Madrid, July 20 (HS). Spain’s sports officials have announced the football grounds to host the matches of the 2030 World Cup finals. The country will host the 2030 World Cup finals along with Portugal and Morocco.
The full list of host stadiums is to be officially submitted to FIFA by the end of July, and includes two grounds in both the Spanish capital Madrid and Barcelona, including Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium and Atletico Madrid’s Metropolitano Stadium, FC Barcelona’s Camp Nou Stadium and Espanyol’s Cornella-El Prat.
Both the Bernabeu and Camp Nou are candidates to host the final, with the Bernabeu currently the favourite. The remaining grounds are Athletic Club Bilbao’s San Mames Stadium, Real Sociedad’s Reale Arena (in San Sebastián) and Deportivo La Coruña’s Riazor Stadium.
The Estadio de La Cartuja in Seville is another venue, and was chosen ahead of the home grounds of both Sevilla and Betis in the city, while Málaga’s La Rosaleda Stadium is another venue in the south of Spain.
La Romareda in Zaragoza is also one of the venues, although that ground would need extensive improvements, as would the Estadio de Gran Canaria, home to Las Palmas and located in the Canary Islands, about three hours away by plane from Madrid.
Perhaps the surprise in the choice of grounds is that there is no stadium in Valencia, one of Spain’s largest cities. This is mainly due to the fact that Valencia’s Mestalla Stadium also needs extensive improvements, but this is unlikely to happen as work has been halted for 15 years on the partially built Nou Mestalla ground, which is intended to one day become the club’s new home.
