The Diplomat
The acting President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, met this past Tuesday in New York with FIFA President Gianni Infantino to defend the joint bid of Spain, Portugal and Morocco for the 2030 World Cup.
The meeting was held after the controversy caused after the recently resigned president of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, gave a non-consensual kiss on the mouth to the soccer player Jenni Hermoso after Spain won the Women’s World Cup. Infantino himself stated that this event “should never have happened.”
“Spain is working with Portugal and Morocco on a solid bid for the 2030 World Cup, with an ambitious project and this is what I have conveyed to the FIFA president,” Sanchez wrote on his official account on the social network X, formerly Twitter. “Football is a sport with global reach that can transmit positive social values,” he added.
In addition, as Pedro Sánchez himself explained at a press conference yesterday, during the meeting he personally conveyed to the FIFA president that the new Spanish Sports Law, adopted last December, “incorporates principles that are widely embraced by Spanish society, such as equality or the integration of people with disabilities.”