UEFA President Aleksander CeferinGETTY IMAGES
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin gave a "significant boost" to a proposed joint British and Irish bid for the 2030 World Cup by saying that he would not favor Spain joining forces with Morocco for a "rival bid," according to Martyn Ziegler of the LONDON TIMES. A Spain/Morocco bid is "viewed as unbeatable" as it would have support from both Europe and Africa, but Ceferin said that he "did not want to see cross-confederation bids." Spain’s politicians have made public overtures to Morocco about bidding together, "possibly with Portugal too." Ceferin said, "I’m not in favor of cross-confederation bids, to be honest. Someone should say to the politicians it’s not up to them to speak about who will be hosts for sports events or not. I’ve seen many politicians saying they will be candidates for this or that but they need to speak to their member associations. ... But no, I'm not in favor of that [the Morocco] idea and I will do whatever I can to have one European bid because that raises the chances of Europe hosting the World Cup extremely" (LONDON TIMES, 12/3).
