JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia is in talks with sports chiefs in Egypt and Greece over an audacious joint bid to host the 2030 football World Cup finals.
“The three countries are working flat out” and “the application to organize the tournament is being studied,” Mohammed Fawzi, spokesman for the Egyptian Sports Ministry, said on Friday.
Egypt had hosted many world championships in the past three years, Fawzi said, and was well qualified to stage football’s premier tournament.
A source at Greece’s Hellenic Football Federation in Athens confirmed that the three countries were holding discussions about a joint bid.
If the bid is successful, the tournament would take place in the winter of 2030 to avoid the extreme summer heat, as with this year’s World Cup finals in Qatar in November and December.
The bid will face competition from at least two other joint proposals. Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay launched a bid in early August to host the 2030 World Cup, while Spain and Portugal announced their joint candidacy last year.
The joint South American bid aims to stage the 2030 final in the same Centenario stadium in Montevideo that hosted the first final 100 years earlier. World football’s governing body FIFA will select a host for the 2030 tournament in 2024.
Hosting major international sporting events, including European club football and boxing world title bouts, is a key part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 development strategy.
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Saudi Arabia in talks to host 2030 World Cup finals
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Saudi Arabia in talks to host 2030 World Cup finals
- Joint bid with Egypt and Greece faces rival applications from South America and Europe
Formula 1 champion Norris hungry for more glory
- The McLaren driver said that claiming the drivers’ crown had not changed his work ethic or his desire to be regarded a “hunter” rather than “the hunted“
MELBOURNE: Lando Norris said on Thursday that winning his first Formula One championship had only made him hungry for more as he gears up to launch his title defense at the Australian Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver said that claiming the drivers’ crown had not changed his work ethic or his desire to be regarded a “hunter” rather than “the hunted.”
“I’ve probably done the most training and things during the course of the off-season than I’ve ever done,” the Briton told reporters at Albert Park.
“So it’s certainly not the case that I was relaxing more or partying more or whatever it might have been. It was quite the opposite, in fact.
“No, I’m still just as hungry. I think it made me want it more, in a way, because you get that feeling.
“The same as when you have one win, you want another one in a race.
“For me, it was the same feeling as a championship; that one is amazing, but then you definitely want to achieve two.”
Norris won last year’s race from pole after arriving in Melbourne raving about the car’s performance during winter testing.
The constructors champions are less bullish about the MCL40 car’s off-season performance this year, with team boss Andrea Stella saying they were a step behind Ferrari and Mercedes.
Norris’s teammate Oscar Piastri, who led last year’s championship before finishing third, was similarly reserved about their early-season prospects, saying on Wednesday they should not be considered favorites to win in Melbourne.
Norris was more upbeat.
“Even if you’re second, third, or fourth quickest, I don’t think that’s on the back foot,” he said.
“I think that’s still a very good position to start in. And I think in previous years where it’s been harder to improve over the course of a season, we’ve certainly proved that you could.”
This year’s championship has plenty of unknowns due to F1’s major overhaul to chassis and engine regulations.
Ferrari’s seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton said drivers faced their most challenging season ever as they grappled with the power management demands of the more electrified engines.
Norris said he was still adapting to the changes and would probably continue to well into the season.
“(It will) probably (be) at least a third of the way through this year until we drive different tracks, different tires, different tarmacs, different weather conditions until I can get close to that level of accuracy that I was requiring last year,” he said.
The McLaren driver said that claiming the drivers’ crown had not changed his work ethic or his desire to be regarded a “hunter” rather than “the hunted.”
“I’ve probably done the most training and things during the course of the off-season than I’ve ever done,” the Briton told reporters at Albert Park.
“So it’s certainly not the case that I was relaxing more or partying more or whatever it might have been. It was quite the opposite, in fact.
“No, I’m still just as hungry. I think it made me want it more, in a way, because you get that feeling.
“The same as when you have one win, you want another one in a race.
“For me, it was the same feeling as a championship; that one is amazing, but then you definitely want to achieve two.”
Norris won last year’s race from pole after arriving in Melbourne raving about the car’s performance during winter testing.
The constructors champions are less bullish about the MCL40 car’s off-season performance this year, with team boss Andrea Stella saying they were a step behind Ferrari and Mercedes.
Norris’s teammate Oscar Piastri, who led last year’s championship before finishing third, was similarly reserved about their early-season prospects, saying on Wednesday they should not be considered favorites to win in Melbourne.
Norris was more upbeat.
“Even if you’re second, third, or fourth quickest, I don’t think that’s on the back foot,” he said.
“I think that’s still a very good position to start in. And I think in previous years where it’s been harder to improve over the course of a season, we’ve certainly proved that you could.”
This year’s championship has plenty of unknowns due to F1’s major overhaul to chassis and engine regulations.
Ferrari’s seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton said drivers faced their most challenging season ever as they grappled with the power management demands of the more electrified engines.
Norris said he was still adapting to the changes and would probably continue to well into the season.
“(It will) probably (be) at least a third of the way through this year until we drive different tracks, different tires, different tarmacs, different weather conditions until I can get close to that level of accuracy that I was requiring last year,” he said.
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