Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday met with FIFA President Gianni Infantino to discuss the possibility of Israel hosting matches played as part of the 2030 World Cup, along with other regional states such as the United Arab Emirates, Israeli media reported.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
Former senior US administration officials, including former Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, also attended the meeting, the Prime Minister's Office said.
Infantino, who is visiting Israel and met with the prime minister in Jerusalem, said that soccer's world governing body was interested in expanding the men's and women's tournaments into annual events, which Israel could potentially co-host.
FIFA organizes the World Cup – the biggest sports tournament in the world – every four years. The 2022 World Cup will be hosted by Qatar, followed by 2026 in the three countries of North America, namely the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Speaking Monday at the opening of The Friedman Center for Peace through Strength at the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, Infantino said that the Abraham Accords – the US-brokered normalization deals Israel signed last year with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco – could see the Jewish state host FIFA soccer tournaments.
"Why can't we dream of the World Cup in Israel and its neighbors?" he asked. "With the Abraham Accords, why should we not do it here, in Israel, with its neighbors in the Middle East and the Palestinians?"
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
Founded in 1904, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association currently comprises 211 national soccer associations.
The FIFA World Cup is also considered the most effective marketing platform in the world, reaching millions of people in over 200 countries. The soccer world governing body's top-tier sponsors include giants such as Adidas, Coca-Cola, Wanda, Hyundai, Qatar Airways, Budweiser, Vivo, McDonalds, and Visa. In 2019, FIFA's revenues were pegged at $766 million.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
