Spain is making a surprise bid to host the 2035 Rugby World Cup and will put some of the country’s most iconic football stadia, including Nou Camp and the Bernabeu, at the heart of the offer.
If Spain succeed in their bid, then the revamped Nou Camp – which holds more than 100,000 fans and is home to FC Barcelona – would host the final, with Real Madrid’s Bernabeu and Valencia’s Mestalla Stadium also being lined up to have matches.
The Spanish Rugby Federation (RFER) has promised to deliver the “best World Cup in history”, open up a major new market for the sport and connect the tournament to 700m Spanish speakers worldwide. However, it faces stiff competition from Japan and a South American bid led by three-time semi-finalists Argentina but also including Brazil, Chile and Uruguay.
The latter bid would be historic as the first Rugby World Cup in South America, while Japan hosted the first World Cup on Asian soil in 2019 and was widely seen as a huge success – breaking both commercial and audience records, while cementing Japan as a legitimate tier-one rugby nation.
The 2027 World Cup is taking place in Australia, with USA hosting in 2031, so World Rugby may be keen to bring the 2035 tournament back to Europe, with site visits and feasibility assessments due to take place from December, a preferred candidate by the summer of 2027 and an official announcement taking place during the 2027 tournament next October.
The RFER claim a 2035 World Cup in Spain would capitalise on the men’s football World Cup being jointly hosted by the country (along with Morocco and Portugal) in 2030, while the bid importantly had the support of both the Spanish government and LaLiga – enabling those iconic football stadia to be on the list of potential venues.
Spain will be at next year’s tournament in Australia, having qualified for a men’s Rugby World Cup for the first time since 1999, and are convinced that hosting the event themselves could have a transformational effect on rugby’s place in the Spanish sporting hierarchy.
“Rugby is becoming part of our country’s identity,” said Juan Carlos Martin ‘Hansen’, executive president of the RFER. “The warmth, openness and desire to share moments with others that characterise our country fit perfectly with the spirit that a Rugby World Cup creates.
“Working together with World Rugby, we can make Rugby World Cup 2035 a turning point in the global growth of the sport, for the benefit of generations to come.
“We have complete confidence in our organisational capability, our sports infrastructure is at the cutting edge of innovation, and we are convinced that hosting Rugby World Cup 2035 will bring new and unique dimensions of hospitality, collaboration, unity and friendship to the global rugby family.”
Spain does have some history of major rugby events, with Bilbao’s San Mames Stadium hosting the Investec Champions Cup final in both 2018 and 2026, while Nou Camp was the venue of the 2016 French Top 14 final, which holds the record as the best-attended club rugby match in history thanks to an attendance of 99,124.