Search Results: anniversaries

The 2030 World Cup has been awarded to Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina.

Let me break it down piece by piece, for people who may not be familiar with the system.

So, 2030 was supposed to be the 100th anniversary of the first ever World Cup, which was held in Uruguay in 2030. In honor of the occasion, Uruguay submitted a joint bid with Argentina, Chile and Paraguay. However, Europe was arguing that it's THEIR turn to host again. And Morocco has been wanting to get in on the action for a while, and with their success in the last World Cup, their bid finally started being taken seriously.

Anyways, FIFA decided this would be a good compromise for everyone. Basically, they didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Now, what does this mean?

South America is only scheduled to host the opening matches. This means that after their first match, teams will need to fly across the Atlantic to play their remaining matches.

Additionally, the rules of FIFA state that the same confederation must have a 2 tournament gap before being eligable to host again. This means that the only confederations eligible to host the tournament in 2034 are Asia and Oceania, which opens the door for a potential joint Australia & New Zealand bid. This also means however that in 2038, the tournament can only be held in North America, which means we'll most likely see the U. S., Canada or Mexico hosting again, which are the only three nations in CONCACAF that meet the necessary criteria to host.

In short, it's a huge mess!