Greece dreaming of hosting 2030 World Cup
The year is 2030. And Greece is hosting the World Cup along with fellow Balkan countries Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia.
Watch LIVE GREEK TV including full GREEK SPORTS coverage from AGONASport.com!
No seriously. Whisper it, but it could actually happen. As it was revealed a couple of days ago, Greece will be part of a joint-bid with the aforementioned countries for football’s greatest showpiece - 12 years from now.
Even though the bidding race has not yet been opened for 2030, the prime ministers of Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania, and the president of Serbia, said on Friday that their countries will table an official bid to host FIFA’s prestigious event in stadiums across the four countries.
The idea was announced on the sidelines of a regional meeting in the Black Sea resort of Varna.
And there’s good reason for kicking off the project early, since South American soccer leaders are already promoting a three-way centenary bid by Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, which was the original World Cup host in the inaugural event in 1930.
There has also been reports of England soccer officials launching a feasibility study into bidding in a partnership with Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Ireland.
What would Greece’s participation look like as one of the hosts of a successful 2030 bid? Well, the country already has three suitable stadia in the Olympic Stadium and the Georgios Karaiskakis in Athens, and the Toumba in Thessaloniki.
Let’s not forget that also AEK’s new Agia Sofia ground will also be built long before then, so Greece would already have four great football cathedrals to play host to matches.
After hosting football matches during the Olympic Games in 2004, the last time Greece launched a bid to host a major soccer finals was for Euro 2008, when their joint-bid with Turkey lost out of eventual winners Austria and Switzerland.
