The 2030 FIFA World Cup will be staged in Spain, Portugal and Morocco with additional matches held in South America to honor the centenary edition of the event, it was announced Wednesday.
“The FIFA Council, representing the entire world of football, unanimously agreed to celebrate the centenary of the FIFA World Cup, whose first edition was played in Uruguay in 1930, in the most appropriate way,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said.
“As a result, a celebration will take place in South America and three South American countries – Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay – will organize 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 Estádio Centenário, precisely to celebrate the centenary edition of the FIFA World Cup.”
The three-nation joint bid was unopposed after a joint Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Greece project backed out last month prompting FIFA to move forward ahead of published timelines. Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay had previously been organizing a separate bid to commemorate the centenary. The FIFA Congress is expected to rubberstamp approval of the choice at a meeting in Bangkok on May 17 next year after the bid dossier is completed and submitted.
The resulting tournament will be the most widespread ever.
“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,” Infantino added.
Morocco had five previous bids denied including for the next scheduled tournament in 2026.
The 2026 edition will instead be hosted in North American among Canada, Mexico and the United States and will welcome 48 nations for the first time – up from 32.
FIFA also announced that it will follow a continental rotation model for the 2034 World Cup, a model that had previously been in play. Invitations to bid for that event will only be made to Associations from Asia and Oceania, and the process will launch immediately.
Saudi Arabia, Australia and New Zealand have expressed interest in forwarding bids for that edition. According to FIFA documents the 2034 World Cup will be awarded at the FIFA Congress in the fourth quarter of 2024.
