The Prime Minister believed this Wednesday that the joint candidacy of Portugal, Spain and Morocco to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup is an important message for the world, symbolizing the proximity between two shores of the Mediterranean Sea and two continents.
On Tuesday, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI announced that that African country will join Portugal and Spain, who have been aligned with Ukraine, in the bid to host the 2030 World Cup.
Speaking at the end of the Luso-Spanish summit in Lanzarote, with the leader of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, at his side, António Costa considered that this joint candidacy of the three countries “is an important message for the world “. a symbol of the proximity between the two shores of the Mediterranean and between two continents.
“This joint candidacy of the Iberian Peninsula with Morocco has a very important message for the world, in particular for Africa and Europe. We are two neighboring continents that want to work together. We are not two continents that are far away or that want to fight each other he stated.
António Costa emphasized that the two continents, on the other hand, want to “jointly celebrate the practice of sport and all the values associated with it: healthy, fair, regulated competition”.
“This is the first time there has been a joint candidacy between the two shores of the Mediterranean, between Africa and Europe. It will certainly help unite what nothing should separate us,” he stressed, receiving applause at the end of his statement.
In front of the journalists, António Costa began to congratulate himself on the fact that the Portuguese Football Federation and the Spanish Federation jointly agreed to the Moroccan candidacy. It was an idea that existed initially, but couldn’t exist afterwards because of FIFA (International Football Federation) rules that didn’t allow countries from two different confederations to host a championship together,” he said.
However, according to the executive leader, “The president of FIFA understood that the regulations needed to be changed to allow for a new multicontinental candidacy”.
For his part, Pedro Sánchez said he “respects and celebrates” the decision of the three federations to submit a joint candidacy, as it increases the chances of winning and sends a “very good positive message”.
A positive message of “a close relationship between Europe and Africa”, namely between three countries that “share so many things”, the leader of the Spanish executive added.
Source: DN
