Diego Pinto / FPF
FIFA confirmed that Portugal will be one of the (six) countries to organize the event. Will the investment really be residual?
Portugal, Spain e Morocco will organize the World Cup 2030 of football, FIFA made official, after voting on the single candidacy during its extraordinary congress, held in Zurich.
Single candidate, the proposal from Portugal, Spain and Morocco, called `Yalla Come on!`, predicts that the bulk of the tournament will be played in these three countries, while three other final stage games will take place in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguayas a way of celebrating the centenary of the competition, whose first edition took place in Uruguay, in 1930.
The three stadiums Portuguese venues that will host World Cup 2030 games will be the Estádio da Luz, the Estádio José Alvalade, both in Lisbon, and the Estádio do Dragão, in Porto, and the Benfica venue — the only one of the three with a minimum capacity of 60,000 seats — should host one of the semi-finals of the competition.
Portugal debuts in the World Cup organizationafter having already hosted the 2004 Euro Cup, Spain organized the 1964 Euro and the 1982 World Cup and Morocco only hosted the African Cup of Nations (CAN) in 1988, a condition it will repeat in 2025.
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, considered that the organization of the event “is a financial effort worth it“.
Carlos Moedas, president of Lisbon City Council, said that the municipality will to help no that power no investment: “We are going to do everything we can, we are going to try to do as much as we can in this part of the investment, because for us the return is important, in fact, as you have already seen with our help at World Youth Day”.
But, after all, How much will the investment be? And the return?
The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Pedro Duarte, admitted that “there may be some associated investment. But the investment it will be, I would say residual, given the impact of the return we are expecting”, he added.
“This is because, on the occasion of the Euro 2004, A significant investment was made in new stadiums, in other types of infrastructure that are adjacent to the stadiums themselves. And therefore, at this point, we will eventually need some investment, but that is a investment what would I say natural, which would always occur in the circumstance that we need to update, of modernize some infrastructures”, he assured.
In fact, the Benfica, FC Porto and Sporting stadiums will be targets for investment in structures before the World Cup. But it is not yet known how much it will cost in total.
And commentator Paulo Ferreira leaves other doubts: the “big three” they really need to improve or increase the capacity of their stadiums? Just like Benfica already (in increasing the number of seats) and as Sporting and FC Porto announced (in improving structures).
With the reduced average number of spectators in the I Liga, questions remain about the “rationality” of these investments: “Who will pay these accounts? The clubs? Public limited companies? Or the taxpayers?”
Regarding the return, the same minister, Pedro Duarte, responded: “We are going to have a very impactful returnI think there is no doubt about that. This comes. The return will be very favorable”, he guaranteed, without presenting numbers.
The Prime Minister presented numbers: “The conclusions are that, across the three countries, there will be created around 409 thousand jobsand in Portugal we will be talking about 18 to 23 thousand jobs in this organization”.
The Prime Minister cited a study that shows that the co-organization of the 2030 World Cup will have an economic impact of between 707 and 859 million euros on GDP, and a return of 8.5 euros for every euro invested by Portugal.
“In all three countries, for each euro invested, in principle, there is a return of 1.8 euros. In the Portuguese case, each euro invested will result, according to the study, in a return of 8.5 euros”, he said.
Paulo Ferreira also has doubts about these numbers. And he announced on the radio: “I don’t know where the Prime Minister will get these numbers. But not even drug trafficking will make a comeback like this!“.
“If this is true, we should organize alone the World Cup! We would solve most of our economic problems. It would be good if the Prime Minister explained these numbers”, added the political commentator.
According to the study cited by the prime minister, Portugal will also see a 2.3% increase in usual tourism revenue, estimated at between 300 and 500 thousand visitors.
