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Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has postponed the announcement of men’s 2030 World Cup hosts after failing to agree on rules for bid campaigns and a date for the final vote.
The 200-member nation of FIFA will likely converge again to vote in the last quarter of 2024 instead of a previously expected meeting in September next year.
Morocco had placed a joint top bid with Spain and Portugal for the 48-team, 104-game tournament tournament format.
Bid rules will aim to be settled on at a FIFA council meeting before the end of October, soccer’s governing body said, “with the bidding process to be officially launched thereafter.”
FIFA did detail basic needs for the 48-team, 104-game tournament: 14 stadiums, of which only seven can be new construction projects; “explicit public commitments” to human rights and climate action; worker protections; and “non-interference with journalists and human rights defenders” involved in work related to the World Cup.
One speculated project for 2030 appeared to drop out this week when media in Greece reported a Saudi Arabia-led co-host bid that included Egypt will not go ahead.
Saudi Arabian soccer officials had not publicly confirmed what would have been an unprecedented three-continent hosting plan in line with the kingdom’s aggressive big-spending ambitions in global soccer. A bid for the 2034 World Cup has been seen as a more likely target.
Still, Saudi involvement could yet be revived even if it would mean bringing the World Cup back to Asia just eight years after Qatar hosted in 2022, and likely again in November-December in the middle of the European club season.
Europe has long committed to bidding for the 2030 World Cup with Spain and Portugal, and that project has added near-neighbor Morocco from Africa. Ukraine also is involved in that bid.
South America also wants to host the centenary World Cup, with original 1930 host Uruguay in a four-nation bid with Argentina, Chile and Paraguay.
Even if the South American bid loses, Uruguay could still be honored as the inaugural host by being given some of the 104 games to stage at the same Estadio Centenario in Montevideo.
FIFA said on Friday it wanted “additional consultation with all key stakeholders (for the 2030 World Cup) which will mark the centenary of men’s football’s showpiece tournament.”