France bids for 2038 World Cup with Germany, Diallo confirms joint project

France wants to host a third World Cup. Philippe Diallo, president of the French Football Federation (FFF), confirmed this in an interview with Ouest-France, mentioning a bid for the 2038 edition — one hundred years after 1938 and forty years after France’s triumph in 1998.

“There is perhaps a stronger project, which is to bid for a future World Cup,” Diallo said, immediately clarifying the constraints imposed by the competition’s current format. Since expanding to 48 participating teams, FIFA requires at least sixteen large-capacity stadiums. A volume that France cannot handle alone.

“For France, that means we need to ally with other countries,” the official acknowledged. Germany appears as the natural partner: a rapprochement between the two federations had already been discussed last September with this in mind. A joint bid would present a double advantage — sharing infrastructure costs while maximizing the economic returns of an event of this scale.

Before targeting 2038, France is first seeking to host the Final Four of the UEFA Nations League 2027. On December 6, UEFA will designate the two pairs of quarter-finalists eligible to host the final four of the competition. Zinédine Zidane’s France squad, expected in the quarter-finals next month, could thus offer the federation a first lever to revive France on the stage of major international events.

The next World Cup will take place in 2026 in the United States, Canada and Mexico, followed by the 2030 edition shared between Spain, Portugal and Morocco, then the 2034 tournament awarded to Saudi Arabia. France’s 2038 bid thus fits into an already crowded calendar, where each continent seeks to reposition its pieces.