Minister of Youth and Sports Ashraf Sobhi has revealed that Egypt is planning to host the 2030 World Cup and the 2032 Olympic Games, according to KingFut.

The newly-appointed Sports Minister announced that Egypt wants to host both competitions for the first time in its history. “Our goal is to host the 2030 World Cup in Egypt and we will work on that in the upcoming period. We also want to win the hosting rights for the 2032 Olympic Games”, he said.

The plans seem overambitious, though not completely impossible; in 2014, Brazil hosted the World Cup, and then went on to host the Olympics in Rio only two years later.

It's hard to be hopeful that this could be possible after our 2010 World Cup bid, where Egypt didn't even receive a single vote. El-Dahshouri Harb, who was Egypt Football Association's chairman back then blamed it on corruption, claiming that ex FIFA ExCo member Jack Warner demanded bribes to back certain nation's bids, and that Egypt refused to give in.

At the moment, interest to host the 2030 World Cup comes from Uruguay/Paraguay/Argentina in a joint bid, Morocco/Tunisia/Algeria in another joint bid, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and now Egypt. May the best man win. Nations interested in hosting the 2032 Olympics include Egypt, Phillipines, Hungary, Germany, India and Australia.

In 2010, South Africa became the first African country to host a World Cup in what was widely considered a very successful competition (minus the annoying vuvuzelas). In 2022, Qatar will be the first Arab nation to host a World Cup, though its preparation has been marred by reports of bad conditions for stadium workers, with FIFA’s advisory board on human rights calling for action, and campaigners even going as far as calling the workers’ situation modern slavery.