Saudi Arabia ‘in talks’ to co-host 2030 World Cup finals with Egypt and Greece

[Corruptistan]

Fireworks illuminate the night sky during inaugural ceremonies for the new Jewel football stadium at the King Abdullah bin Abdelaziz sport city in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on May 1, 2014. The 60,000-seat stadium hosted the final of the King Abdullah Cup between Al Shabab and Al Ahli football teams. (File photo: AP)

Saudi Arabia ‘in talks’ to co-host 2030 World Cup finals​

Jennifer Bell, Al Arabiya English​

Published: 10 September, 2022: 08:43 AM GST
Updated: 10 September, 2022: 11:31 AM GST

Saudi Arabia is in talks with sports executives in Egypt and Greece over a joint bid to host the 2030 football World Cup finals, an Egyptian official said Friday in televised remarks.

“The three countries are working flat out” and “the application to organize (the 2030 World Cup) is being studied”, sports ministry spokesman Mohammed Fawzi told DMC television.

“Egypt will be one of the best countries” to organize such a sports event, he said, stressing that his country had hosted many world championships in the past three years.

Hosting major international sporting events, including European club football and boxing world title bouts, is also a key part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 strategy.

A source at Greece’s Hellenic Football Federation confirmed to AFP in Athens that the three countries were holding discussions about a joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup.

If successful, the event would be held in the northern winter to avoid extreme temperatures in the three countries, as with this year’s World Cup in Qatar, British newspaper The Times reported on Thursday.

The bid by Egypt, Greece and Saudi Arabia will come up against at least two other joint proposals.

Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay launched a bid to host the 2030 World Cup in early August, while Spain and Portugal announced their joint candidacy last year.

The joint South American bid aims to stage the 2030 final in the very same Centenario stadium in Montevideo that hosted the first title match 100 years earlier.

The countdown is currently on for the Middle East's first ever FIFA World Cup, which Qatar will host in November.

More than a million football fans are expected to attend the tournament.

The event is set to start on November 20, a day earlier than planned, following a last-minute change announced in August.

Saudi Arabia ‘in talks’ to co-host 2030 World Cup finals

Saudi Arabia is in talks with sports executives in Egypt and Greece over a joint bid to host the 2030 football World Cup finals, an Egyptian official said

english.alarabiya.net

Better known as the World Cup of the "ancient" ones.

 

[Ghostkiller]

View attachment 879820
Fireworks illuminate the night sky during inaugural ceremonies for the new Jewel football stadium at the King Abdullah bin Abdelaziz sport city in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on May 1, 2014. The 60,000-seat stadium hosted the final of the King Abdullah Cup between Al Shabab and Al Ahli football teams. (File photo: AP)

Saudi Arabia ‘in talks’ to co-host 2030 World Cup finals​

Jennifer Bell, Al Arabiya English​

Published: 10 September, 2022: 08:43 AM GST
Updated: 10 September, 2022: 11:31 AM GST

Saudi Arabia is in talks with sports executives in Egypt and Greece over a joint bid to host the 2030 football World Cup finals, an Egyptian official said Friday in televised remarks.

“The three countries are working flat out” and “the application to organize (the 2030 World Cup) is being studied”, sports ministry spokesman Mohammed Fawzi told DMC television.

“Egypt will be one of the best countries” to organize such a sports event, he said, stressing that his country had hosted many world championships in the past three years.

Hosting major international sporting events, including European club football and boxing world title bouts, is also a key part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 strategy.

A source at Greece’s Hellenic Football Federation confirmed to AFP in Athens that the three countries were holding discussions about a joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup.

If successful, the event would be held in the northern winter to avoid extreme temperatures in the three countries, as with this year’s World Cup in Qatar, British newspaper The Times reported on Thursday.

The bid by Egypt, Greece and Saudi Arabia will come up against at least two other joint proposals.

Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay launched a bid to host the 2030 World Cup in early August, while Spain and Portugal announced their joint candidacy last year.

The joint South American bid aims to stage the 2030 final in the very same Centenario stadium in Montevideo that hosted the first title match 100 years earlier.

The countdown is currently on for the Middle East's first ever FIFA World Cup, which Qatar will host in November.

More than a million football fans are expected to attend the tournament.

The event is set to start on November 20, a day earlier than planned, following a last-minute change announced in August.

Saudi Arabia ‘in talks’ to co-host 2030 World Cup finals

Saudi Arabia is in talks with sports executives in Egypt and Greece over a joint bid to host the 2030 football World Cup finals, an Egyptian official said

english.alarabiya.net

Better known as the World Cup of the "ancient" ones.

The problem will be Greece because of the distance. (@Foinikas). Players will get tired from traveling Egypt to Greece to KSA. I hope it will be well organized.

 

[Corruptistan]

The problem will be Greece because of the distance. (@Foinikas). Players will get tired from traveling Egypt to Greece to KSA. I hope it will be well organized.

