According to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, FIFA President Gianni Infantino has mentioned the possibility of Israel co-hosting the World Cup in 2030.
According to a statement from Bennett’s office, the two men met in Jerusalem on Tuesday, during which the soccer boss “introduced the notion of Israel hosting the World Cup in 2030, with other nations in the area, lead by the United Arab Emirates.”
Former US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman were also there, according to the announcement.
Mnuchin and Friedman were among a number of high-ranking Trump administration officials in Jerusalem this week for a series of meetings intended at advancing the Abraham Accords, a set of normalisation accords between Israel and Arab governments.
The Abraham Accords are a normalisation agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco that was announced in a September 2020 accord mediated by the United States.
After the North American candidacy comfortably defeated Morocco in a vote in 2018, the World Cup will be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada in 2026.
The World Cup will be hosted by three countries for the first time.