Argentina and Uruguay will jointly bid to co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup, Aregtinian president Mauricio Macri and his Uruguayan counterpart, Tabare Vazquez, have confirmed.
Uruguay hosted the inaugural edition of the tournament in 1930 and went on to win the trophy defeating rivals Argentina 4-2 in the final.
Argentina have hosted the finals on one previous occasion, back in 1978, when they defeated Holland 3-1 in the final.
Macri has a football track record as a former president of Argentina’s Boca Juniors.
He said: “We have decided that our best opportunity is to jointly nominate ourselves as candidates. These things need to be planned a long way in advance.”
Uruguay has always contemplated making a bid for the centenary edition and an informal agreement to bid was reached three years ago. In November 2014, the Argentinian Football Association said that a lack of support from the government of Cristina Kirchner Fernandez meant the idea had been abandoned.
Now that Kirchner has been succeeded as president by Macri, the idea has resurfaced.
The most recent tournament was held in South America after Brazil won the right to host the 2014 World Cup as part of FIFA’s now abandoned continental rotation policy.
The 2018 finals will be in Russia and 2022 in Qatar. Bidding for 2026 had been due to start last summer but the process was put on hold after Fifa was beset by corruption revelations.
