San Mamés in doubt for 2030 World Cup over FIFA's new demands | OneFootball

Bilbao is having doubts about the 2030 World Cup. The General Deputy of Bizkaia said so on Monday, and the lehendakari confirmed it on Wednesday morning: Basque institutions are in the midst of deciding whether to submit a final bid to host the tournament that Spain, Portugal, and Morocco will organize.

The reason for the change in plans is FIFA. Its inspectors visited the facilities in Bilbao and Donostia in March and left with a list of additional requirements that no one had anticipated, and which apparently have changed the calculations.

Lehendakari Pradales did not specify exactly what FIFA is asking for. He only said that this work must be done "rigorously," that they have time — FIFA will not announce the host venues until January 2027 — and that the decision will be made "with the utmost responsibility."

San Mamés, which was set to host group-stage matches and a round-of-16 match, is now a question mark. What had seemed like a formality has turned into a problem with no public solution yet.

San Sebastián is not clear about it either. Mayor Jon Insausti already showed last week his reluctance for Anoeta to be a host venue, so skepticism in the Basque Country is not just a Bilbao issue.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.

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