The 2022 World Cup in Qatar will be the first of many firsts. It would represent the first time the competition will be played in the Middle East and also in November but if reports are to go by, the 2030 edition could be the most unique one yet.
According to reports, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Greece are planning to submit a joint-triple combo bid to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup.
As per Egypt's Akhbar Elyom, the country's Minister of Youth and Sports, Ashraf Sushi, held a meeting earlier this month with his Saudi and Greek counterparts to fine-tune the final plans for the proposed bid.
Sobhi also expressed Egypt’s plan to erect a massive stadium in El Alamein to boost Egypt's sporting infrastructure and meet one of the major specifications of being a host nation.
Speaking to local radio station Mega FM, the Egyptian minister also disclosed that "Egypt is working on applying to host the World Cup and other sports tournaments in the future".
"The Egyptian state has the capabilities that qualify it to host the World Cup, but this issue still needs to be reviewed," Sobhi added, while stressing that Egypt have witnessed recent success in organizing several international tournaments including the Africa Cup of Nations, the Africa U-23 Cup of Nations and the World Men's Handball Championship all in the space of the past three years.
Not the first time Egypt have tried
It must be said that it isn’t the first time that Egypt have bid to host the World Cup. The North African giants saw an unsuccessful bid in 2010, losing out to South Africa who hosted the first World Cup on the continent.
Saudi Arabia’s decision to join a triple bid alongside Greece and Egypt comes after a previous attempt to make a joint-bid with Italy. The kingdom have recently started to show more interest in sports, having recently hosted the heavyweight boxing rematch between former champion Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk.
A notable figure at that event was FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who was seated next to Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. That alone does tell quite a story.
If the triple-bid goes on to be successful, it would be an historic one as we will witness the World Cup held across three continents for the first time in the competition’s history. It will also be the second time the competition will be held in Africa and the Middle East, following Qatar as the hosts of the 2022 edition.
Hosted in Japan and South Korea, the 2002 World Cup was the first time the quadrennial football event was jointly-hosted by two countries. The 2026 World Cup will also be jointly hosted by Mexico, Canada and the US.
