The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) will decide next November whether Zaragoza is one of 11 venues chosen to host the 2030 World Cup, in case the joint bid with Portugal is the organizer. The Aragonese capital will have competition, since 15 proposals were submitted, so now the city faces an intense summer of preparations. At present, the city hall will take this month to complete vote on the location of the future stadiuminfrastructure essential to their aspirations, while federal technicians will visit the city in September to verify the characteristics of the project.
The president of the RFEF, Luis Rubiales, chaired this Thursday in Las Rozas a meeting with the representatives of all the candidates to coordinate the process. The Aragonese delegation was made up of the mayor of the city, Jorge Azconand the town planning consultant, Victor Serrano, by the municipal council; the sports adviser CEO, Felipe Faci; the general manager of Royal Zaragoza, Raul Sanllehi; and the president of the Aragonese Federation of SoccerÓscar Flé, among others.
After the meeting, they all agreed on the same message: “illusion”. For the mayor, it is a train not to be missed, since it will generate throughout the country a €30,000 million effect. “We cannot fail, we cannot lose the opportunity that this means for the city in terms of projection, economy and consumption,” he expressed.
Azcón: “We cannot fail, we cannot lose the opportunity that this means for the city in terms of projection, economy and consumption”
“Competition is always exciting,” the mayor said of the scouting the Federation has to perform. In his opinion, Zaragoza “does the job” necessary to become a head office in 2030. To do this, the city needs the construction of a new stadiumand Azcón assured that the city council had gathered the “political and institutional consensus” for its execution.
The next step, he revealed, will be the vote of the municipal groups on the location of the future stadium, after the period of debate and listening promoted in recent months by the Consistory. Except surprise, everything indicates that the current location will be maintained, and that it will be formalized in a full this month of July.
Then, the project and the participation of the institutions and the club itself must be specified. In this sense, the general manager of Real Zaragoza, Raúl Sanllehí, was “open to any approach” and offered a “total predisposition” to contribute for the construction of the field, but without specifying the economic amount. “We want to know the project upstream, it will speed up the times”, he summarized.
For its part, Faci defended the DGA’s ‘commitment’ to achieving the goal of Zaragoza being one of Spain’s 11 seats (there would still be 3 Portuguese) of the World Cup. “I trust it because of its sporting tradition, because of its location, its people and its services,” he said. Meanwhile, Óscar Flé highlighted the “agreement between the institutions” and recalled that the Aragonese capital “has always been the protagonist” of the major sporting events in the country.
Faci: “I trust Zaragoza for its sporting tradition, for its location, its population and its services”
For its part, Luis Rubialesremarked that “it is time to be united” since “there are no political colors, it is a country project”. The President of the Spanish Federation highlighted the options for carrying out the organization of the world recalling that this is the only European candidacy, it must therefore have the support of the whole continent.
Rubiales explained that its technicians will be on site in September and October and that candidates must formalize their official commitments at this time. A month later, coinciding with the World Cup in Qatar, the Federation will carry out the screening to specify the 11 Spanish venues. Of course, we will have to wait until 2024 to find out if Spain and Portugal are finally chosen to organize the biggest international football competition.
Regarding sites that need to reform or build a stadium, such as Zaragoza, Rubiales indicated that “the administrations must speak” although he assured that there was a “strong involvement”. According to him, the economic profitability will be so “favorable” that “investments will come out”.