From what I understand this is just a proposal and UEFA favors the Spain-Portugal bid and COMEBOL (South Americans) favor their own bid. COMEBOL wants to host it in Uruguay and other countries because the first World Cup in 1930 was hosted there.

KSA, Egypt and Greece are located fairly closely. I don't think that travel will be a problem. They will probably divide the tournament in 3 parts with KSA probably hosting the final and semifinals due to having the most modern stadiums and the financial element. Just my guess, because according to the rumors, if this bid wins, KSA will help fund the infrastructure in both Egypt and Greece too.

As a neutral this could be an interesting tournament because none of those 3 countries have ever hosted a World Cup and it would unite 3 continental organizations (Europe, UEFA, Asia, AFC, and Africa CAF) in a common bid for the first time in history.

I mean, with all due respect to tiny Qatar, but if they can get the World Cup (2022), so should those 3 large countries whose most popular sport in all of them is football. All 3 have a football tradition too with each winning their continental tournaments before (EURO, Asian Cup and Africa Cup of Nations).

In the case of Egypt, Egypt is the most successful football nation in Africa in terms of national team.

Africa Cup of Nations - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Al-Ahly is the most successful club team in Africa.

CAF Champions League - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

KSA has won the AFC 3 times (only 125 million big Japan has won more with 4) and been in a record 6 finals.

AFC Asian Cup - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Al-Hilal is the most successful Asian club football team.

AFC Champions League - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Greece won the EURO in 2004 and Greek teams like Olympiakos and Panathinaikos have reached European club finals.

 

[Foinikas]

The problem will be Greece because of the distance. (@Foinikas). Players will get tired from traveling Egypt to Greece to KSA. I hope it will be well organized.

Yeah. And the people. Back and forth in 3 countries.

 

[Corruptistan]

Yeah. And the people. Back and forth in 3 countries.

Riyadh to Athens is a 4 hours flight and as I wrote the World Cup will probably be divided into 3 or at least 2 parts (KSA and Egypt) with the final part being held in KSA (most likely) due to their more modern infrastructure and money.

Also have in mind that KSA is a huge country (the size of Western Europe or Iran + Turkey combined for regional comparison) and it could host much of the watches in Northern KSA.

From Northern KSA to Athens a flight is around 1.5-2 hours. This is nothing.

Brazil (a huge country) hosted it in 2014. Russia in 2018 (similar story although they mostly played in Western Russia), South Africa 2010 (not a small country either), Japan and South Korea in 2002, USA in 1994, many such examples overall.

This is feasible without a doubt.

 

[Foinikas]

Riyadh to Athens is a 4 hours flight and as I wrote the World Cup will probably be divided into 3 or at least 2 parts (KSA and Egypt) with the final part being held in KSA (most likely) due to their more modern infrastructure and money.

Yeah but still...

When's the World Cup in Qatar starting? October or November?

 

[Corruptistan]

Yeah but still...

When's the World Cup in Qatar starting? October or November?

I think it begins in late November. The 19th or 20th, I think. It could probably start 1 month or 1.5 month earlier without a problem as the weather is not that hot by that time in Qatar. May, June, July, August and September are the "no-go" months in the Middle East during the summer but it gets really hot in most of Southern Europe in those moths too, or at least June, July and August. I always felt that it was a cheap excuse.

And in the case of KSA, they have huge mountain areas (half of the country) where temperatures in the middle of the summer rarely reaches above 30 degrees Celsius due to the high elevation of the cities (2000-2500 meters above sea level).

 

[_Nabil_]

Why including Greece in the project? Was better to choose Kuwait, Bahrain, Irak, ...

Greece can have the opportunity to co-orginize with southern European countries, why not with Turkey ?

 

[Ghostkiller]

Why including Greece in the project? Was better to choose Kuwait, Bahrain, Irak, ...

Greece can have the opportunity to co-orginize with southern European countries, why not with Turkey ?

You want a war or what hahahaha. Irak is in trouble and not stable. Bahrain Kuwait isn't that attractive to world of football.

 

[Corruptistan]

Why including Greece in the project? Was better to choose Kuwait, Bahrain, Irak, ...

Greece can have the opportunity to co-orginize with southern European countries, why not with Turkey ?

Because they want to unite 3 continental federations for the first time in World Cup history, as I wrote. UEFA (Greece), CAF (Egypt) and KSA (AFC).

Kuwait nor Bahrain have the infrastructure (many large stadiums) to host it. Kuwait can afford it but is not interested in vanity projects as seen with Qatar (2022). Bahrain even less so.

Iraq is not stable enough and nowhere ready to host such a huge thing like the World Cup in 8 years time. We are talking about a country whose infrastructure is one of the worst in the region. Too soon for that.

Greece and Turkey are not exactly best friends (politics and history play a role here) and none of those countries have a great economy to spend billions on a World Cup as of now.

Anyway if Turkey and Greece host it during the summer (no such bid exists but let us say that it does), there would be the problem of heat/high temperatures during the summer as well if it is hosted in June and July as traditionally.