March 21 – The four-nation South American bid to host the 2030 World Cup should definitely be regarded as the favourite to win the rights, according to the region’s top official, despite what will likely be a strong challenge from Europe.
Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile are teaming up to stage the tournament in what would be the first ever quadruple bid to mark the centenary of the competition first held in Uruguay.
The original 2030 bid was by Argentina and Uruguay, with neighbours Paraguay and Chile joining later and CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez says the foursome are the front-runners.
“Today I think we are favourites to win,” he told reporters. “If we do our job at Conmebol and the countries do theirs then we are favourites to win.”
Dominguez was speaking after a meeting with the presidents of the four bidding nations at the UN Conference on South-South Cooperation in Buenos Aires.
Stiff competition is likely to come from Britain and Ireland and potentially two more bids: Five-time losers Morocco – joined by either Spain and Portugal or Algeria and Tunisia – and a Balkan/east European quartet of nations.
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