South American nations launch official 2030 World Cup bid

"We are in this iconic place where history began," said Alejandro Dominguez, president of South American football's governing body CONMEBOL, from the Centenario stadium in Montevideo where the first World Cup final was held in 1930.

Uruguay won that, beating Argentina 4-2, but now the neighbors have joined together, alongside Paraguay and Chile, to bid for the right to host the 2030 global showpiece under the "Juntos 2030" (Together 2030) slogan. "This is not the project of a government but the dream of a whole continent," added Dominguez. "There will be other World Cups but 100 years will be celebrated only once."

The idea of a joint South American bid for the 2030 tournament was first mooted by Uruguay and Argentina in 2017 and two years later the four potential hosts had been established. But it has taken until now for them to make their bid official. And the romantic idea of bringing the tournament back to its first home was central to the plans of the football and sporting authorities from the four countries present at Tuesday's launch.

The idea of a World Cup was "thought up, analyzed and put into practice here in Uruguay almost 100 years ago," said Ignacio Alonso, president of the Uruguayan football association (AUF). "It became the greatest sporting festival in the world," he said, praising the "guts, courage, intelligence and effort" that went into putting on the first tournament.

Paraguayan Dominguez, though, reminded those present that the symbolic argument would not be enough. "We cannot rely only on the sentimental, we have to play our part and be in condition" to host the World Cup.