Could Cyprus host a World Cup?

While featuring as a pundit during televised coverage of Wednesday evening’s World Cup last 32 tie between DR Congo and England, President Nikos Christodoulides suggested that Cyprus could one day host football’s showpiece event itself. “We organised and invested in Eurobasket. I was with the prime minister of Spain and he told me that they will co-host the next World Cup with Portugal and Morocco. Why should we not also bid for a World Cup together with other countries in the region?” he asked. He added that Cyprus is “close to Greece, Israel, and Egypt”, and that while this new aim of his is an “ambitious plan”, he believes that “we must set difficult goals”. As Christodoulides pointed out, the island co-hosted Eurobasket alongside Finland, Latvia, and Poland last year, while in 2024, it hosted the under 17 boys’ European football championships. However, hosting a World Cup is a very different ask altogether. Christodoulides at last year’s Eurobasket in Limassol Could Cyprus, therefore, host a World Cup? Based on the currently available infrastructure on the island, the answer would be a flat no. World football governing body Fifa’s guidebook for would-be hosts for the 2030 World Cup, which Spain, Portugal, and Morocco will jointly host, sets out a strict set of requirements for those wishing to bring the World Cup to their own country. In total, hosting nations must propose a minimum of 14 stadiums, all of which must have a minimum seating capacity of 40,000, with stadiums used for the semifinals required to have a minimum capacity of 60,000 seats, and the stadium used for the opening match and the final required to have a minimum capacity of 80,000 seats. Additionally, would-be host nations must propose 72 base camp training site options for participating teams, all of which must be paired with a hotel, as well as four training sites and hotels per stadium for teams travelling to games, and two base camp training sites for referees, coming to a total of 128 training centres and hotels. Host cities must also propose two sites each with a minimum capacity of 15,000 people to be used for “fan festivals”. Nicosia’s GSP Stadium Cyprus would appear to fall at the first hurdle in this regard, given that the island’s largest football stadium, Nicosia’s GSP Stadium, has a seating capacity of only 22,859. In addition, the Republic of Cyprus’ second-largest stadium, Nicosia’s Makario Stadium, closed last year, while its third-largest, Limassol’s Tsirio Stadium, was described as a “garbage dump” in 2024, and its fourth-largest, Larnaca’s GSZ Stadium, is all but mothballed. The island does host quality football venues, with Limassol’s Alphamega Stadium and Larnaca’s AEK Arena both modern stadiums in their own right and categorised by European football governing body Uefa as “four-star” grounds – the highest level available. However, the former has a seating capacity of 10,700, and the latter a seating capacity of 8,058, rendering both unusable for World Cup football. The Alphamega Stadium in Limassol Cypriot reunification would offer little in the way of help in that regard, too, given that the north’s football stadiums are also small and lacking in modern facilities. The north’s largest football stadium, northern Nicosia’s Ataturk Stadium, theoretically has a capacity of around 15,000, though less than half of that is seated, while its second-largest, Morphou’s Uner Berkalp Stadium, has a four-figure capacity and asbestos in its roof. While the north is also home to one of Cyprus’ most beautiful football venues in Famagusta’s Canbulat Stadium, which sits in the shadow of the towns Venetian walls, the prospect of people watching World Cup matches perched atop those same 600-year-old walls would likely make Fifa officials balk. Famagusta’s Canbulat Stadium [Photo: Yeniduzen] The island redeems itself on the question of training sites, however, given that, according to the tourism deputy ministry, a total of 280 operational hotels are registered with it across the island, with a total capacity of 32,245 beds. Fifa’s requirement that those hotels be less than a 20-minute drive from any given training site could also be surmounted by Cyprus, given that most villages on the island have serviceable football pitches in them. On the matter of fan parks, it would not be beyond the imagination for fans to gather in public spaces such as Nicosia’s Eleftheria Square or Acropolis Park, or on Limassol’s Molos seafront, on Larnaca’s Finikoudes seafront, or in Paphos’ Kennedy Square or Town Hall Square. Given that Cyprus’ biggest deficiency, therefore, appears to be in relation to its stadiums, rather than any other aspect, the option of co-hosting a tournament, as Christodoulides suggested, would be the island’s best bet. The 2002 World Cup was hosted in South Korea and Japan, and won by Brazil [Photo: Reuters] Multiple countries first hosted a World Cup in 2002, when South Korea and Japan jointly hosted the tournament, while this year’s tournament, in Canada, the United States, and Mexico, is the first to be hosted by three different countries. Canada, for example, provided just two of this year’s 16 host stadiums – a much more attainable figure for Cyprus. Christodoulides’ suggestion of Egypt and Greece as co-hosts may also hold water, too, given the existing and under-construction football stadiums in both countries. Egypt has four football stadiums with seating capacities exceeding 40,000, the largest of which, located in the country’s as-yet-unnamed new administrative capital, has 93,940 seats. Greece at present has just one – Athens’ Spyros Louis Olympic Stadium – which has a seating capacity of 69,618, but plans are afoot for new football stadiums exceeding the minimum capacity to be built in Piraeus, Thessaloniki, and Athens for Olympiacos, Paok, and Panathinaikos respectively. Athens’ Spyros Louis Olympic Stadium Returning to the idea of a post-solution Cyprus, Turkey could also present itself as a possible World Cup co-host, given that there are no fewer than eight football stadiums with seating capacities of more than 40,000 in the island’s neighbour to the north, and a ninth under construction. Of those eight, four are located in Istanbul, while the four others which already exist are located in Izmir, Bursa, Konya, and Trabzon, and the under-construction stadium is located in the capital, Ankara. Turkey has also been selected to co-host Euro 2032 alongside Italy, supplying no fewer than 10 stadiums to the bid, though it must be noted that the requirements to host a European Championships are less stringent. Bursa’s Stadium Were Cyprus to be asked to build two football stadiums to host a World Cup, the task, while more surmountable, may still leave question marks. On paper, it may appear that the most natural plan would be an expansion of the GSP Stadium, though this would in fact require either demolishing the adjacent athletics track and hotel, or closing the only motorway heading southwards out of the capital. Quadrupling the size of the Alphamega Stadium could be a more likely bet, given the expansive car park in which it is set, while the land on which the Makario, Tsirio, and GSZ Stadiums are set could prove to be fertile ground for new stadiums, with a World Cup on the line. File photo: Ayia Napa [Julia Stern] Additionally, Ayia Napa’s football grounds are located in an expanse of otherwise unused land. A World Cup stadium there could give visiting fans the summer of their lives. Likewise, in a post-solution Cyprus, the Ataturk Stadium is set in an area of the outskirts of Nicosia which is eminently open to development. Any such development would, of course, cost a lot of money and cause a fair amount of upheaval, but yet, it is not entirely out of the question.