2030 World Cup Bid: Four Nations talk about bid

A bid to stage the 2030 World Cup will be discussed in a meeting on Friday.

The national football associations of England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will meet in Rome to chat about a joint bid for the 2030 World Cup.

In this meeting, the associations will have a look at potential venues to put forward if they decide on bidding to host the tournament.

This won't be an easy task because Fifa guidelines and specifications for World Cup games are really demanding and at the moment not even venues like Liverpool's Anfield or Manchester United's Old Trafford would reach the standards that they require.

What are some of the specifications?

The associations will have to show that they have considered stadium venues, spaces for teams and referees as well as accommodation and transport.

Some of the specifications include venue size which mostly specifies that the minimum seat capacity is 40,000 people but the finals go up to 80,000 people.

This specification would mean that Northern Ireland would have to build a new stadium.

Grounds also need to provide sufficient run-off space for players, as well as a host of other things including areas for photographers. This would mean that many of the stadia in the four home nations would need a bit of a overhaul.

What are the associations hoping to do?

The British and Irish associations will only look at grounds with a minimum of 40,000 seats.

They are hoping to spread matches out across the nations, but there could still be two or three stadiums used in London.

It's important to say that this meeting is the first step towards hosting a World Cup. It is simply to see if a World Cup in the UK and Ireland is something that could be done and how it would all work.

No final decision on whether to continue with the joint bid is expected before the spring 2020 at the earliest.

What do you think about this? Would you like to see the World Cup at home? Let us know!