Key Points
- The head of Ukraine's football federation says he believes football could help unite the world with Ukraine amid the war in the country.
- The joint bid for the 2030 tournament will compete against a collaboration between Egypt, Greece and Saudi Arabia.
Ukraine has joined Spain and Portugal in their bid to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup.
Announcing the move, the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) hailed it as an act of European solidarity.
They said the decision, announced at a news conference at the Swiss headquarters of UEFA, had the full support of European soccer's governing body and also of the Spanish, Portuguese and Ukrainian governments.
"Our bid is not an Iberian bid anymore, it's a European bid," Luis Rubiales, president of the RFEF, said.
"I'm convinced that now our bid is much better than before. Football is universal and if it is capable of changing the life of people in so many ways it should also be used for doing good," Rubiales added.
The Spain, Portugal and Ukraine bid for the 2030 tournament will compete against other candidacies such as a collaboration between Egypt, Greece and Saudi Arabia, and a joint South American proposal from Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Chile.
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Rubiales said the details of integrating Ukraine into the Spanish-Portuguese bid would be hammered out in coming months.
"We are convinced that by 2030 we will have peace in Europe and that Ukraine will be able to host it (the tournament) in the best way possible," said FPF president Fernando Soares Gomes da Silva.
'Dream of millions of Ukrainian fans'
The head of Ukraine's football federation, Andriy Pavelko, said he believed since the first days of the war in February that football could help unite the world with Ukraine, which co-hosted Euro 2012 with neighbouring Poland.
"This is the dream of millions of Ukrainian fans. The dream of people who survived the horrors of war or are still in the occupied territories and over whom the Ukrainian flag will surely fly soon."
No details were given about how many games at the 48-team World Cup would be staged in Ukraine or in which cities.
The 70,000-seat Olympic Stadium in Kyiv hosted the finals of the 2012 European Championship and the 2018 Champions League.
Russian forces invaded Ukraine on 24 February in the largest military operation seen in Europe since World War Two.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed during seven months of fighting, millions have fled and cities and towns have been reduced to rubble.
Moscow calls its action a "special military operation" to disarm and "denazify" Ukraine, while Kyiv and its Western allies say it is an illegal land grab.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the RFEF said: "The candidacy (of Spain, Portugal and Ukraine) strengthens ties with Europe by generating hope and providing reconstruction tools to the Ukrainian people, who have expressed their pride and gratitude for participating in this project."
The European bid is facing a South American candidacy with co-hosts Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, who want to mark the centenary of hosting the inaugural 1930 World Cup.
Saudi Arabia, which has built close ties to FIFA and its president, Gianni Infantino, has also been preparing to anchor a bid, potentially including Egypt and Greece.
About 200 FIFA member nations will vote on the hosts of the 2030 event in 2024.
The 2022 World Cup will begin on 20 November in Qatar, while the 2026 tournament will take place in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
