FAI confirm potential joint bid for World Cup
The FAI has formally entered the race to co-host the Centennial World Cup finals in 2030. The news, confirmed by the Association yesterday, follows Sportsmail’s exclusive story that Ireland was in the frame to stage football’s most prestigious tournament as part of a joint submission. Last night, the FAI confirmed there had been positive talks with the football associations of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland ahead of a ‘potential joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup’. England, who lost out for the finals of 1990, 2006 and 2018, have accepted a multination bid has the best chance of victory. UEFA president Alexsander Ceferin is adamant it will be ‘UEFA’s turn’ to stage the 2030 finals. Whether Ceferin would support a five-way bid spearheaded by England is open to conjecture as it would mean taking up five of UEFA’s 16 allocated places at the 2030 finals. If the FAI were part of a successful bid, the World Cup would eclipse the Rugby World Cup (1991), Tour de France (1998), Special Olympics (2003) and Ryder Cup (2006) as the greatest international sports events to take place in Ireland. Financially, the FAI would be backing a winner too. All finalists at the World Cup in Russia banked a minimum $9.5million and by 2030,
there would be a bigger financial pie to carve up. It’s early days, and the FAI don’t need reminding of their previous venture as potential co-hosts for the 2008 European Championships. It bombed out after UEFA bid inspectors were shown an empty field in Fingal that was intended for the ‘Bertie Bowl’. This time, the FAI possess a trump card in the 51,000capacity Aviva Stadium, which staged the 2011 Europa League final and will host four games during the finals of Euro 2020. There is also the potential availability of 82,000capacity Croke Park, which opened its doors to international football and rugby when Lansdowne Road was being redeveloped. Any European bid would face opposition from Argentina-UruguayParaguay. The first World Cup finals were played in Uruguay in 1930, when the hosts won a 13-team event. Morocco, who lost out for the 2026 finals, will also contend again with either Algeria or Tunisia. For the first 48-team World Cup finals in 2026, 16 host cities will be required between the United States (10), Canada (three) and Mexico (three). All stadia must have a minimum capacity of 40,000 and the same requirements are likely to be in force for the 2030 competition. If one of the five nations were to miss out, Northern Ireland would appear vulnerable as Windsor Park’s 18,000 capacity is not sufficient for FIFA’s purpose. In contrast, England has an abundance of suitable stadia, Scotland has four — Hampden Park, Celtic Park, Ibrox and Murrayfield — while Wales has the Millennium Stadium. The deadline for bids for the 2026 World Cup was August 2017, so the FAI, along with their counterparts from the FAs of England, Wales, Scotland and the North have almost three years to compile their application.