WC 2030 Bid

[Baile Brigín 2]

An intersting one that first surfaced in 2018. The Brits are going to bid for 2030 but after doing the sums want a joint bid. Ireland, Scotland, Wales and for reasons not yet made clear the 6c have been invited on board. Limits the investment England needs in stadiums and infrastructure as Dublin, Cardiff and one or both of Edinburgh and Glasgow are good to go.

Minimum criteria is a 40,000 seated venue and a city with an airport, a large number of hotel rooms and a train station that can handle large volumes and only one city can have 2 venues

So a possible lineup of:

London Wembley
London eile
Manchester
Liverpool
Birmingham
Newcastle
Cardiff
Glasgow
Edinburgh
Dublin

From a GAA perspective if they play it right a Belfast stadium could make that list

[dec]

So how many teams would get automatic qualification as hosts?

[Baile Brigín 2]

So how many teams would get automatic qualification as hosts?

That seems to be up in the air. No way 5 would but the 3 for 2026 are. When as I assume the IFA are discarded 4 could happen. But might not.

[thewobbler]

Is there not 48 teams qualifying for this World Cup?

I don't think 5 home nations is beyond the realms of possibility. There's going to be 20+ shite teams at it either way!

[Ed Ricketts]

Going to 48 teams in 2026 - might make it easier to squeeze the hosts in. Although they'd need to up the number of spots UEFA get from 16.

2026 is planning to have 16 host cities, with 16 groups of three teams. That could all change, but if 2030 ends up something similar you can see the need to expand the tournament beyond just England.

[Baile Brigín 2]

Going to 48 teams in 2026 - might make it easier to squeeze the hosts in. Although they'd need to up the number of spots UEFA get from 16.

2026 is planning to have 16 host cities, with 16 groups of three teams. That could all change, but if 2030 ends up something similar you can see the need to expand the tournament beyond just England.

Even the yanks can't host a WC with this many teams solo. Joint bids will become as common as the Euros.

But will we get to qualify automatically on the basis of one ground hosting 3/4 group games and one last 16 game?

[Gabriel_Hurl]

The Americans could have easily hosted a 48 team 2026 World Cup if they wanted to.

[Baile Brigín 2]

The Americans could have easily hosted a 48 team 2026 World Cup if they wanted to.

So why didn't they?

All but one venue is NFL. No soccer grounds

[Gabriel_Hurl]

The Americans could have easily hosted a 48 team 2026 World Cup if they wanted to.

So why didn't they?

All but one venue is NFL. No soccer grounds

I dunno - cost?
What does the fact they are using NFL stadiums have to do with it?

[Baile Brigín 2]

The Americans could have easily hosted a 48 team 2026 World Cup if they wanted to.

So why didn't they?

All but one venue is NFL. No soccer grounds

I dunno - cost?
What does the fact they are using NFL stadiums have to do with it?

So which is it? Easy to do or too costly?

That college stadia aren't 'good enough' and soccer grounds are too small meaning that leaves them with a relatively small pool of stadia to chose from.

[Eamonnca1]

An intersting one that first surfaced in 2018. The Brits are going to bid for 2030 but after doing the sums want a joint bid. Ireland, Scotland, Wales and for reasons not yet made clear the 6c have been invited on board. Limits the investment England needs in stadiums and infrastructure as Dublin, Cardiff and one or both of Edinburgh and Glasgow are good to go.

Minimum criteria is a 40,000 seated venue and a city with an airport, a large number of hotel rooms and a train station that can handle large volumes and only one city can have 2 venues

So a possible lineup of:

London Wembley
London eile
Manchester
Liverpool
Birmingham
Newcastle
Cardiff
Glasgow
Edinburgh
Dublin

From a GAA perspective if they play it right a Belfast stadium could make that list

Do the airports have to be connected to the train stations? If yes, Ireland can forget about it. Not one city has an airport with a railway station in it, even though there are places where you can see the tails of the planes from the train.

[Gabriel_Hurl]

The Americans could have easily hosted a 48 team 2026 World Cup if they wanted to.

So why didn't they?

All but one venue is NFL. No soccer grounds

I dunno - cost?
What does the fact they are using NFL stadiums have to do with it?

So which is it? Easy to do or too costly?

That college stadia aren't 'good enough' and soccer grounds are too small meaning that leaves them with a relatively small pool of stadia to chose from.

Ask US Soccer? I don't work for them.

They have a pool of 17 stadium they are using for 2026 of which they are picking 10. 13 other non-college stadiums were short-listed for use that applied and didn't make the cut.

They have more than enough non-college stadiums to host a 48 team World Cup on their own. 

No other country in the world has the same selection for use for an event like that.

[Cunny Funt]

An intersting one that first surfaced in 2018. The Brits are going to bid for 2030 but after doing the sums want a joint bid. Ireland, Scotland, Wales and for reasons not yet made clear the 6c have been invited on board. Limits the investment England needs in stadiums and infrastructure as Dublin, Cardiff and one or both of Edinburgh and Glasgow are good to go.

Minimum criteria is a 40,000 seated venue and a city with an airport, a large number of hotel rooms and a train station that can handle large volumes and only one city can have 2 venues

So a possible lineup of:

London Wembley
London eile
Manchester
Liverpool
Birmingham
Newcastle
Cardiff
Glasgow
Edinburgh
Dublin

From a GAA perspective if they play it right a Belfast stadium could make that list

Do the airports have to be connected to the train stations? If yes, Ireland can forget about it. Not one city has an airport with a railway station in it, even though there are places where you can see the tails of the planes from the train.

Doubt it matters. Liverpool, Glasgow, Cardiff Airports is a couple of miles away from a train station.

[thewobbler]

Working a) from the criteria in the OP and b) that 16 locations are needed, currently it would stand at:

London (Wembley)
London (Spurs)
Birmingham (villa)
Manchester (United)
Liverpool (Anfield)
Newcastle (United)

Cardiff (Principality)
Glasgow (Hampden)
Edinburgh (Murrayfield)
Dublin (Croke)

Sunderland makes all of the criteria - but is it really a different city to Newcastle?

With small extensions to capacity or minor exclusions you'd also get:
Leeds
Sheffield

That's 13.

From what I can gather the only major stadium project afoot in the UK is Everton. So 3 locations would have to be found and created.

—-

Casement might yet be built to host 40k soccer matches. Pairc ui Coaimh is bound to come under the spotlight too - converting it to an all seater would surely have less golden elephants about it than most potential projects.

[Hound]

Dublin would be the Aviva wobbler.
Croker would only be involved if they allowed Dublin as well as London to have two stadia. Not exactly within the current regulations, but not out of the question that an exception could be made.

If there's no suitable stadium up north, Croker could end up being NI's 'home stadium' for the tournament , with ROI taking the Aviva