2026 admirable but unrealistic goal for staging Football World Cup

Martin Snedden's vision, as put forward in yesterday's Herald, would be a sporting utopia for this country. Photo / Greg Bowker

Talk of New Zealand one day co-hosting the Football World Cup is great to hear, but there is no realistic way it would happen before 2050.

Martin Snedden's vision, as put forward in yesterday's Herald, would be a sporting utopia for this country. It's an admirable goal and typical of Duco chief executive Snedden, who has always embraced "stretch" goals and chosen to ask "why not?" instead of being intimidated by seemingly impossible odds.

But talk of this country being in the frame for the 2026 or 2030 tournaments is way off the mark; we need to measure any such possibilities in Interstellar-like time frames.

On the positive side, 35 years would give us plenty of time to sort out a stadium or two. Last time I checked, Fifa has yet to allow any World Cup game to be played in a cricket ground. For all its foibles, the Zurich-based organisation does put a premium on atmosphere and excitement and would insist on rectangular stadiums with a minimum of 40,000 capacity. That's a bit beyond us at the moment.

But back to the time frames. After Qatar hosts its air conditioned extravaganza in 2022, the next tournament is almost certain to be held in the United States. Fifa has great memories of the 1994 event, which remains the most profitable and well attended tournament it has run. It was huge last time, imagine how big it might be now, in a mature football market where the MLS is well established.

In 2030 the World Cup is expected to be held in Argentina and Uruguay, to commemorate the first event staged in Uruguay 100 years earlier. It will be just reward for two countries that have won four World Cups between them but only hosted one tournament each. There is a groundswell within global football circles for such an event.

By 2034 Fifa's showpiece will head back to Europe. Long gone are the days where Europe hosted every second World Cup, but by that stage it won't have had the event since 2018. UEFA will get its turn (and hopefully, surely, it will be England).

In 2038, China will be in the frame. Beijing has recently identified the Football World Cup as a strategic imperative, and there is no one better at achieving long-term goals than the "Middle Kingdom".

India might also be in a position to launch a bid and Japan, flush from the success of both the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Olympics, may decide the time is right to knock on the door again. Any of those prospects would be more inviting to Fifa and the Asian Football Confederation than an Australia/New Zealand bid under any measure; appeal to sponsors, financial gain, television timings, market size and potential for the sport's growth.

No Asian nation will be eligible to bid for the 2042 event, as Fifa's rules prohibit the World Cup being held in the same confederation within eight years. The event will then head back to Europe in 2046 which leaves 2050 as the window for "our World Cup".

That will give us plenty of time to strengthen our sporting relationship with Australia.

We would need them much more than they would need us in any World Cup scenario. Sydney and Melbourne would host the lion's share of games, leaving Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra and Perth as other sure bets.

That would mean Auckland and maybe Wellington competing against the likes of Newcastle, the Gold Coast, Hobart, Darwin, Townsville and Cairns.