M\u00c1LAGA (Spain), July 13 \u2014 Spanish city Malaga yesterday withdrew from being a host venue for the 2030 World Cup, to be held in Spain, Portugal and Morocco.<\/p>\n
Spain had put forward 11 stadiums to be used, including La Rosaleda in the south coast city.<\/p>\n
However Malaga mayor Francisco de la Torre said hosting matches could cause problems for the city\u2019s club and fans, because of reconstruction work needed on the stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cChoosing between the World Cup and the club, we choose the club and the fans,\u201d said De la Torre after a meeting with the Malaga council and the regional government of Andalusia.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter (several) meetings… we believe that the most responsible, prudent and sensible thing to do today is to abandon Malaga\u2019s World Cup (hosting).<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the World Cup is a risk for the club and a problem for the fans, it\u2019s not worth continuing with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Malaga would have to play at a 12,500 capacity alternative stadium while reconstruction on La Rosaleda took place, and they currently have over 26,000 season ticket holders.<\/p>\n
The works would have cost an estimated 270 million euros (RM1.3 billion) but the mayor said the decision had not been made in order to cut costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want there to be a new stadium. It will not be for the World Cup but there will be, that\u2019s a firm commitment,\u201d added De la Torre.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not doing this to save money but because it\u2019s for the best for the city, the fans and the club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spanish second division club Malaga competed in the Champions League in 2013 but subsequently dropped as low as the third-tier amid a financial crisis.<\/p>\n
In March Spain\u2019s head of World Cup 2030 organisation Maria Tato resigned after being accused of fixing the process to decide which stadiums would host matches.<\/p>\n
Newspaper El Mundo said ratings for potential venues were altered to favour Anoeta in San Sebastian, at the expense of Balaidos in Vigo.<\/p>\n
The Galician city as well as east coast city Valencia are options to replace Malaga as a host.<\/p>\n
In June La Liga club Valencia completed financing for the Nou Mestalla stadium, which is scheduled to open in 2027 with a 70,000 capacity. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"M\u00c1LAGA (Spain), July 13 \u2014 Spanish city Malaga yesterday withdrew from being a host venue for the 2030…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[99906,2000,299,99597,7707,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-260836","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-2030-world-cup","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-la-rosaleda","12":"tag-malaga","13":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114844395457049993","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}