Madrid, Mar 16 (Agency) The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) said on Wednesday that the Spanish and Portuguese football federations were confident that Ukraine’s participation in the joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup was still possible, but the decision would be made later. Ukraine initially joined the three-way bid, but The Athletic publication reported earlier this month that the arrest of Ukrainian football boss Andriy Pavelko on corruption charges and reconstruction that still needed to be done ahead of group-stage matches made it an increasingly unlikely candidate. Following the news, Moroccan King Mohammed VI announced that Morocco would replace Ukraine as the third host nation in the joint bid together with Spain and Portugal. “The Spanish and Portuguese Federations are confident that the Ukrainian Federation and its president will overcome the difficulties they are currently going through in order to present a joint candidacy of the four countries,” RFEF said in a statement on the website.
The Spanish Federation also announced that Morocco had officially joined the bid to host the 2030 World Cup. “Luis Rubiales and Fernando Gomes, presidents respectively of the RFEF and the FPF [the Portuguese Football Federation], have reached an agreement with Fouzi Lekjaa, president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF), to form a transversal bid that is as powerful as possible, not only on a sporting level, but also in terms of infrastructure and in social and cultural terms,” the statement read. Spain’s Federation called the bid a historic one “as for the first time a men’s World Cup would be held jointly on two different continents.” RFEF also said that the decision was announced to the representatives of the European federations at the UEFA meeting organized on the occasion of the 73rd FIFA Congress and was received “very positively and with massive support.”