Spain and Portugal on Wednesday included Ukraine in their joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup, offering a European front with a strong political tone and pleading for “hope” amid a war on Ukrainian soil, AFP reported.

Ukraine will host the 2030 FIFA World Cup together with Spain and Portugal

“Now this is no longer an Iberian candidacy,” issued in June 2021, but “this is a European candidacy,” said the president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Luis Rubiales, during a press conference with his Portuguese and Ukrainian colleagues.

On the occasion of the centenary of the World Championship of Royal Sports, which was started in Uruguay in 1930, the three countries intend to “symbolize the unity of Europe” with the support of UEFA, which held this meeting with the media, stressed Andriy Pavlenko. , President of the Federation of Ukraine.

This possible joint organization of three non-neighboring countries raises many practical questions, from the preparation of infrastructure to the movement of players, media and fans, a situation that already existed in the summer of 2021 on the occasion of EURO 2020 being held in eleven cities across the continent.

But with Ukraine in the midst of a war following the Russian invasion in February, it is not yet time for details, but to bet on the “transformative power of football in society,” Rubiales said.

“The institutional center is in Madrid, the administrative center is in Lisbon. Now a delegation of Ukraine will join us. In the coming months, we will start field work,” said the head of Spanish football.

The federations of Spain and Portugal, with the support of their governments, have so far relied on the traditional continental rotation of the tournament to ensure that the 2030 finals will be hosted after the 2022 Qatar finals and the 2026 finals. jointly by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Ahead of the Iberian bid and a FIFA decision expected in 2024, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Paraguay represent strong opposition with the prospect of returning the World Cup to South America, the place where it was born for centuries and where people vibrate more for football than for any other sport.

A third candidate with a better hypothetical chance could compete for the 2030 World Cup after Egypt announced on September 9 that it would hold consultations on the matter with Saudi Arabia and Greece, according to Agerpres.

Volodymyr Zelenskyi – Ukraine’s candidacy is a symbol of victory

But in the meantime, the duel between the two official candidates takes on a new dimension, especially in the sports world, which has reacted to the conflict in Ukraine by banning Russians from most international competitions.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy congratulated the “symbol of victory”.

This candidacy, he wrote on Twitter, “is more than a symbol of faith in our common victory.”

“Ukraine will endure, win and rebuild thanks to the solidarity of our partners,” Zelenskyy added.

“Ukraine cannot disappear from our memory after the end of the war. Helping Ukrainians means integrating them into projects of this scale, giving them hope for the future,” said the president of the Portuguese Football Federation, Fernando Gomes.

Pedro Sánchez, the head of the Spanish government, in turn spoke out on Twitter in favor of a “championship for peace”, while his Lusitanian counterpart, Antonio Costa, intends to see the candidacy as a demonstration of “Europe’s best values”.

Spain is the only one of three countries to have hosted the FIFA World Cup in 1982, and they have each hosted the European Championship: Spain in 1964, Portugal in 2004 and Ukraine in 2012, along with Poland, before hosting the 2018 Champions League final year at the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv.