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FA in talks with home nations over UK-wide bid to host 2030 World Cup

Martha Kelner

The Football Association has held secret talks with the other home nations about the possibility of a joint bid for the 2030 World Cup. The FA chief executive, Martin Glenn, and chairman, Greg Clarke, met their counterparts from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in Moscow on Tuesday and discussed a potential UK-wide push to host the 48-team event.

Over the next year the FA will weigh up the pros and cons of bidding for the World Cup for the first time since a bruising defeat by Russia for 2018. It has agreed to consult the home nations before beginning any campaign.

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The former Scottish FA chief executive Stewart Regan believes an England-led home nations bid is on the radar. “Everyone would like to see World Cup football in England and possibly the wider UK and it would be very strong financially,” he said.

“It would definitely be viewed as a low-risk bid. Not many countries have the quality of large stadiums that England has while Wales have hosted the Champions League final recently and Scotland is a Euro 2020 host and has a reputation for successfully staging major sports events. Northern Ireland may not meet the stadium requirements but could possibly be used for training venues.”

Any bid would face opposition from a joint campaign by Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. They opened Conmebol house in Moscow on Thursday in a ceremony attended by Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, and it was heavily branded with 2030 promotional material bearing their slogan: “Believe big”.

As part of the FA’s effort to improve its image on the world stage Gareth Southgate will introduce himself in the future as being from the “English FA”. The manager and other executives believe it will help remove any perception of English football as arrogant. In 2015 Glenn said the Football Association’s name was the “ultimate expression of arrogance”.