Saudi Arabia in talks to host 2030 World Cup finals

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia is in talks with sports chiefs in Egypt and Greece over an audacious joint bid to host the 2030 football World Cup finals. “The three countries are working flat out” and “the application to organize the tournament is being studied,” Mohammed Fawzi, spokesman for the Egyptian Sports Ministry, said on Friday.

Egypt had hosted many world championships in the past three years, Fawzi said, and was well qualified to stage football’s premier tournament. A source at Greece’s Hellenic Football Federation in Athens confirmed that the three countries were holding discussions about a joint bid.

If the bid is successful, the tournament would take place in the winter of 2030 to avoid the extreme summer heat, as with this year’s World Cup finals in Qatar in November and December. The bid will face competition from at least two other joint proposals.

Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay launched a bid in early August to host the 2030 World Cup, while Spain and Portugal announced their joint candidacy last year. The joint South American bid aims to stage the 2030 final in the same Centenario stadium in Montevideo that hosted the first final 100 years earlier.

World football’s governing body FIFA will select a host for the 2030 tournament in 2024. Hosting major international sporting events, including European club football and boxing world title bouts, is a key part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 development strategy.