If Australia does bid, I could see them with New Zealand and some ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) members. Basically kind of a hybrid 2023 Women's World Cup and 2007 AFC Asian Cup.
One issue is that it would be winter in NZ, so the temperature extremes between southeast Asia and NZ will be significant to say the least. That and the travel distances, of course. People talk about NZ and Australia together like they are side-by-side, when there is actually a pretty big distance between them. At a minimum, its equivalent to going from Philly to Dallas, but potentially as much as New York to Anchorage, depending where in Australia. IMO, its enough to have NZ and AUS host on their own. That's already a whole global region.
AU/NZ plus a chunk of Asia would probably need to be organized as two half-tournaments that never leave their regions until the final. AU/NZ by themselves would be lovely.
I could see Westafrica to host one day. Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana have the stadiums for it. but i doubt 2038.
What? with what money? South America doesn't want to host their own tournament because it is too expensive. They want to host a World Cup but realistically can't without help. You then want to get some of the poorest countries to host? disaster. Unless something major happens... really with Brazil, I don't see the Americas hosting at all if the USA is not involved for the next 20-30 years.
I think it would be more likely that Australia hosts with SE Asia over NZ. NZ just doesn't bring a lot to the table. They have 1 stadium that fits the lower level capacity, that's it. They would have to do major infrastructure upgrades. Australia has the chops to cohost. Indonesia and/or Malaysia with Australia would be a different story. Both have the stadiums needed to host pending upgrades. Especially with Indonesia's rise in soccer recently, they could make a very interesting co host.
Yeah, well 2030 is a bit absurd already. But a NZ+AUS+Southeast Asia world cup takes 2030 a level or two further. At least for 2030 after the first day or two the rest of the tournament is in a reasonably concentrated area, geographically.
Latin America is growing fast (I recommend visiting them), by the next time it's CONCACAF turn, they could collectively put something together, even better if Mexico supports them. I don't buy that it will be only the US going forward for Concacaf
Asia absolutely won't be eligible to host this WC which basically leaves Europe. EURO2028 would be a decade in the past by then so I suspect it's very likely the UK will host it. It probably explains why we've heard nothing about the UK bidding to host a future WWC.
Whilst I agree that Europe is likely it would still need a change to FIFA's current rotation rule which would rule out all Confederations except Concacaf and OFC.
I would welcome a British/Irish World Cup. They are well overdue. And maybe even Northern Ireland will have a suitable venue by then.
The rotation rule has become a bit of a joke when one confederation gets three games that count as its rotation and another has 60% of the world's population.
The rotation rule is limited to two consecutive editions. Article 61 paragraph 4 of the FIFA statutes 2024 states that: The right to host the event shall not be awarded to members of the same confederation for two consecutive editions of the FIFA World Cup™. https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/16d1f7349fa19ade/original/FIFA-Statutes-2024.pdf
No country which wouldn't have hosted for a long while is as attractive a proposition for FIFA as the UK. Perhaps Italy, but EURO2032 - assuming Italy has met its commitments by the October 2026 deadline to keep its half of it - would only be 6 years before. France is also a possibility, but it already had the WC much more recently than the UK and of course had a recent WWC, not to mention this years Olympics.
Well we'll see if the FA is still serious on bidding. Obviously 2018 left a very sour taste because of the shenanigans with trying to bid against Russia but should they get the 2031 WWC, I could see a renewed push to really bring the 2042 if they can't get World Cup (if they are allowed for 2038 then that probably becomes the priority). However don't expect sole England bids, probably their bids become Euro 2028 bids (maybe if Windsor Park is upgraded heavily NI gets cleared).
the big point is noone likes FA, neither FIFA nor UEFA as well as most associations outside europe. it would need a lot to become host. possibly giving infantino something he wants might open the door but who knows what might pop up until next cup is awarded … far too early to assume anything. in the world of infantino classic voting for the host has fallen into the abyss and doesn‘t seem to climb up any time soon.
https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/16d1f7349fa19ade/original/FIFA-Statutes-2024.pdf "Article 61 paragraph 4 of the FIFA statutes 2024 states that: The right to host the event shall not be awarded to members of the same confederation for two consecutive editions of the FIFA World Cup™." I had a look in the document and it clearly states two consecutive, not the next two tournaments as it used to. This means only AFC is ineligible for 2038, although I'm sure FIFA would likely be open to changing that given sufficient incentive.
Only twice was it held on the same continent consecutively - 1934 and 1938 then 1954 and 1958 - but I doubt nowadays that will be repeated which eliminates Asia from 2038.