Candidates to host 2031 WWC

For China and HK, they also want Macau (I guess to "reintegrate" the SARs).

England also wants Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland to join.

Personally I think the US is probably getting it since it's been a while. The UK and Ireland may wait for 2035 where their main competition will be Saudi Arabia.

Spain and Morocco kind of fall under the same problem of being a year after 2030. If the US withdrew their 2027 bid, then it doesn't look good for having back to back men's and women's tournaments. South Africa could be a dark horse but the problem is they don't have a clear vision for their bid, they just say we want to but then decide they don't have enough time and defer it.

 

A lot of the votes have probably been decided prior to the WWC 2027 vote.

 

So did each confederation make special deals with each other to ensure voting blocs for bids?

I guess so...I mean none of the bids are invalid.

Had Europe won 2027 hosting, then England and Spain would be out. Given that China voted for them, I could see them make an agreement to support each other unless one withdraws (though UEFA and AFC could be working together). Perhaps as I alluded to on another forum, the US throwing support for Brazil is possibly hope that they will back us next time in 2031 (though CONCACAF and CONMEBOL are already working close together).

 

I hope South Africa.

 

China voted for BNG but Hong Kong voted for Brazil.

 

UK (with or without Rep. Ireland).

It is inconceivable that three consecutive WCs would be held outside Europe.

Despite Brazil winning last week I have doubts about the commercial viability of their WC and believe that the BNG bid would have been a more commercially lucrative competition, even if the FIFA evaluation report said otherwise.

 

There was similar scepticism for Australia and NZ, but they proved the sceptics wrong. Give Brazil a chance.

 

Really Brazil needs to not be so harsh on American tourists by making them get visas. They'll probably be the ones to travel the most to Brazil and many have already been planning now.

 

Visa are a revenue source, no one will want to give up on easy money. As well as a security tool.

 

It is a two-way street: USA requires visas for BRA nationals too.

Given BRA's moderate US visa refusal rate, it is unlikely that BRA nationals will be granted automatic US visitor visas anytime soon. Therefore, BRA will continue to reciprocate.

It all boils down to a lack of diplomatic agreements.

 

Yeah I can understand why they feel this way but given that Brazil does rely heavily on tourism this could bite them (I don't really know about this too much so yeah). Regardless of how you view Bolsonaro, I'll give him credit for dropping requirements for Americans during his tenure (though this probably was more of Brazil and the United States getting along much better during this period, so it wasn't too hard to convince the Brazilian government to do this).

 

Actually, current events show we could be talking out of our butts... could be.

https://apnews.com/article/brazil-visa-requirement-us-exemption-4a207b196d1da242f94b9bbfe4339b75

Current Lula administration has done the same Bolsanaro's: temporary exemptions for tourist visas, revised on a yearly basis because no diplomatic agreements are signed.

As of Apr 2024, tourist exemption for US nationals was extended until Apr 2025.

According to the Brazilian embassy to the US, a 10-year tourist visa costs 80.90 USD.
US nationals can certainly save 81 bucks by 2027.

https://br.usembassy.gov/message-fo...nement-of-brazilian-visa-requirement-to-2025/

 

Japan just threw their hat into the ring.

 

I know it's probably too soon but considering how the 2027 bids were submitted in December 2023, I think the bids for 2031 will probably be submitted around the same time this year since they're voting on it in 2025.

As for pre-submission predictions:
Spain and Morocco will probably drop out either before submitting the bids or during the bidding process. Having 2030 will probably be too close for them and considering how the US and Mexico dropped out of 2027 because it was too close, I don't see them sticking around this time even if they have the momentum right now. Though who knows, maybe they take their bids more seriously than the US-Mexico 2027 bid.

Thus we have four regions I think will submit:

CONCACAF: US-Mexico: pretty much the 2027 bid (basically reusing all of the 2026 stadiums in both countries along with a few extra in Mexico) but with more time they can actually give a good argument. I see SoFi Stadium rejoining this bid as opposed to the Rose Bowl as 2026 will probably give a good test run. Maybe they even choose cities not in 2027 such as Chicago, Washington, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Detroit, or Las Vegas. Mexico is there probably to help convince everyone it's not a sole US bid (even though it's probably because Mexico's soccer federation has made themselves over reliant on the US for part of their finances through molero games)

CAF: South Africa: pretty much 2027 (8 of the 2010 stadiums minus Ellis Park and Loftus Versfeld Stadium) as well but they'll probably have more time to make their bid. They pulled out pretty early last time so we'll see if they actually stick around this time.

UEFA: UK-Ireland: While I thought England might try to go at it alone, it probably is gonna be harder than if they got the Home Nations and Ireland involved. Plus I imagine a similar situation to the Euros, Germany and England gave each other support in both of their bids and England did the same for Germany's 2027 bid. Also, England can enjoy everything while the Home Nations and Ireland do all the dirty work of playing ball with FIFA. For venues, probably the Euro 2028 venues plus maybe Old Trafford and Anfield if they get cleared (Northern Ireland probably needs to figure out if they can get Windsor ready unless Casement does a good job of hosting).

AFC:
China-Hong Kong-Macau:
China showed interest quite early on and this time they're hoping to add their SARs of Hong Kong and Macau in so they can speed up 2047/2049 (the SARs would lose their autonomy at this point unless it remains unchanged) (in 1991 the SARs were still foreign countries and in 2007 they didn't have the level of mainland integration they do now). Since China voted for Europe, I imagine they're hoping to get support there for their bid (a lot of Chinese companies have also been sponsoring UEFA competitions lately). China has a lot of venues from their previous hostings in the Asian Cup and WWC but expect some from the 2023 Asian Cup they didn't get to use because of Zero-COVID policies.

Meanwhile, Japan supported Brazil's bid along with most of the AFC so they're hoping if the CONCACAF bid doesn't pan out, they get the Americas full support. As for venues, they'll probably use most of their 2002 stadiums plus the new Tokyo National Stadium this time around.

I think the US and Mexico might win because of the money of 2026 and everyone hopes to get the money again. That being said, I do expect everyone else to try and throw wrenches into the plan or make secret arrangements on voting for each other based on contingencies in case their confederation starts to lose support.

 

Well looks like England is getting threatened by UEFA over the British government wanting to regulate so this could have an issue with their bid.

 

Looks like currently US/Mex, South Africa, and Japan have been somewhat the most serious about bidding. Not sure if UK/Ireland, China/HK/Macau, Spain, and Morocco are still active.

Kind of surprised FIFA is a little slow considering the selection is in March 2025, which is close. I think by December we should see a final submission announcement then. There are still rumors that the delay may favor the US/Mex with an expanded 48 team tournament, but we shall see.

 

Let's do Morocco!

 

While that is probably a good location countries like Morocco mostly only get the Ux world cups. But you never know who FIFA will think has the best bribe package. I would think with good bribes "The Marshall Islands" might get a hosting bid. The only country i see as an impossible location is "Vatican City" as I think they do not even have one soccer stadium. But I could be wrong.

 

Morocco has 2030 now under their belt which they wanted for so long.

 

Oh yeah I forgot about that. Then maybe 2035 then. Then I guess 2031 would go back to North America then.