Spain and Portugal eye hosting 2030 World Cup

Spain and Portugal's football associations announced on Saturday they are looking into the idea of bidding to stage the World Cup in 2030, without Morocco who had earlier been cited as a potential partner.

"After holding several meetings in recent weeks, the football federations of Spain and Portugal confirm that they will begin a thorough process of analysis on the possibility of presenting a joint bid to organise the 2030 World Cup," a statement said.

"Both federations want to take the opportunity to communicate that the governments of both countries are adequately informed about the process, as they will play a fundamental part of their development," it added.

The announcement comes after Spain prime minister Pedro Sanchez proposed in November a venture along with the north African country.

Lisbon and Madrid have changed their position to focus on a bid without the Moroccans.

The two countries had also looked at hosting the tournament in 2018 as well as in 2022.

The South American quartet of Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Chile, European trio Greece, Romania and Serbia as well as the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland have said they would like to stage the tournament too.

The final decision on the hosts will be made in 2022.