By Andrew Warshaw
August 2 – England has moved a step closer to deciding whether to bid for the 2030 World Cup even though they would face strong opposition from a joint South American bid as well as one from north Africa.
Given that 2030 is the centenary of FIFA’s flagship tournament, it is widely assumed that the favourites would be a joint bid from Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay.
But ever since UEFA boss Aleksander Ceferin revealed he would back a European bid and cited England as one example of a country who could stage the event, speculation has intensified that there could be an English, or more likely joint UK, bid to bring the tournament back for the first time since 1966.
Morocco, after an unprecedented five defeats – the latest for 2026 – have announced they are coming back for 2030, most likely teaming up with Tunisia and/or Algeria for what would be the second straight expanded 48-team finals.
England has not staged one of the two big football showpieces since Euro ’96 but no decision will be made until next year on whether to make a concrete bid.
“Last month, the English FA board agreed to conduct feasibility work into the possibility of putting itself forward to be UEFA’s potential candidate to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup,” Greg Clarke, the FA chairman, said in a statement. “This work will take place during the new season and no decision will be made until 2019.”
The FA had previously declared it would not bid for the World Cup again until it was a fair and transparent process after being humiliated in its effort to land this summer’s tournament which went to Russia.
But the way in which the 2026 ballot was conducted in June convinced English FA bosses that sufficient progress had now been made to have another crack.
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