Spain and Portugal announce World Cup bid for 2018 (football, European, team)

[joelibyan]

What do you think? I personally love both countries and think they'd be great hosts. Portugal did a great job for the Euro 04, and Spain is full of world class stadiums already. Location and language are also big draws.
I've read on some Spanish message boards that some Spaniards aren't happy with sharing, that Spain is big enough to host it on their own.
Combined, the 2 countries have roughly 55 million people, less than France, Germany, UK, etc...
What do you think?

[RjRobb2]

I have always wanted to visit both countries so I am all for either or both hosting as it will give me an excuse to go.

[NJ Chutzpah]

I have always wanted to visit iberia for the food too

but they should share it as they are not big

kinda like korea and japan split it once

[happynoodleboycey]

This is terrifying, we're talking about a tournament which will take place when I'm 27!

Originally Posted by NJ Chutzpah

I have always wanted to visit iberia for the food too

but they should share it as they are not big

kinda like korea and japan split it once

Spain is very big in European terms (second largest country in Western Europe after France) but to be honest size isn't that important, it's the stadiums that count. Spain has an abundance of top notch stadiums so I think they'd be great hosts but if they were to split it with Portugal it wouldn't be a bad thing though because they've got a few good ones themselves too.

[joelibyan]

In response to the Spanish fans complaining about sharing with Portugal, consider that South Korea alone is larger than Spain in regards to population, and they ended up sharing with Japan, which has over 120 million people (ie: HUGE). Besides, Spain and Portugal are so close that driving from Lisbon to Barcelona in a day isn't unreasonable. Try and do that from Japan to Korea!

[happynoodleboycey]

After thinking about it, one concern I do have is with regard to racism. Black footballers have often been subjected to racist abuse by fans in Spain (monkey chants, blacked up faces, that sort of thing) so that wouldn't bode well for an international competition. If they really do want the World Cup then the Spanish Football Federation is going to have to guarantee that that sort of thing is going to be clamped down on big time.

[RjRobb2]

According to reports, they have agreed to do a joint bid.

[joelibyan]

Originally Posted by happynoodleboycey

After thinking about it, one concern I do have is with regard to racism. Black footballers have often been subjected to racist abuse by fans in Spain (monkey chants, blacked up faces, that sort of thing) so that wouldn't bode well for an international competition. If they really do want the World Cup then the Spanish Football Federation is going to have to guarantee that that sort of thing is going to be clamped down on big time.

I was in the Bernabeu in '04 when this issue blew up. As an American living in Spain at the time, it floored me that this was acceptable. It certainly wasn't the whole crowd, but it was a vocal minority that made their presence known. Also, I recall bananas being thrown towards Kameni (Espanyol goalkeeper) and Eto'o nearly marching off the field during a match because of chants from the stands...
It is an ugly occurance that is not reflective of the majority of Spaniards I met, much less the Portuguese I know. Both countries do not have the history of African immigration that France and England do, thus this generation is just now coming of age and dealing with issues heretofore untouched. I believe, however, that an Iberian World Cup in 2018 would be a great event and hardly affected by these occurances. There will always be ethnic rivalries (a la Serbian/Bosnian arrests in Australia this year), but wide spread occurances of the sort will not be tolerated.

[krudmonk]

Spain still does not recognize that such behavior is deplorable. They just barely punished Aragonés for calling Henry a "black piece of ****" and that was because other nations called on them to do so. Then the basketball team took a picture with them pulling their eyelids to look Asian. Again, who reacted to the image first: the Spanish or the rest of us?

They're a very insular nation. France has racial tensions but only because they have so many immigrants, so many are informed and sensitive to these issues. Spain looks on other cultures from the outside. They're more akin to Eastern European nations like Poland in such regard. It reminds me a lot of my friend's hometown deep in the Sierra Nevada. It's a bunch of people of one ethnicity who freely voice ignorant opinions on many races even though they know only one.

[RjRobb2]

The US is planning on bidding for 2018 and 2022.