British and Irish FA's set to meet to discuss potential bid for World Cup 2030

A surprise move to hold the World Cup in 2030 in both Britain and Ireland is set to be discussed by all relevant parties this week. The national football associations of all British countries as well as the Republic of Ireland will meet in Rome to begin discussions regarding holding football’s biggest event on both British and Irish shores simultaneously.

The meeting will apparently include critical details such as analysis of which venues will be suitable to host games and the logistics surrounding the organisation of such a huge cross-country event. Which of course will need to be planned meticulously and put forward in an orderly fashion if as serious bid is to be put into action.

The announcement for a potential domestic 2030 World Cup bid comes off the back of the recent plan to expand the competition from 32 to 48 teams for the 2026 World Cup, which was recently approved by the majority of football federations around the world.

As it stands, the 2026 event, which itself will be staged across the three vast countries of the United States, Mexico and Canada will be spread across 16 different locations. Meaning that if the British and Irish bid is successful for 2030 that they will have the opportunity to analyse how an expanded, multi-country approach to hosting the famous tournament could actually work when it comes to closer shores.

There will also be an opportunity to see how such an approach could feasibly work in both the UK and Ireland when the cities of London, Glasgow and Dublin host matches in next summer’s European Championship.

Yet in reality there will be pressure to host as many games as possible away from the major cities and stadia (particularly those in London) in order to give the tournament a fair geographical spread across the five countries that will be involved in the meeting in Rome.

Though, due to ever strict FIFA specifications when it comes to World Cup venues, some of the biggest club stadiums in the UK such as Anfield, Old Trafford and even the freshly built White Hart Lane, do currently not meet the standards required by FIFA.

At present, these stadiums would need to be amended so that the scores of photographers have sufficient space to work in and players have enough space to run on and off the pitch.

Clearly there will be a wide range of issues for the associations of all countries involved in a 2030 bid to discuss.

In addition, in these trying political times for Britain and Ireland, governments of both countries would have to fully back a potential bid when approached about it to get the ball rolling. An initial example of this being the fact that the UK government would have to approve building a new venue in Belfast.

As time goes on it will become evident if this initial meeting in Rome between the five countries that could host the 2030 World Cup will materialise into anything concrete.

And fans will have to wait until at least the middle of 2020 to see if a bid is actually made to bring football to these shores for the first time since 1966.