Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay launch World Cup 2030 bid

[peppertree]

Last edited Wed Feb 8, 2023, 01:48 PM - Edit history (1)

Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay on Tuesday officially launched their joint bid to stage the FIFA World Cup tournament in 2030, exactly 100 years after the event was first held in South America.

"We are convinced that FIFA has an obligation to honor the memory of those who organized the first World Cup," said Alejandro Domínguez, president of CONMEBOL, South American football's governing body, in Buenos Aires.

Competition is intensifying before FIFA chooses a host in 2024. The so-called Mundial Centenario, or Centennial World Cup project faces a packed field in the bid for hosting rights.

The South Americans' main challenge is a joint bid from Spain, Portugal and Ukraine, which has the backing of European football's governing body UEFA.

Saudi Arabia is also considering bidding for the right to stage the tournament, lining up an ambitious bid with Egypt and Greece.

While three of the four countries (except Paraguay) have previously hosted a World Cup, none have done so since Argentina in 1978.

At: https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/sports/argentina-chile-uruguay-paraguay-launch-wc2030-bid.phtml

Argentine Tourism and Sports Minister Matías Lammens (fourth from right, with beard) joins counterparts and football officials from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay to present the Southern Cone 2030 World Cup bid.

The bid - which, if chosen in 2024, would be the first to include four nations - was presented "to honor the memory of those who organized the first World Cup" in 1930, which was held in Uruguay.

The four-nation group, home to 76 million people between them, faces stiff competition from a Spain/Portugal bid which added Ukraine at the last minute.

[Judi Lynn]

1. It seems the ONLY home for the 100 year anniversary of the World Cup would be where it began.

It's not exactly as if South Americans never really got the hang of the game and Europeans are the actual natural leaders who perfected it

Wow!

Only one place will work. Anything less is strange!

[peppertree]

2. I agree, Judi - though they may not be able to manage if right-wingers win in Argentina this October

Besides the shock devaluation (they would let the official dollar jump locally by 80%+, mostly to give their backers a massive windfall), a right-wing president will almost certainly also deregulate offshoring and the currency markets - and you know what that means:

Another currency collapse, by 2025 or so, like the kind Argentina already had in '81, '89, 2001 - and most recently under Macri in 2018. All of them preceded by currency deregulation of one kind or another.

That last one, you'll recall, didn't become a total collapse thanks to Trump's forcing the IMF to lend Argentina $45 billion. The "biggest campaign contribution in history," as Fernández called it during the 2019 campaign.

A new economic collapse in Argentina would - among many other awful things - preclude the country from even being able to host its share of the 2030 World Cup, for which billions would have to be invested in stadia, airport terminals, etc.

Thanks again for reading and sharing. Have a great weekend, Judi.

[Judi Lynn]

3. I never heard Christina Fernndez de Kirchner's observation at the time. Excellent! Sadly so true.

Unbearable cycle. Fascists destroy, leaving it for progressives to run themselves ragged trying to rebuild, while the fascists attack them. Pure hell, until fascism finally trips over its own excesses.

I surely appreciate your experience-based summary of their unswerving pattern for max self-enrichment after re-seizing control again.

Civilized Argentina needs time to heal after the last deftly executed economic catastrophe handed to it by Macri. Fernández has been handed a mega wreck to overcome. He was a hero by simply daring to run for the chance to fix it!

Happy Super-bowl Day, if you're a Mahomes, Kelsey, etc., etc., Andy Reid (he did coach at Philadephia, too, I've heard) well-wisher!

Looking forward to an early spring, anyway. This one will need to last until September to make things right.