hot air
FIFA, or call it infantino himnself, did everything in their power to award 2030/34 as they are about to do, no way anything but major war changes that!

 

Yes, probably. Although I don't think there is a big rush. Looking at the 2026 WC schedule suggests that teams playing the opening match in South America would have up to 12 days before needing to play their second match in Iberia/Morocco. So, plenty of time to overcome any jet lag or other travel fatigue.

If you are not fussy about seeing a particular team, and just buy tickets according to venues then it shouldn't be too difficult to avoid the heat in 2030. Bilbao, Porto or any city in-between should be fine. In Morocco, you could do Casablanca. A bit on the humid side but temperatures shouldn't go above 25C too often.