2030 World Cup set to be played across three continents

The 2030 World Cup will mark 100 years of the competition

The 2030 edition marks 100 years since the first World Cup and FIFA have decided to award Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay the opening three games to mark the centenary year, as per The Athletic.

A South American bid had been put forward to host the entire tournament in honour of Uruguay winning the inaugural World Cup, Argentina finishing runners up while the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) headquarters are based in Paraguay. CONMEBOL was the only confederation in existence at the time of the 1930 tournament.

All six countries will qualify automatically for the tournament with the three nations travelling along with their opponents to Morocco, Spain and Portugal after the games.

This will be the first time a World Cup has been hosted across three separate continents. Morocco will host the World Cup for the first time after being unsuccessful in five previous bids.

The African nation had initially launched a sole bid before joining up with Spain and Portugal in March. It will be a first World Cup for Portugal too - who hosted Euro 2004 while Spain hosted the World Cup back in 1982.

As part of it's rotation rules, FIFA will look to award welcome bids from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) for the 2034 tournament.

Alejandro Dominguez, CONMBEOL president, wrote on Twitter: “We aimed high and dreamed big. The 2030 Centenario World Cup starts where it all began.”

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