MADRID, 5 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Spain will once again host one of the greatest sporting events on the planet, a World Cup, an assignment that comes almost 40 years after having hosted the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992, although the country may have boasted of having hosted other top-level international events.
48 years after Spain hosted the World Cup of the so-called ‘king sport’, in 1982, the Iberian country will have the honor of receiving the best national teams, an honor on this occasion that it will share with Portugal and Morocco, its partners in the candidacy, in addition to Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay, which will host three matches and as a gesture to the 100 years that will have passed since the first edition held on Uruguayan soil.
Spain will thus join Germany (1974-2006), France (1938-1998) and Italy (1934-1990) as the European countries that have hosted more than one World Cup and put an end to a long wait without a sporting event. of maximum impact, since the World Cup is considered by many studies to be one of the most important and with the largest audience after the Olympic Games.
After hosting the 1982 World Cup, the country did not have to wait so long for another major international event, surely the largest on the planet, as were the first and only Olympic Games so far on Spanish soil that Barcelona hosted in 1992. In between In 1986, there was a Mundobasket distributed in seven cities (Madrid -final-, Barcelona and Oviedo -semifinals-, Zaragoza, Ferrol, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Málaga).
After the great and remembered event in Barcelona, Spain continued to host major sporting championships of widely spread Olympic sports such as, among others, athletics, with the World Cup in Seville in 1999, and swimming, the World Cups in Barcelona in 2003 and 2013, a Eurobasket (2007) and another men’s Basketball World Cup (2014), this one more relevant due to the presence of NBA players, and a first women’s one (2019), two Handball World Cups (2013 -men- and 2021 -women-), or two editions of the prestigious Copa América de Vela in Valencia (2007 and 2010).
But there were also several setbacks, especially at the Olympic level with Madrid’s three failed bids for the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Summer Games, or those of Jaca from Huesca in its quest to have the Winter Games. The Pyrenean candidacy of Barcelona and Zaragoza, which was a good asset for the 2030 edition, finally withdrew due to political disputes. Madrid was also unable to attract a highly prestigious event like the Ryder Cup, with its candidacy for the 2018 edition that went to Paris.
As for football, under the RFEF presidency of Ángel María Villar, Spain tried to qualify for the organizations of the 2004 Euro Cup, which went precisely to Portugal, and for the 2018 World Cup, already with the Iberian neighbor as a partner. and at a time when the multi-venue was already beginning to cease to be a novelty, but which FIFA granted to Russia.
For EURO 2020, finally held in 2021 due to the coronavirus, San Mamés was designated one of the venues, but restrictions due to the pandemic caused it to be moved to La Cartuja, while UEFA designated the Camp Nou (1999), Santiago Bernabéu ( 2010) and Metropolitano (2019) as stadiums for the Champions League finals. In 1964, Madrid and Barcelona hosted the final phase, semi-finals and final, of the 1964 Euro Cup.