Cracks appear in Spain-Portugal World Cup bid 15/02/2010 |
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Spain’s sports minister Jaime Lissavetzky has questioned Portugal’s commitment to their joint bid to host the World Cup.
The two countries are bidding to stage the tournament in 2018 or 2022 against the likes of England, Russia, the United States, Australia and a joint bid from Holland and Belgium.
But Lissavetzky told Spanish newspaper AS: “I don't see Portugal overly excited. It seems that those in football are more interested than the politicians."
His comments will add weight to recent speculation that Spain is considering ditching its neighbour in favour of going it alone, with rival bids appearing to gain more traction.
Spain-Portugal’s budget of $10m is less than half of England’s and about a quarter of Russia’s, and the campaign does not even have an official website.
However, Lissavetzky added: “I do not want to end up in a formal disagreement them [Portugal]. If Spain and Portugal host the World Cup, it means they will secure themselves a seat as organisers and this would mean two locations from Europe. If anything, we have embarked on a journey.”
And despite Portugal’s apparent apathy, Lissavetzky believes the Iberian countries have a good chance of winning the right to host the tournament.
“I can see more opportunities/options than with Madrid 2016 [the Olympic bid],” he added. “We have football players who are fairly easy to market and [Fifa president Sepp] Blatter said that he would play in Europe in 2018.”
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