Madrid, June 1 (IANS) The cities of Bilbao and San Sebastian in Spain’s Basque region have formally joined forces in a single bid to host matches at the 2030 FIFA World Cup, which will be staged in Spain, Portugal, and Morocco.

The local authorities of both cities and the Basque regional government said on Monday that “the institutions of both host cities have been working seriously and rigorously for four years to become hosts of the 2030 World Cup and will continue along the same path in the subsequent phases.”

According to the Basque institutions, it was decided that instead of maintaining two separate bids, as had initially been the case, “in a process of consultation between both venues… to present FIFA with a single budget outlining the aspects they would be willing to undertake, considering that both venues would be combined into a single venue,” with each stadium hosting two group-stage matches, reports Xinhua.

The move ends the separate bids that Bilbao and San Sebastian had submitted for Athletic Bilbao’s San Mames Stadium and Real Sociedad’s Anoeta Stadium to each serve as World Cup host venues.

The two cities and stadiums, which are just 101 kilometres apart, will now share a single bid.

In recent weeks, rumours had circulated that both Bilbao and San Sebastian city councils had concerns over “the stringent requirements imposed by FIFA… both from an economic standpoint and in terms of their impact on the public.”

This will be the first World Cup held in North Africa and the first anywhere in Africa since 2010; in South America since 2014, and in Europe since 2018. In terms of the countries, this will be the first World Cup held in Morocco, Portugal, and Paraguay; Uruguay since the inaugural tournament in 1930; Argentina since 1978; and Spain since 1982.

FIFA launched the bidding process in 2022. Because of the rule preventing countries belonging to confederations that hosted the two preceding tournaments to host the next one,[7] members of AFC and CONCACAF could not bid to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup,[8][9] as the hosts of the World Cup in 2022 (Qatar) and 2026 (United States, Canada, and Mexico).

–IANS

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