Spain, Portugal to bid jointly for 2030 FIFA World Cup

Madrid: Spain and Portugal have confirmed that the two countries would be putting forward a joint bid to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup. 

Ahead of the friendly match between Portugal and Spain on Wednesday (local time), the football federations of both the countries ratified an agreement to share the event. The Spain/Portugal bid is the fourth to confirm that they will be participating in the process to host the tournament, Goal.com reported.

"This agreement means an important step for this common project of federations, but also for the countries. Soccer, sport, is a magnificent tool to inject strength and will to overcome in these moments of great difficulty," Goal.com quoted FEF president Luis Rubiales as saying.

"Few things can be more exciting than the opportunity to organise a World Cup and we cannot think of a better partner than Portugal. We go hand in hand with the Portuguese Federation," he added.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup is slated to be played in Qatar while the 2026 World Cup will be jointly hosted by Canada, United States and Mexico.

The hosting rights for the 2030 World Cup will be decided in 2024 by FIFA and the bidding process for hosting the event will start in 2022.

Earlier, Romania, Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia also signalled their intent to participate in order to get the hosting rights of 2030 World Cup. A joint-bid from Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Chile is also in the running to host the event. (ANI)