Three South American countries agree to joint 2030 World Cup bid

Three South American nations Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay have agreed to present a joint bid for the 2030 World Cup.

The decision was announced to the media Bueno Aires on Monday.

Designed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Uruguay’s staging of the first world cup in 1930, the bid features twelve cities in the three countries. The names of the cities were not disclosed.

“Today a decision was made regarding more or less the number of sights that have been proposed for each country,” President of the Argentine Football Association, Claudio Tapia told the media.

“Two in Paraguay, two for Uruguay and eight for Argentina, and work will begin on designating other future sights because I believe that the construction is fundamental so that we can be up to the challenge and be able to host in 2030,” he added.

Argentina and Uruguay, both two-time World Cup winners decided to launch a joint bid in 2017 and later added Paraguay.

Bidding for the 2030 tournament is not due to open for another four years.

The South American nations are expected to face tough competition for the hosting rights of a tournament that is likely to feature 48 teams.
Captain of the Argentine national football team Lionel Messi and Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez have publicly backed the plan.

So far, the co-organizers have not stated how much it would cost to host the tournament should they win but Sports news portal The World Game quotes Uruguay’s Sports Secretary Fernando Caceres as saying “we can’t say what the final costs will be to each of our countries, but it cannot be measured only in the building of infrastructure”.