By Andrew Warshaw
July 8 – FIFA wants the centenary World Cup in 2030 to be jointly staged by Uruguay and Argentina, the countries who met in the final of the inaugural tournament, according to Argentine FA (AFA) president and Fifa senior vice-president Julio Grondona. In 1930, when only 13 nations took part, hosts Uruguay beat Argentina 4-2 in Montevideo in front of a crowd of more than 80,000 and Grondona said: “FIFA wishes to celebrate the World Cup’s 100 years in Argentina and Uruguay, I can confirm that.”
Grondona, one of the few remaining “old school” veterans in Fifa’s inner sanctum, has said he will step down from the AFA presidency in 2015, at the end of his current term. Yet he was quoted as saying on Argentine radio: “(An agreement) has been signed by the two associations (AFA and Uruguay’s AUF). What will we do?… We’ll see but surely something of quality.”
The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) is understood to be in support of a Uruguay-Argentina bid while it has been reported that Uruguay’s Tourism and Sports ministry formally approached Blatter back at the start of the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa to propose the joint bid.
The only co-hosted World Cup finals so far were organised by Japan and South Korea in 2002 and Grondona’s comments are bound to generate considerable interest both within Fifa’s inner sanctum and across the membership.
The choice of 2030 hosts is not likely to be made for at least another five years, probably closer to ten, by which time Sepp Blatter may no longer be president depending on his decision whether to stand again and any future decision on age and term limits.
Secondly, World Cup hosts are now to be selected by the full 209-strong membership of Fifa rather than its elite executive committee. Any prior handshake between Argentina and Uruguay – however informal – would potentially compromise other prospective bids. Thirdly, Uruguay has neither the stadiums nor infrastructure to stage a modern, 32-team finals. And fourthly, there is no guarantee anyway that it would be South America’s “turn” to stage the finals.