In Brazil football is more than a sport, it is a religion. To demonstrate this a little more, Brazilian leaders have decided to make their country the location of some of the biggest events in the discipline in the coming years.
Brazil indeed wants to host the 2029 Club World Cup, two years after organizing the 2027 Women’s World Cup, the president of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) declared on Monday, after a meeting between President Lula and Fifa boss Gianni Infantino.
“We believe that Brazil is able to host this grandiose event. It requires a lot of discussion, a lot of adjustments. But Brazil will indeed present its candidacy,” declared Samir Xaud, president of the CBF, after a meeting of more than an hour with Infantino and Lula in Brasilia.
Xaud had already expressed last year Brazil’s desire to organize the next Club World Cup, the first version of which bringing together 32 teams took place in the United States last summer and was won by Chelsea against PSG.
“This is a question we have raised before. The campaign itself hasn’t launched yet, but we’ve already been talking about it behind the scenes. We will work for this,” said Xaud.
In addition to Brazil, Spain also aspires to organize the event planned for 2029, according to local press reports, although the Spanish Federation has not confirmed this intention.
Spain also likely candidate for the 2029 edition
Brazil’s Italian coach, Carlo Ancelotti, also attended the meeting at the Planalto presidential palace, but, like Lula, did not speak to the press.
Gianni Infantino did not comment on the ambition of the five-time world champions, limiting himself to specifying that the “main subject” of the meeting was the Women’s World Cup, which Brazil will host in 2027.
“It’s going to be the best World Cup in the history of football. We are going to have between three and four million supporters” in the eight stadiums which will host the competition between June and July 2027, declared the leader.
Infantino responds to Blatter’s attacks on the World Cup in the United States
Infantino also reacted to statements by his predecessor, Sepp Blatter, who on Monday urged fans to “avoid the United States” during the men’s World Cup – from June 11 to July 19 – for security reasons.
“People want to go, they will go and celebrate, and we will all celebrate together,” Infantino replied on the subject.
The statements by Blatter, who resigned in 2015 amid scandals, come amid calls in Europe to boycott the World Cup in reaction to Donald Trump’s desire to annex Greenland.
