Spain appears determined to secure more host cities for the 2030 World Cup. After FIFA unveiled its upcoming inspection schedule in Morocco, Portugal and Spain on Tuesday, October 27, Spanish sports daily AS reported that two additional cities, Valencia and Vigo, could enter the running. Neither, however, appears on the list officially released by the international governing body.
In its report, AS describes the possible addition as a major step forward for the two Spanish cities, which were absent from the initial bid. The newspaper even claims that FIFA will visit them in November and December, alongside the 15 cities officially selected for this new round of inspections.
Yet FIFA’s official announcement makes no mention of such plans. It lists the cities scheduled for upcoming visits as “Agadir, Barcelona, Bilbao, Casablanca, Fez, Las Palmas, Lisbon, Madrid, Marrakech, Porto, Rabat, San Sebastián, Zaragoza, Seville and Tangier.” Valencia and Vigo are not on the list.
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The governing body does leave the door open to further inspections, stating: “In addition, FIFA reserves the right to visit other sites during the stadium selection process.”
This provision appears to be the basis for AS’s report. But the possibility of visiting additional sites is not the same as confirmation that two new candidate cities have been accepted, a distinction the Spanish newspaper appears to have glossed over.
The outlet also claims this would be a first, with FIFA agreeing to consider cities that were not included in the official bid.
The report comes as the allocation of World Cup 2030 matches among the three host countries remains undecided. Spain already has seven cities on FIFA’s official inspection schedule, compared with six in Morocco and two in Portugal. If Valencia and Vigo were added and all nine Spanish cities were eventually selected, Spain’s potential host-city count would rise to nine.
Such a prospect would inevitably reopen debate over the share of the tournament assigned to each of the three countries.
For now, however, there is no confirmation that either Spanish city will receive an inspection, let alone host World Cup matches.
FIFA has stressed that the visits will assess each city’s state of readiness, infrastructure, accommodation capacity and proposed operational arrangements. Its representatives will also meet local and national authorities, stadium managers and other stakeholders involved in organizing the tournament.
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The final selection of host cities will be made once this process is complete. Only afterward will FIFA determine the number and type of matches assigned to each stadium.
For now, contrary to what AS suggests, FIFA has officially announced neither the addition of Valencia and Vigo to the list of candidate cities nor scheduled inspection visits to either location.
Spain can still hope to expand its presence on the 2030 World Cup map. But FIFA will have to confirm those ambitions first. For now, the governing body’s official statement is far less definitive than the Spanish newspaper’s report.
