When it was assumed that the choice of the organization of the 2030 World Cup would not be made official until the end of next year, FIFA, in a lightning decision and after a telematic meeting, surprised its own and strange when he decided that the tripartite candidacy of Spain, Portugal and Morocco would host the event, but shared with Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina, to commemorate the centenary of the first championship contested in the Charrúa country.
When it seemed that the scandalous behavior of Luis Rubiales could overturn the Ibero-Moroccan candidacy, Gianni Infantino, quite an expert in the management of football balls, as he already demonstrated with the skill to extract the balls from the Champions League draws when he was general secretary of UEFA, justified the hasty decision and assured that “a world so divided needs union”. With this, for the first time the biggest competition in international football will be divided between three continents, Europe, Africa and South America.
The forecast for the start gives Uruguay the opening match, which will be played at the Centenario stadium, as it already happened in 1930, and at the same time it will share with the other two CONMEBOL countries three more matches in the inaugural phase. The rest of the competition will take place in Spain, Portugal and Morocco. In principle, the forecast is that the headquarters cities of our country will be Madrid, Barcelona, ??Seville, Bilbao or San Sebastian and Malaga. Everything points to the fact that, as in 1982, the mega Bernabéu will host the final. While Barcelona’s matches can be re-distributed between the new Camp Nou and the Cornellà-el Prat stadium, instead of the long-awaited Sarrià, which unexpectedly hosted the three best matches of the tournament in the second phase. The initial forecast was that Maradona’s Argentina, recently signed by Barça, and Italy would play in the Barcelona stadium, which was left without the aforementioned presence, as the two national teams finished second in the first round and went to stop at the perica bombonera, where Brazil was waiting for them. While a semi-empty Camp Nou welcomed Poland, Belgium and the USSR. There was an attempt to exchange seats, but Havelange, president of FIFA, advised by Porta, dismantled the strategy of Saporta, who presided over the organizing committee.
This was the best of the distant World Cup ’82, together with a magnificent opening ceremony led by Leopoldo Pomés, in contrast to the lack of enthusiasm that aroused the game of the Spanish team, led by Santamaría, who would be the version of the moment of De la Fuente and the unfavored mascot Naranjito.