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The 2030 World Cup is set to be staged in six different countries across three continents in a shock move to acknowledge the 100th anniversary of the tournament. 

Under the terms of an extraordinary proposal discussed at a FIFA Council meeting today Spain, Portugal and Morocco would be the official World Cup hosts, but the first three games would take place in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay in a nod to the competition’s South American roots.

The radical move is the result of months of secret talks between UEFA and the South American and African federations, who reached an agreement before taking the proposal to FIFA. The world governing body are also understood to have given their support in principle to an idea that would spare them a lengthy and costly bidding process, but it needs to be rubber-stamped at next year’s FIFA Congress.