World Cup 2038

[Winston Biscuit]

Bit early to start this one I know, but I heard something interesting* at the weekend so thought I would relay it here

Current FIFA rules are that if your Confederation hosts a world cup, then it is barred from bidding to host the 2 world cups afterwards. We know that FIFA chose to award the 2030 world cup to Spain, Portugal & Morocco as hosts and then added some centenary games in South America, but they have since confirmed that South America is an official host of 2030, and they did that on purpose to exclude them from 2034 so that FIFA could give that one to their Saudi mates.

That all means that for the 2038 World Cup, the confederations of UEFA, CONMEBOL (south america), CAF (africa) & AFC (asia) all can't bid to host. This leaves only OFC (Oceania) & CONCACAF (North America, Central America & Caribbean) available to bid.

Australia left OFC some time back and are under AFC, so OFC's FIFA affiliated nations are just New Zealand + 10 pacific island countries. I think OFC as it stands is highly unlikely to host.

This would then leave CONCACAF as the only serious hosts, but the 3 North American countries would have already hosted just 12 years earlier, which is fine under their rules but is somewhat unappealing.

so, are we set for another North America WC or will we see a Central America & Caribbean island hopping one? (or FIFA just change their own rules)

We will find out in 3 or 4 years!

[Hendo]

A Caribbean World Cup would be pretty epic, but I can't see there being the money for it.

Would imagine it'll just go to USA on it's own.

[Sutekh]

Bit early to start this one I know, but I heard something interesting* at the weekend so thought I would relay it here

Current FIFA rules are that if your Confederation hosts a world cup, then it is barred from bidding to host the 2 world cups afterwards. We know that FIFA chose to award the 2030 world cup to Spain, Portugal & Morocco as hosts and then added some centenary games in South America, but they have since confirmed that South America is an official host of 2030, and they did that on purpose to exclude them from 2034 so that FIFA could give that one to their Saudi mates.

That all means that for the 2038 World Cup, the confederations of UEFA, CONMEBOL (south america), CAF (africa) & AFC (asia) all can't bid to host. This leaves only OFC (Oceania) & CONCACAF (North America, Central America & Caribbean) available to bid.

Australia left OFC some time back and are under AFC, so OFC's FIFA affiliated nations are just New Zealand + 10 pacific island countries. I think OFC as it stands is highly unlikely to host.

This would then leave CONCACAF as the only serious hosts, but the 3 North American countries would have already hosted just 12 years earlier, which is fine under their rules but is somewhat unappealing.

so, are we set for another North America WC or will we see a Central America & Caribbean island hopping one? (or FIFA just change their own rules)

We will find out in 3 or 4 years!

This is of course well meaning but total bollox, it'll go to whoever throws the most "benefits" to FIFA as usual.

Previous finals awarded confederations

1930 - CONMEBOL (Uruguay)
1934 - UEFA (Italy)
1938 - UEFA (France)
1950 - CONMEBOL (Brazil)
1954 - UEFA (Switzerland)
1958 - UEFA (Sweden)
1962 - CONMEBOL (Chile)
1966 - UEFA (England)
1970 - CONCACAF (Mexico)
1974 - UEFA (Germany)
1978 - CONMEBOL (Argentina)
1982 - UEFA (Spain)
1986 - CONCACAF (Mexico)
1990 - UEFA (Italy)
1994 - CONCACAF (USA)
1998 - UEFA (France)
2002 - AFC (South Korea/Japan)
2006 - UEFA (Germany)
2010 - CAF (South Africa)
2014 - CONMEBOL (Brazil)
2018 - UEFA (Russia)
2022 - AFC (Qatar)
2026 - CONCACAF (USA/Canada/Mexico)
2030 - UEFA/CAF/CONMEBOL (Spain/Portugal/Morocco/Uruguay/Paraguay/Argentina)
2034 - AFC (whichever middle eastern country throws the most money at it, so Saudi then)
2038 - should really be New Zealand and Australia NOT yet another visit to the US and Mexico

Seems the whole event is getting more and more farcical with the award of each set of finals. Really should be using UEFA countries more often as they are the only ones with the infrastructure and possible finances to be able to host it and you're more likely to get different hosts rather than the same countries all the time that you end up with when it's the other confederations.

Or how about all federations hosting the finals - that sort of farce can't be far off!

[Winston Biscuit]

This is of course well meaning but total bollox

was voted for in 2000.

[Green]

Bit early to start this one I know

Not at all, page one in.

I'm sure we'll all still be here when it comes round.

[Clyde1998]

Bit early to start this one I know, but I heard something interesting* at the weekend so thought I would relay it here

Current FIFA rules are that if your Confederation hosts a world cup, then it is barred from bidding to host the 2 world cups afterwards. We know that FIFA chose to award the 2030 world cup to Spain, Portugal & Morocco as hosts and then added some centenary games in South America, but they have since confirmed that South America is an official host of 2030, and they did that on purpose to exclude them from 2034 so that FIFA could give that one to their Saudi mates.

