"The 2030 World Cup will be held across six counties in three continents, Fifa has confirmed. Spain, Portugal and Morocco have been named as the co-hosts, with the opening three matches taking place in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay".
Someone who works in the same office said to me 'I wonder why they're doing it like that'.
I said brown paper envelopes were probably the reason but then thought it would be the 100 years since the first WC, held in Uruguay, won by Uruguay with Argentina as runners up. Not sure why Paraguay as well though.
Still, doing wonders for UEFAs green credentials with air travel and stuff. And if you're one of the 6 teams playing in S.America, not exactly ideal to fly to across the Atlantic to finish the rest of your group games.
They were joint bids and have selected 2 of them. Not sure why Chile has been dropped but it was Uraguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Chile. There was also a joint bid from Spain, Morocco and Portugal and they have selected those two bids. Ours was also a joint bid with all 4 UK countries & Ireland so I assume it was a theme the organisers requested.
But with joint bids - you'd expect more than 3 games to be played in each country, let alone just 3 in South America before the rest of the tournament is in Southern Europe/North Africa. All very strange.
Don’t get me wrong I’m looking forward to this more than 2028 but it’s one of the stupidest ideas I’ve ever seen. The six teams playing in those first three games are at a huge disadvantage. I guess they wanted to do something over there to mark the centenary but they couldn’t host the the whole tournament due to the low temperatures in some of the suggested host cities.