Football news - Spain, Portugal considering joint bid with Morocco for 2030 FIFA World Cup

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was on a visit to the Moroccan capital of Rabat and spoke to Prime Minister Saadedin Al Othmani and King Mohamed VI about the possibility of bidding for world football's global showpiece tournament.

"I made a proposal to the government (of Morocco) to organise a joint bid between Spain, Portugal and Morocco to host the 2030 World Cup," Sanchez told a news conference.

"We are launching a joint message, which is that this will be a bid between two continents. The King of Morocco is receptive, and we're going to work on it with Portugal. We're very excited about it."

Spain hosted the 1982 World Cup and launched a failed bid along with Portugal to stage the 2018 tournament which was awarded to Russia.

Portugal has never hosted the World Cup but held the 2004 European Championship in 2004 at which they lost in the final to Greece.

Morocco was unsuccessful in its campaign to stage the 2026 World Cup, which was awarded to a joint bid from the United States, Mexico and Canada.

In that failed bid, Morocco's official dossier for their candidacy said that the country was "situated at a global crossroads, a special place where the East meets the Western and Europe meets Africa, so only 14 kilometres from the Spanish coasts."

By 2030, 48 years will have passed since Spain last hosted a major football tournament, but Sanchez is confident of a successful bid with the likelihood of the World Cup returning to Europe.

Only Spain and England of Europe's previous world champions have hosted the tournament on just one occasion.