“No more stadiums will be built, which means that the problem of [financial] slippage does not arise. We have Estádio da Luz, Estádio de Alvalade and Estádio do Dragão, which will be at the service of World Cup 2030 and will host more than a dozen games”, said Ana Catarina Mendes, in a hearing at the Committee for Culture, Communication, Youth and Sports , in the Assembly of the Republic.

The minister responsible for Sports recalled that the tournament will only take place within seven years, which makes it impossible to respond to “all the details related to the involvement of the Portuguese State” in the event.

“We don’t know the reality in seven years. I know one thing: both the Portuguese State and the Portuguese Football Federation will be involved in the best World Cup ever, in the celebration of the centenary”, said Ana Catarina Mendes, who was accompanied by the Secretary of State for Youth and Sports, João Paulo Rebelo .

The minister pointed out that she will only have more detailed data after the presentation of the letter of intent, whose deadline is October 31st, since the cost estimate initially made by the Portuguese and Spanish candidacy is outdated, due to the inclusion of Morocco among the organizing countries and the change in the competitive model.

“A new study will be carried out and we will be here to talk about these costs”, assured Ana Catarina Mendes, reinforcing that “there are things we should learn from the past and one of them is that we should not build new stadiums”, in reference to Euro2004, organised exclusively by Portugal.