Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay on Tuesday presented their official joint candidacy to host the 2030 World Cup, and asked for the tournament to return to “where football was born”, 100 years after the first edition, which was held in Montevideo.
“As world champions, we launch this candidacy that is the dream of all South Americans. Not just because of the centenary of the first edition, but because of the passion with which we experience football,” said Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia, president of the Argentine Football Association.
“FIFA needs to come to celebrate where football was born in 1930,” added Uruguay’s national Secretary of Sports Sebastián Bauzá at the press conference that was held at the AFA sports center following the first meeting of the Juntos 2030 Corporation (‘Together 2030’)
After the first edition was held in Uruguay, Argentina organized the World Cup in 1978 and Chile did so in 1962, while Paraguay never got to host the main competition for national football teams.
Conmebol president Alejandro Domínguez also said that “FIFA has the obligation of honoring the memory of those who made the first World Cup”.
Argentine president Alberto Fernández tweeted that “this candidacy belongs to the entire continent” and for that reason he will “propose that our brother country Bolivia is also part of this dream”.
The candidacy will compete with Spain and Portugal, who signed an agreement for their joint presentation, plus potential candidacies from Morocco and Saudi Arabia to organize the 2030 World Cup.
-Reuters/Herald