Greece's joint candidacy with Saudi Arabia and Egypt to host the 2030 World Cup is progressing.
The issue, which has been arising for months, was brought up again by Manos Staramopoulos at the 9th International Conference of the Greek Sports Press Association (PSAT) in Ancient Olympia, reported Proto Thema.
The second vice president of PSAT reported that the heir to the throne of Saudi Arabia, Bin Salman, has received the approval from the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah El Sisi, to proceed with bid procedure.
The venues where the games will be hosted in Greece will be the OPAP Arena, Georgios Karaiskakis, OAKA, Nea Toumpa and Votanikos.
It is recalled that for the 2030 World Cup, Argentina-Uruguay-Chile-Paraguay, Morocco, and Spain, Portugal and Ukraine, have applied.
FIFA has not yet announced the date on which the successful bid for the 2030 World Cup will be announced, although traditionally it would be expected the tournament will be held in Europe or Africa because the 2026 tournament will be staged in the Americas.
The selection process now involves the 178 international soccer federations that are members of FIFA, with the voting made public.
Previously, it was the remit of the FIFA executive committee to select the hosts, which in the case of Qatar and Russia (2018) led to the FIFA Gate investigation of 2015, headed by the FBI and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division and resulted in 14 indictments for crimes including money laundering, wire fraud and racketeering.
Meanwhile, the prospect of a UK beer shortage is looming as drivers and workers at a firm that makes about 40% of deliveries to UK pubs and clubs are to stage five days of strike action over pay and job cuts.
About 1,000 drivers and dray workers – a person who delivers beer for a brewery – at GXO Logistics plan to stage a first round of strikes between 31 October and 4 November at depots across the UK.
The Unite union said the strike would “impede the ability of pubs and other venues to replenish their cellars prior to the World Cup”. Further action was planned for closer to kick-off on 20 November if the dispute was not resolved, it said.
The strikes would affect pubs and venues supplied by brewers including Heineken, Stonegate, Admiral Taverns and Shepherd Neame.
GXO Logistics delivers to about 4,500 pubs in London and south-east England and has a network of 22 depots from Inverness to Southampton where rolling strike action will take place. A ban on overtime working will come into force from 24 October.
The company said it had plans in place to ensure pubs and venues did not run dry if strikes interrupted its regular schedule of deliveries.
“We are in constant contact with our customers and should a strike go ahead, we have business continuity plans in place to ensure they are adequately stocked and minimise impact on consumers,” a spokesperson for GXO said.
The US-based firm reported $777m (£690m) in revenues from its UK operations in the three months to the end of June, its biggest single source of its $2.2bn global revenues for the quarter. Total adjusted profits reached $176m in the second quarter.
UK workers rejected a 5% pay offer, in a deal that included a reduction in sick pay. “GXO can easily afford to pay and Unite is determined to see that they do,” the union’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, said.
The dispute with management also involves plans to close the GXO depot in Dagenham, Essex, which will result in job cuts and an increase in the workload for drivers at its Croydon, Faversham and Greenford sites.
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