West African World Cup Bid? Ghana Sees Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire As Partners
By FRED LONGJOHN OBEH
GHANA has opened the possibility of a future joint World Cup bid with Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire.
Sports and Recreation Minister Kofi Adams said the three countries could combine their resources and experience to pursue hosting rights for football’s biggest tournament.
His proposal comes as FIFA increasingly embraces multi-country hosting. The United States, Canada and Mexico will jointly stage the 2026 World Cup, while Morocco, Spain and Portugal will lead the 2030 tournament.
Adams believes the model could eventually create an opportunity for West Africa.
“They are beginning to adopt several nations doing it,” he said. “Maybe who knows, the next one would be Ghana, Nigeria, and then Côte d’Ivoire coming together to also host the World Cup.”
Beyond the hosting model, the minister pointed to infrastructure and recent tournament experience as potential strengths for the three countries.
Côte d’Ivoire hosted the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, while Ghana hosted the 2023 African Games after the competition was postponed to 2024.
Adams argued that the investments made by the countries could support a future World Cup campaign.
“I believe that we, together with Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire, who have already invested quite a lot because they hosted AFCON not too long ago, we can also ask for that right,” he said.
Still, such a bid would not happen soon. FIFA has already assigned the 2026, 2030 and 2034 World Cups. Therefore, a Ghana-Nigeria-Côte d’Ivoire bid would be a long-term project requiring further planning, infrastructure development and a formal FIFA bidding process.
