Across three continents Six host countries The 2030 World Cup has become a big tour Chinese football's best chance is in the next one?

In the blink of an eye, the 2030 World Cup is almost "just around the corner". Yesterday, Beijing time, FIFA issued an announcement, not only confirming the hosting rights of the 2030 World Cup, but also taking the opportunity to issue invitations to the member associations of the AFC and Oceania Football Federation to bid for the 2034 World Cup. In the eyes of many "melon" fans, this invitation seems to be tailored for China, but in fact, Saudi Arabia, which has recently become famous for recruiting world-class stars, has taken the lead, and there may be more than one Saudi Arabia responder in Asia alone.

According to FIFA's announcement, because the 2030 World Cup marks the centennial milestone of the event, it will be co-hosted by six countries in Europe, South America and Africa, including Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. However, the "treatment" of the six "host" teams is not the same, of which three teams from Spain, Portugal and Morocco will directly qualify for the World Cup, while three teams from South America will still have to participate in the qualifiers. South American media reports indicate that FIFA's plan is that the three South American teams will play the first match of the World Cup in their respective countries, and the rest of the matches will be moved to another three countries. FIFA President Gianni Giannino said: "The FIFA Council, representing the entire football world, has unanimously agreed to hold the centenary celebration of the World Cup, the first of which was held in Uruguay in 1930, so this is the most appropriate way. The celebration will be held in South America, where Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay will each host a match for the 2030 World Cup. The first of these three matches, of course, will be played at the place where it started - the Montevideo Centennial Stadium. This means that after the three South American national teams complete their first games on home soil, the six teams involved will have to travel to the main stadium in Spain, Portugal or Morocco. The newspaper "As" revealed that most of the matches will be played in Spain, at least 15 stadiums have been in the primary list, and 11 stadiums may host the competition in the future, while Portugal will have 3 stadiums and Morocco will only 1.

Although many fans jokingly claim that the Chinese men's football team is the first team to prepare for the 2030 World Cup, compared with the 2030 World Cup, which is a big tour, Chinese fans are more concerned about FIFA's invitation to bid for the 2034 World Cup from the AFC and Oceania Football Federation member associations. After all, with the current level and development prospects of Chinese football, the best way to enter the World Cup is to become a host. At the end of last year, Qingdao even bid for major international events such as the World Cup and the Club World Cup into the "14th Five-Year Plan" period of the National Football Development Key City Construction Plan. Of course, if you want to be the host of the 2034 World Cup, in addition to the will and planning of the relevant parties, you will also face competition from other countries and regions in Asia.

As soon as the relevant news of FIFA was announced, the Saudi Football Association followed up at the speed of light, announcing that it would bid separately for the 2034 World Cup. In fact, Saudi Arabia, together with Egypt and Greece, has previously agreed to jointly bid for the 2030 World Cup, and promised to provide partners with the funds needed for infrastructure construction. However, because Greece's infrastructure is relatively backward, and the domestic environment is difficult for hosting the competition. At that time, Spain and Portugal had announced joint bids, Morocco alone bids, and Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay also announced joint bids at the Argentine Football Federation's training base, all of which pulled Saudi Arabia out of the race to host the 2030 World Cup in late June. Now, as the opportunity to bid for the 2034 World Cup returns, the Saudis can't wait to release the world's first office bid. In fact, the Saudis, who are not poor in money, have already dabbled in other sports, such as a 10-year, $500 million partnership with the American Wrestling Federation in 2018; In 2021, the F1 Saudi Grand Prix was introduced for $600 million; At the beginning of 2021, the Saudi Public Investment Fund invested 3 billion yuan in the US game 3 giant; Last September, the country unveiled its National Strategy for Gaming and Esports, which plans to make Saudi Arabia the world's esports hub by 2030... It is no exaggeration to say that this bid for Saudi Arabia is prepared and determined to win.

The successful hosting of the Women's World Cup has made Australia more eager to host the Men's World Cup.

In addition to Saudi Arabia, the enthusiasm of the Australian side has also been used by FIFA. The just-concluded Women's World Cup has sharply heated up football in Australia and New Zealand, even less than their previous more enthusiastic rugby. In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports at the end of the competition, Australian Football Federation CEO James Johnson said: "We will bid for the 2034 Men's World Cup, we are now thinking about it, I think hosting the best Women's World Cup ever opened the door for us, and we are very serious about the opportunity to bid for the 2034 World Cup." And Grant Robertson, New Zealand's sports minister, also agreed with the proposal. Compared with Saudi Arabia and Oceania countries, Southeast Asian countries also have the intention to jointly bid. As early as April this year, the Vietnamese media's disclosure of this matter attracted a lot of attention. Vietnam abandoned hosting the 2018 Asian Games because of lack of funds, and Indonesia, which took over the event, made a huge profit, which seems to provide new ideas for relatively small Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar and Cambodia, and of course cannot ignore the enthusiasm of countries such as Malaysia and Thailand.