That all means that for the 2038 World Cup, the confederations of UEFA, CONMEBOL (south america), CAF (africa) & AFC (asia) all can't bid to host. This leaves only OFC (Oceania) & CONCACAF (North America, Central America & Caribbean) available to bid.

Australia left OFC some time back and are under AFC, so OFC's FIFA affiliated nations are just New Zealand + 10 pacific island countries. I think OFC as it stands is highly unlikely to host.

This would then leave CONCACAF as the only serious hosts, but the 3 North American countries would have already hosted just 12 years earlier, which is fine under their rules but is somewhat unappealing.

so, are we set for another North America WC or will we see a Central America & Caribbean island hopping one? (or FIFA just change their own rules)

We will find out in 3 or 4 years!

This is of course well meaning but total bollox, it'll go to whoever throws the most "benefits" to FIFA as usual.

Previous finals awarded confederations

1930 - CONMEBOL (Uruguay)
1934 - UEFA (Italy)
1938 - UEFA (France)
1950 - CONMEBOL (Brazil)
1954 - UEFA (Switzerland)
1958 - UEFA (Sweden)
1962 - CONMEBOL (Chile)
1966 - UEFA (England)
1970 - CONCACAF (Mexico)
1974 - UEFA (Germany)
1978 - CONMEBOL (Argentina)
1982 - UEFA (Spain)
1986 - CONCACAF (Mexico)
1990 - UEFA (Italy)
1994 - CONCACAF (USA)
1998 - UEFA (France)
2002 - AFC (South Korea/Japan)
2006 - UEFA (Germany)
2010 - CAF (South Africa)
2014 - CONMEBOL (Brazil)
2018 - UEFA (Russia)
2022 - AFC (Qatar)
2026 - CONCACAF (USA/Canada/Mexico)
2030 - UEFA/CAF/CONMEBOL (Spain/Portugal/Morocco/Uruguay/Paraguay/Argentina)
2034 - AFC (whichever middle eastern country throws the most money at it, so Saudi then)
2038 - should really be New Zealand and Australia NOT yet another visit to the US and Mexico

Seems the whole event is getting more and more farcical with the award of each set of finals. Really should be using UEFA countries more often as they are the only ones with the infrastructure and possible finances to be able to host it and you're more likely to get different hosts rather than the same countries all the time that you end up with when it's the other confederations.

Or how about all federations hosting the finals - that sort of farce can't be far off!

Saudi have the 2034 World Cup already, as they were the only country to bid to host. I hope FIFA waive the standard requirements for 2038, at least for South American countries (who'll only host a total of three matches in 2030), as it would be disappointing to go back to North America so soon after 2026.

It did happen with Mexico in 1986, but that was down to the original host nation (Colombia) not being able to afford the World Cup after it was expanded from sixteen to twenty-four teams and with increased demands for stadia/infrastructure after winning hosting rights. Mexico were selected as replacement hosts in 1983, but they already had enough stadia of the required standard due to the relative size of the Mexican league. The alternatives were Canada, who didn't offer enough grounds, and the United States, who couldn't give sufficient guarantees regarding logistics (and were being earmarked for 1994 anyway).

Whether the 'rotation' requirements are a good idea when there's a very limited number of countries that have the ability to host a World Cup and even fewer who could do it without having to spend a huge amount of money to reach the requirements. FIFA's requirements for the 2030 World Cup state there must be at least fourteen stadia with over 40,000 seats (with seven having to exist already). The opening match and final must take place in a stadium with over 80,000 seats, whilst the semi-finals must take place in a stadium with at least 60,000 seats.

At present, it appears only China, the United States and South Africa have at least fourteen stadia (suitable for playing football) that meat those rules. When adding vaguely realistic two country bids, you can add Japan/South Korea; England/Scotland; Argentina/Uruguay or Paraguay or Brazil; Germany/France or Poland; Italy/Spain. Not a wide selection of countries to pick from.

This is all without considering whether those grounds are suitable to host a World Cup (ie. not crumbling, etc.) as well as relevant infrastructure to go with it (hotels, roads, rail, airports, media, etc.), nor the distribution of stadia within the country (eg. how many grounds are in one city?).

Realistically, whoever hosts future World Cups will have to spend a huge amount of money simply to meet the requirements (basically limiting it to countries like Saudi Arabia) or there'll be three/four/five-way World Cup hosts or we'll be going back to the same countries over and over. If you could have some less attractive games at smaller stadia (maybe a minimum of 25,000-30,000), you'd open up a lot more countries as possibilities and reduce the costs of hosting a 48-team World Cup.