Events

RFEF names 11 candidate venues for 2030 World Cup

Featured image credit: Xabier/CC BY-SA 4.0/Edited for size

Featured image credit: Xabier/CC BY-SA 4.0/Edited for size

The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has announced its 11 proposed stadiums for the 2030 FIFA World Cup, with Valencia’s Nou Mestalla among the venues that did not make the cut.

Spain is set to co-host the World Cup alongside Portugal and Morocco, with Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay also set to stage “celebratory” matches during the tournament. The RFEF announced a 15-venue shortlist in July 2022, which has now been whittled down to 11.

The selected stadiums are: Anoeta (San Sebastián), Camp Nou (Barcelona), Gran Canaria (Las Palmas), La Cartuja (Seville), La Rosaleda (Malaga), Civitás Metropolitano (Madrid), Nueva Romareda (Zaragoza), RCDE Stadium (Barcelona), Riazor (A Coruña), San Mamés (Bilbao, pictured), and Santiago Bernabéu (Madrid).

The four stadiums that have been cut from the initial shortlist are Balaídos (Vigo), El Molinón Enrique Castro Quini (Gijón), Nou Mestalla (Valencia), and Nuevo Condomina (Murcia).

Spain is set to be the main hub for the 2030 World Cup, with Morocco and Portugal set to have six and three host venues, respectively. The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) selected its three stadiums in March: Estádio José Alvalade, Estádio da Luz and Estádio do Dragão.

FIFA announced in October 2023 that the joint proposal from Morocco, Portugal and Spain was the sole candidate to host the 2030 World Cup. The bid still needs to go through the traditional process of allocating hosts for the tournament.

As well as the 11 proposed host venues, the RFEF has announced a list of 45 ‘sub-venues’, which will be used as training complexes and for other tournament-related activities. Between host stadiums and sub-venues, all of Spain’s autonomous communities will be represented at the World Cup.

Once the bid dossier has been submitted, FIFA will confirm the joint candidacy of Morocco, Portugal and Spain at its general assembly on December 11. The final venue list for the World Cup will then be confirmed at a later date.

The Nou Mestalla has been left out despite Valencia’s announcement earlier this month that it had received the green light from the city council to resume work on the project, which has been stalled since 2009.

In other news, a tender process has been launched for design ideas for Estadio Gran Canaria, one of the candidate venues put forward by the RFEF. The Cabildo de Gran Canaria last month gave the go-ahead for a major expansion of the stadium, home of LaLiga club Las Palmas, with the work set to take place between 2025 and 2027.

The tender is seeking “innovative” ideas for the project, which is set to increase the stadium’s capacity from 32,000 to almost 45,000. FIFA rules state that World Cup venues must have a capacity of at least 40,000.

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