Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Greece ‘will proceed’ with their extraordinary bid to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup.
The governments of all three countries have given the green light to push on with the application process for what would be the second winter staging of the World Cup after Qatar this year.
Most of the costs will be borne by the Saudis, with the majority of matches staged in their country.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has sent the joint nomination file to a company in the United States for ‘processing’, according to Greek website TO10.
Previous reports have suggested an Egypt-Greece-Saudi finals would be staged during the European domestic season because temperatures in June and July in the host countries would be too high.
Saudi Arabia would be the lead partner and at least contribute to the infrastructure costs of Egypt and Greece.
It will be the second World Cups finals to feature 48 teams after the 2026 United States-Canada-Mexico tournament and is likely to require 16 stadiums.
UEFA’s favoured bid is a joint effort between Spain, Portugal and Ukraine after a combined United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland bid abandoned.
There is also expected to be a combined South American bid featuring Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Chile because 2030 marks the centenary of the first World Cup in Uruguay.
The report suggested there will be four venues in Greece – the OPAP Arena, Karaiskakis Stadium, Nea Toumpa and the Botanikos, a new stadium for Panathinaikos.
At least one new stadium will also be built in Egypt and at least two in Saudi Arabia.
Another World Cup staged in November and December is sure to be met with resistance from leading European clubs.
Domestic leagues in Europe will pause between mid-November and Christmas so the Qatar World Cup can be played to avoid summer temperatures of over 40C.
It comes after Saudi Arabia was awarded the right to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games at a £440billion megacity in the desert.
The games are set to take place in Trojena, Neom city, which is a planned mountain resort and is expected to be built by 2026.
The Arab state’s bid for the games, which encompasses 47 different events, was ‘unanimously approved’ by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA).–Mailonline
