Sunday, December 22: The 100th Anniversary World Cup to be Co-hosted by Morocco, Spain, and Portugal!

Since it is the weekend, I would like to talk a little bit about soccer.

Last week, on December 11, FIFA held an extraordinary congress and decided that the 2030 FIFA World Cup will be co-hosted by Morocco, Spain, and Portugal.

Furthermore, since 2030 marks the 100th anniversary of the first World Cup, one match will also be held in each of the three countries: Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay.

As a result, matches will be held across Europe, Africa, and South America, making it an event of an unprecedented scale.

The next World Cup in 2026 will also be co-hosted by the three North American countries of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and starting from that tournament, the number of participating countries will increase from the traditional 32 to 48.

Because of this, the number of matches in the World Cup will increase, and a total of 16 cities across the three countries will serve as match venues.

Of course, as the number of participating countries increases, more training camps will be needed for each nation, so it is understandable that co-hosting will become more common as the scale of the tournament grows.

In Asia, there was the joint hosting by Japan and South Korea in the past, and the upcoming co-hosting by the three North American countries of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico were both cases of co-hosting within the same continent, but the 2030 tournament is the first time the main host countries—Morocco, Spain, and Portugal—will span across Africa and Europe.

It would be wonderful if various connections between countries and continents continue to become more active, starting with soccer.

Excluding the Olympics, the soccer World Cup is likely the only single-sport world tournament with a 100-year history.

Over these 100 years, it has produced various stars such as Pelé, Zico, Platini, Maradona, Zidane, and Messi, and has created numerous iconic scenes.

Since great matches and unscripted dramas will surely unfold over the next 100 years as well, as a soccer fan, I look forward to continuing to enjoy the World Cup!