FIFA World Cup 2030 to span three continents with Morocco, Portugal, and Spain as co-hosts

Geneva, Oct 5 (IANS) The FIFA World Cup 2030 is set to be co-hosted by Morocco, Portugal, and Spain, with three other countries in South America also involved in staging games to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the event, according to FIFA.

The FIFA Council conducted a videoconference in Zurich, Switzerland, to confirm the sole candidacy, which is a combined bid of Morocco, Portugal, and Spain. They will receive automatic qualification to the tournament if they complete a successful bidding process in 2024, Xinhua reports.

"The FIFA Council also agreed unanimously that the only bid to host the FIFA World Cup 2030 will be the joint bid of Morocco, Portugal, and Spain," FIFA President Gianni Infantino was quoted as saying in the FIFA statement. "In 2030, we will have a unique global footprint, three continents - Africa, Europe, and South America - six countries - Argentina, Morocco, Paraguay, Portugal, Spain, and Uruguay - welcoming and uniting the world while celebrating together the beautiful game, the centenary and the FIFA World Cup."

The council agreed to host a centenary celebration ceremony in Uruguay's capital Montevideo, where the first-ever FIFA World Cup took place in 1930. Besides, Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay will organise one match each of the FIFA World Cup 2030.

"The first of these three matches will of course be played at the stadium where it all began, in Montevideo's mythical Estadio Centenario, precisely to celebrate the centenary edition of the FIFA World Cup," FIFA said.

FIFA has also agreed that the bidding processes for both the 2030 and 2034 editions be conducted concurrently and invited member associations from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) to bid for the 2034 version.

The FIFA Council also confirmed that the inaugural edition of the FIFA Futsal Women's World Cup will take place in 2025 with 16 participating teams