Why the 2030 World Cup is a bad idea….
FIFA announced that the 2030 World Cup is set to take place in Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Three of the opening matches are also set to take place in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. This will make it the first time that a World Cup will be hosted in three different countries.
Though on paper it sounds like a wonderful idea to span the World Cup to more than one country, there has been backlash regarding the decision by FIFA, especially because the three opening matches are held in South America.
Scheduling of Matches
In the past, the World Cup has always been held in either one or two countries near each other. The 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea is an example, where it succeeded because of the short distance. The same goes for the recent Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
The scheduling for the matches will be a mess. It will cause a disadvantage for the players that are set to play in South America. The average time difference between South America and Western Europe is about 5-6 hours. This will make the start time of opening matches different than they should. How FIFA will try to schedule this remains a mystery, though they’ve seven years to come up with a plan.
Disadvantage to the Players
The teams who are scheduled to play in South America will have one of the biggest disadvantages in the tournament. An average flight from Argentina to Spain is about 12 hours. Therefore, all six teams will have to travel to Europe and not only adjust to the time difference, but will have to mentally prepare to play on another continent with different weather conditions.
On top of that, they’ll have a shorter time to prepare for their following group match. Which would be a disadvantage compared to the other teams with the one day used to travel. This could cause major issues for the federations forced to play in South America.
Money Collecting From FIFA
Fans are already attacking FIFA for, yet again, devising a World Cup that centers around money. The 2022 World Cup was one of the most criticized ones yet. After several accusations of the decision to award Qatar the World Cup due to bribery, this caused former FIFA President Sepp Blatter to resign from his post. He admitted before the World Cup that issuing Qatar the chance to host was a “mistake”.
FIFA’s plan to host the 2030 World Cup on three different continents is just another way to earn more money while not thinking about the interests of the players and fans. The whole purpose of the opening ceremony and matches played in South America is to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the World Cup on the continent that started it all, but has FIFA thought out this plan thoroughly?
With FIFA already under fire for allegedly harming its players, the organization is expected to rethink their plans for the 2030 World Cup if the backlash keeps arising.
