Izuchukwu OkosiWorld football governing body, Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) has announced it will postpone its vote on bidding rules for the 2030 World Cup, in which Morocco’s joint bid with Spain and Portugal is broadly considered a top contender.
The news comes after Saudi Arabia’s joint bid with Egypt and Greece was dropped, as Saudi Arabia reportedly considered the Iberian-Moroccan bid too strong to compete with.
Saudi Arabia as a country is also under the spotlight of the Amnesty International who believe that the Saudi government are using sports to cover for their human rights violation.
FIFA’s 200 members were supposed to vote in September 2023 to establish the final rules for the bidding campaign for the world’s most prestigious sports event.
However, FIFA has announced the vote would be postponed to the “last quarter of 2024.”
Currently there are two bids considered to be likely winners of the campaign to host the 2030 World Cup, a joint bid by Spain, Portugal and Morocco, and a South American bid by Uruguay, Argentina,Chile, and Paraguay.
A third potential contender, a tri-continental bid by Greece, Egypt and Saudi Arabia has fallen apart in recent days
On Thursday, Spanish outlet Marca reported that Saudi Arabia had decided to not bid for the football tournament, reportedly due to the strong competition it faced from the Iberian-Moroccan bid.
Spanish top media organization, Marca, reported that “after studying in detail the real framework of possibilities, Saudi Arabia has concluded that it is impossible to prevail over the Spain-Portugal-Morocco candidacy.”
The joint bid by Morocco, Spain and Portugal was further strengthened this week as Morocco announced plans to renovate six stadiums in preparation for a unique European-African football festival by three football-mad countries.
The two remaining bids could however still face new competition, as the official bidding process is yet to begin following FIFA’s vote on the official rules for the bidding campaign.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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