Trans-Pacific World Cup in 2038 · Yellow Fever Nga Wana Kowhai

Not sure if this has been discussed already - but interesting.

Full article is paywalled covering a variety of topics - I'm posting the section about New Zealand - but feel free to delete if this violates rules.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6361850/2025/05/17/infantino-world-cup-new-zealand/?source=emp_shared_article

New Zealand talks up trans-Pacific World Cup in 2038

FIFA has already wrapped up the locations for the 2030 and 2034 men’s World Cup, which means plenty at the Congress were already thinking about where the tournament may end up in future editions.

Under FIFA’s confederation rotation principle, two tournaments need to pass by before a single confederation is able to host a World Cup again. In 2030, three confederations are hosting the World Cup because FIFA has split the tournament between South America, Africa and Europe, playing games in Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Morocco, Spain and Portugal. Then, in 2034, the Asian confederation has the tournament in Saudi Arabia. This rules out those four confederations, which leaves only Concacaf and Oceania as potential destinations for 2038.

This means, under the current rules at least, a return to the United States, just 12 years after the men’s World Cup in 2026 and (almost certainly) the women’s World Cup in 2031, may well be the likeliest outcome if FIFA enforces the principle.

One federation has already made clear that it is interested in exploring hosting arrangements for the tournament, and that is New Zealand. Ordinarily, we might expect New Zealand to partner with neighbouring Australia, but Australia is part of the Asian confederation, which would rule it out of hosting in 2038 due to Saudi Arabia’s host status for 2034. This leaves New Zealand, who co-hosted the 2023 women’s World Cup with Australia, seeking more innovative options.

During an extended interview with The Athletic in Paraguay, the New Zealand federation CEO Andrew Pragnell said: “It’s clearly not realistic we could ever host one on our own. They’re getting bigger and the capacity requirements are well known. But we are certainly capable of hosting a group and a couple of knockout games, so the key for us is partnership. Given the limited stadium sizes in the rest of Oceania, we have to partner.

“We have raised it, within FIFA in meetings and in conversations. We haven’t formalised it. What’s really interesting is the way that 2030 is playing out, where you’ve got literally three confederations involved and crossing the globe. We are 13 years away and the way the event is growing (2026 will be expanded to 48 teams), the event could just get to the point where it can only be staged in one or two areas.

“But you’d like to think that given the philosophy of FIFA, which is about more distribution of wealth to more of the game, they’d go, ‘You in this small region can have a group stage and then relocate’. You could argue we could partner with anyone based on the 2030 model, but geographically, New Zealand looks two ways frequently in economic discussions — either as part of Asia or part of the wider Asia-Pacific region, so you look across to the west coast of the Americas.”

He said no discussions with potential partners have yet taken place. However, the U.S. has shown itself as being open to creative hosting ideas, notably sharing 2026 with Canada and Mexico, and bidding for 2031 along with Mexico — and it is likely Jamaica and Costa Rica will soon join that women’s tournament as co-hosts for a small number of games.

A potential trans-Pacific World Cup could even hypothetically involve Hawaii, which does have a 50,000-seater stadium, while Fiji is also currently exploring building a stadium.

Pragnell added: “Everyone wants something different. The idea may be that we’re gonna look at this ocean, the Pacific, and that we could host it across that. The Paris Olympics (in 2024) held the surfing in Tahiti, right? People want different things. They are looking for a different experience and the idea of holding this across the ocean (appeals).”