Leaked WhatsApp messages reveal the story behind Spain, Portugal, and Morocco's successful joint bid for the 2030 World Cup. As early as July 2018, talks between Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Royal Spanish Football Federation president Luis Rubiales discussed the possibility of a joint bid with Morocco and Portugal, according to The Objective. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez intervened as early as 2018 to convince Morocco to join the triple bid to organize the World Cup with Spain and Portugal. According to The Objective, talks between Sanchez and the head of the Spanish football federation about the joint bid began on July 8, 2018. Luis Rubiales, just a month and a half into his presidency of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, wrote a WhatsApp message to the Spanish head of Government asking for «help» in what he said was more than a «sporting operation» but a «matter of state». The message read as follows: «Dear President! Dear Pedro, I wanted you to know from me, in confidence, that we are working on a future pre-candidacy to host the World Cup in 2023 with Morocco and Portugal. I will discuss this with Minister Guirao in order to get the opinion of the government of the nation, which I hope will be positive, before going ahead and announcing it publicly. In the future, this will be more than just a sports operation... It will be a matter of statehood, and we all have to work together». The prime minister immediately replied that he would help him, saying, «Of course! We will talk about it at the time you want». From backroom chats to global stage Pedro Sanchez admitted to the president of the Royal Spanish Federation that the triple dossier is «an exciting project». Although the usual contacts to discuss the dossier involve the then Minister of Culture and Sports, José Guirao, Sanchez explicitly asked Rubiales to keep him in the loop. «Talk to him and then talk to us», he said. Rubiales also told the prime minister that FIFA president Gianni Infantino wanted to visit him in September to discuss the tripartite bid. On September 13, 2018, Infantino and Rubiales met in La Moncloa with Pedro Sanchez. At that meeting, FIFA and the Spanish federation discussed with the prime minister the idea of hosting the world's most prestigious sporting event jointly with Morocco and Portugal, but this was never made public. A few weeks later, «the president of FIFA informed the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation that he had received positive feedback from Rabat». On October 27 of the same year, just a month and a half after the meeting in La Moncloa, Sanchez informed Rubiales about his negotiations with Portugal and Morocco to host the 2030 World Cup: «The Portuguese have agreed to the World Cup project. I still need Morocco's approval. I have already told them. I'm waiting for the King». A month later, on November 19, Sanchez reached an agreement with Morocco, writing to Rubiales: «The Moroccans have agreed to launch the World Cup project». That day, Sanchez traveled to Morocco and announced in a press conference with then Moroccan Prime Minister Saadeddine Othmani that he had asked Morocco to join a joint bid with Portugal and Spain to host the 2030 World Cup, although talks about the trio's bid «had started much earlier, at least in October, when Sanchez told Rubiales that the Moroccans were waiting for King Mohammed VI's approval». The candidacy was first announced by the Spanish and Portuguese football federations on October 7, 2020. On March 14, 2023, King Mohammed VI, in a message on the occasion of receiving the 2022 CAF Excellence Award in the Rwandan capital Kigali, said: «I announce before this assembly that the Kingdom of Morocco has decided, together with Spain and Portugal, to submit a joint candidacy for the organization of the 2030 World Cup». On October 4, 2023, FIFA announced that Morocco, Spain and Portugal won the bid to host the 2030 World Cup, while the first matches will be held in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the first World Cup in history.
