The suspicion that China is preparing a bid for the 2030 FIFA World Cup is building as the Chinese Football Association signed a Memorandum of Understanding with FIFA on 24 April. This understanding enhances FIFA’s and China’s cooperation, as FIFA will work to accelerate football development potential in the country. Concretely, these efforts will focus on improving the structures, technical aspects and management of the sport in China. Such developments, if successful, would strengthen a Chinese bid to host the highly sought after and prestigious sporting competition.
FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, welcomed this upgrading in relations and said in a statement; “It must be a priority of FIFA to ensure that the world’s most popular game keeps growing and developing in the world’s most populous country. Chinese football has been making strides for a long time now, and we are sure that, with this agreement, FIFA is in the position to provide very tailored assistance for the game to evolve even further in China.”
These warm words were echoed by the Acting President of the Chinese Football Association, Du Zhaocai; “as a big nation committed to the development of world football, China is willing to make its contributions while being integrated into the international football family. We look forward to receiving continuous support from FIFA for our football development, which will further promote the development of the game worldwide.”
