UEFA president wants only one European bid for 2030 World Cup

Sport

MONACO: European football boss Aleksander Ceferin wants only one European bid to host the 2030 World Cup, he said on Friday, adding that a British bid would be a “wise idea”.

The English FA said at the start of this month that it was carrying out a study into the feasibility of hosting the tournament.

While the FA has not directly addressed the possibility of a joint bid with other parts of the United Kingdom, it is likely that their study will look into the potential benefits of such an approach – given the World Cup will expand to 48 teams in 2026.

“I’ve said many times that, after all these years, it is time for that part of Europe to get the World Cup… the only thing I will insist is that we will have only one European bid,” Ceferin told reporters on Friday.

“I don’t want Europe to be divided because of the World Cup bid and it would be divided because the voting is public, as you saw.”

Asked about a potential British bid, he said: “It would be a wise idea – the infrastructure in the UK is very good.”

England, who hosted the World Cup in 1966, failed in their most recent attempt to win the rights for the 2018 tournament, which was held in Russia.

Under FIFA’s rotation system, European countries were not eligible to bid for the following two tournaments. The previous European World Cup was in Germany in 2006.

A South American tri-nation bid involving Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay has already been announced for 2030.

Morocco, which has made five unsuccessful bids to host the tournament including 2026, has also said it would try again for 2030.

Qatar will stage the 2022 tournament and while 2026 will be shared between the United States, Canada and Mexico.

(Writing by Brian Homewood; Editing by Toby Davis)