KEIR RADNEDGE in DOHA: The South American football federation has capitalised on the World Cup visibility from Qatar to ramp up pressure in favour of FIFA staging the 2030 finals in South America.

World football’s governing body staged the inaugural tournament in 1930 and CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez believes that nothing less than a return to the river Plate would be appropriate in eight years’ time.

Clearly Uruguay would be unable to host on its own an event which will expand to 48 years from 2026 but a four-way cohosting proposal is being developed with Argentina, Chile and Paraguay.

Domínguez, also chair of the FIFA finance comittee, described the bid proposal as “very solid” and said it the duty of the football family to mark the centenary in the most appropriate manner possible.

The only serious likely rival is a cohosing bid from Spain and Portugal which would have support from UEFA whose president Alakedander Ceferin is firmly on record as saying that “2030 wil be Europe’s turn.”

The most record finals in South America were in Brazil in 2014 and the most recent in Europe in Russia in 2018.

Dominguez said: “The candidacy [from CONMEBOL for 2030] is very solid. It is a responsibility of FIFA and the football family of how and what we are going to do to remember those who made that first World Cup, that was born in Uruguay.

“There will always be an opportunity for other countries starting after 2030 because the 100th anniversary can come only once and that is the time when time it has to be in South America.”

Domínguez said that further justification was the status of South American as demonstrated by the fact that Argentina were again in the semi-finals of the current World Cup.

He said: “Proportionally to the rest of the world the representation of South America is very large. It shows that South American football is here to compete and that it wants to propose bringing the cup home. We are going to fight until the end.”

FIFA, one way or another, will need to plan a centenary gesture. Even if congress should eventually vote for an Iberia staging it could consider staging the Opening Match in Montevideo.

The snag here is that the historic Estadio Centenario is inadequate for the demands of a major modern World Cup finals match. It’s doubtful whether the Uruguayan authorities would want to build an entire new temporary venue – though the Qataris have proved it can be done.

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