Simon Hunter
SPAIN and Portugal’s candidacy to host the 2030 World Cup may end up including a third country: Morocco.
The Spanish and Portuguese Football Federations are reportedly working on this option, and will carry out an exhaustive study over the coming weeks.
Such an eventuality, however, appears linked to the exit of Ukraine as a joint organiser along with Portugal and Spain. The country’s participation, announced in October, is currently up in the air due to an alleged corruption scandal involving its own federation.
This is what prompted the Spanish football authorities to leave the war-torn country to one side, until at least the situation is resolved.
The inclusion of Morocco had initially been ruled out, according to sports paper AS, due to the FIFA and UEFA authorities not allowing joint candidacies from countries that compete in different confederations.
This, however, has since changed after a bid from Greece, Turkey and Saudi Arabia was given the OK.
The inclusion of Morocco is expected to strengthen even further the bid from Spain and Portugal to host the 2030 tournament.
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