Khaled Al-Masry - Cairo
Former Egyptian Football Association President Hani Aburaida has announced his country's intention to submit an official file to organize the World Cup in 2030.
Aburaida's statement came a few weeks before the Egyptian Football Association elections, where Aburaida put this item as a priority in his files if he won the presidency of the federation.
On this matter, Minister of Youth and Sports Ashraf Sobhi confirmed Egypt's intention to submit a file to organize the World Cup in 2030, and said in press statements that Egypt already has a plan to host the tournament, and has the necessary infrastructure, and ready stadiums.
Sobhi refused to refer to the budget, saying, "Let's wait now until the file is officially finished."
A source inside the Ministry of Youth and Sports revealed to Al-Jazeera Net some details of this file, saying that "the costs of organizing Egypt for the 2030 World Cup will be very high, especially after raising the number of teams participating in the World Cup to 48 starting from the tournament in 2026 instead of 32 countries now."
The source, who declined to be named, said, "The first thing that FIFA addresses before the stadiums is the transportation infrastructure, road network and public services, which is what is available in Egypt now, despite the heavy crowd in Cairo, but things will go smooth and all plans for traffic liquidity will be developed."
On the stadiums, he said, "FIFA requested 18 ready stadiums according to specific requirements, and we currently only have 3 stadiums that meet these conditions, which are Cairo, Burj Al Arab and the Army Stadium in Suez, which are stadiums that have the full capacity required by FIFA to establish its international championships."
He continued, "As for the rest of the stadiums in the Arab contractors, air defense, peace, the Military College, Suez, border guards, Aswan, Fayoum, Sohag, Ismailia, Mansoura, Port Said, Petrosport, El Gouna, Alexandria, Assiut University, Beni Suef, and aluminum in Nagaa Hammadi, their absorptive capacities will be increased according to FIFA requirements."
He pointed out that Egypt "will set a budget to build from 6 to 8 stadiums with large capacity, if any of the aforementioned are rejected, and that the rest be transferred to training stadiums."
On the proposed budget, the source said that the authorities will initially allocate 700 billion pounds (about 45 billion dollars), more than twice the budget allocated to the last World Cup in Russia, which cost about 20 billion dollars.
He stressed that the distances between the governorates of Egypt will not be an obstacle to the organization, citing Russia 2018, which organized the World Cup in 12 stadiums in 11 cities, and benefited materially due to the movement of movement between the provinces there, whether by land or air.
The source pointed out that Egypt currently has 350 thousand hotel rooms, and it will be increased to 500 thousand rooms during the next 15 years.
Regarding the possibility of Egypt organizing the World Cup in a joint file with neighboring countries or the Gulf states, the source said, "Everything is contained and the air traffic is short distances, but this matter is a sovereign decision and no one can express an opinion on it."
Asked about the difference between the Egypt 2030 file and the 2010 file in which Egypt obtained a "zero" of the votes, he said, "Previous mistakes will be monitored, and work to avoid them, most notably is the disbursement of large sums of money on propaganda at home between citizens, which was useless."
On the other hand, a security source revealed to Al-Jazeera Net that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi was very enthusiastic about presenting the file for organizing the 2030 World Cup.
The source revealed that Sisi wants to flirt with the countries of the world as a man of love and peace, and seeks to polish his image internationally similar to what happened in the nations of Africa 2019, after he tried to present himself to the countries of the continent as a man who loves peace.
"Al-Sisi will use the file to consolidate his feet and international legitimacy more than before, and present himself to the world as a hospitable man, even if Egypt does not host the World Cup," he added.
He added, "Sisi will also flirt with European countries and East Asia, and make economic concessions that allow them to obtain projects in Egypt in exchange for facilities and tax exemption, if they win the organization of the tournament."