Donald Trump has declared that the World Cup should return to the United States “immediately” and claimed he would ask Fifa president Gianni Infantino to help stage another tournament during his presidency.
The hosting rights for next two World Cup have already been decided. The 2030 edition will take place in Morocco, Portugal and Spain, following opening matches in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay to mark the tournament’s centenary, while the 2034 tournament will be held in Saudi Arabia.
Fifa’s rules for its World Cup bidding process prevents countries belonging to confederations that hosted the two preceding tournaments to host the next one, which means the United States are not eligible until 2038.
Trump, who will be attending his first match of this summer’s tournament at Sunday’s final between Argentina and Spain and will present the winning team with the trophy, said in a pre-match interview with Fox Sports that he had a “great idea” for Infantino to host the World Cup in the United States again.
He claimed that demand for the World Cup resulted in matches “overflowing” with fans. According to Fifa’s figures, the inaugural 48-team World Cup, held across 16 cities in the United States, Mexico and Canada, had an overall attendance of 6.6 million, more than the two previous World Cups combined.
“Based on the numbers we will be requesting it immediately,” Trump said, while acknowledging there would be “shock” and “anger” at such a decision. “We have to do this again, and we have to do this again while I am around, hear that Gianni?”
Trump also predicated that Argentina would beat Spain in Sunday’s final and would successfully defend their World Cup title, adding that “it’s hard to bet against Messi”.
The US president’s relationship with Infantino was one of the many controversies to cloud the build up to this World Cup, along with ticket prices, visa issues and the ongoing war with Iran, a competing nation, during the tournament.
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