Eniola Yekini
Ghana’s Minister of Sports and Recreation, Kofi Adams, has expressed confidence that Ghana, Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire could jointly host the FIFA World Cup in the future.
Adams said the growing trend of multi-country World Cup hosting could allow the three West African nations to submit a joint bid. According to the minister, FIFA’s decision to stage the 2026 World Cup across the United States, Canada and Mexico, followed by the 2030 tournament involving Morocco, Spain and Portugal, shows that joint hosting is becoming an established model.
“They [FIFA] are beginning to adopt several nations doing it, so maybe who knows, the next one would be Ghana, Nigeria, and then Côte d’Ivoire coming together to also host the World Cup and it will be good,” Adams said.
He also pointed to the sporting infrastructure and recent tournament-hosting experience of the three countries as factors that could support such an ambition.
“I believe that we, together with Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire, who have already invested quite a lot because they hosted AFCON not too long ago, we can also ask for that right,” he added.
Côte d’Ivoire hosted the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, while Ghana staged the delayed 2023 African Games in 2024. The proposal would, however, be a long-term ambition, with the 2026, 2030 and 2034 World Cups already assigned.