Eduard Dervishaj: “The host city selection process for the 2030 World Cup is open. We are following FIFA’s procedure, which currently involves visiting the venues included in the initial bid.”

With FIFA’s technical visits to the candidate host cities for the 2030 World Cup currently underway, RFEF Director of International Relations Eduard Dervishaj has shared Spain’s perspective on the process to determine the tournament’s final host venues.

Following the first day of work in Barcelona, Dervishaj — who leads the team coordinating the visits alongside FIFA — assessed the current stage of preparations for the 2030 tournament:

“We are carrying out technical visits together with FIFA. The working group has met with public authorities and stadium representatives to evaluate where we currently stand and to plan the host city selection process. So far, we are satisfied with these working sessions.”

Dervishaj explained that the selection of host cities for the World Cup “is an open process”:

“No one can guarantee that we will be able to include another city, but from the RFEF we are working towards that possibility. We believe Spain has cities outside the current bid that could potentially host matches in the future.”

Regarding the possibility of additional cities being included in the final list of venues for the 2030 FIFA World Cup, the RFEF representative noted:

“We would like to visit as many potential host cities as possible in our country, but the procedure established by FIFA states that only the cities included in the bid can be visited at this stage. That doesn’t mean everything is closed, but we must follow the submitted process. Over time we will try to increase the number of host cities.”

Echoing the position previously expressed by RFEF president Rafael Louzán, Dervishaj added:

“We are the first ones interested in having more host cities in Spain. We believe there are cities, venues and stadiums that could meet FIFA’s requirements after further work is done.”

Spain will take on the leading organisational role for the tournament, which will be the first World Cup held across three continents and six countries.

“There is no specific deadline for completing the host city selection process, but we will try to ensure that all the proposed venues meet the requirements and that more host cities in Spain can be included. From the RFEF we are assuming a leading role in the organisation of the 2030 World Cup.”