Valencia assures that the stadium will be ready in time. The regional federation reports that FIFA asked them for documents about Nou Mestalla. Atletico considers ceding its position as World Cup host. But the results of the audit are still not coming, and both the club's former vice-president and opponents of the venue point out irregularities in the project.

“Our bid is still alive”

We are still receiving requests for information and documentation, which means that our bid is alive, said the president of the Football Federation of the Valencian Community (FFCV) Salvador Gomar last Tuesday. He assures that both the FFCV and the Spanish federation are in constant contact with FIFA, which he reads as Valencia's chance to reverse the decision to reject the city from the list of hosts.

There are two hosts for the next World Cup [2026 - ed. note], which changed a little over a year ago. This means that this is happening normally. Valencia must be ready to be in pole position, as they say, Gomar stated. He is most likely referring to Vancouver, which jumped onto the list of hosts in spring 2022 after the withdrawal of Montreal. There has been no other case of a change of city in the upcoming tournament.

According to the latest news, there is a chance for such a scenario to come true: Atletico would be considering withdrawing Riyadh Air Metropolitano from the 2030 World Cup for financial reasons. The natural replacement would seem to be Nou Mestalla, although Vigo will certainly fight to put Estadio Abanca Balaídos on the list of hosts.

© Grzegorz Kaliciak | Atletico could lose €20M because of hosting the World Cup as it could not organise summer concerts at Estadio Metropolitano.

An incomplete audit

However, not everything is going well for Valencia’s bid. Following an interview with the president of Vielca, the company that is auditing the Nou Mestalla construction, further doubts have been raised about the stadium. In the interview with Las Provincias published on Thursday, Vicente Candela revealed that, based on the documents he has received, he cannot say whether the project and timetable presented are realistic. “The problem is that we want to find guarantees and assurances in a project that does not contain them in itself,” he explained. According to the CEO, one thing is certain: after the November floods, prices will jump by 20 or even 30%.

Incredibly serious and surprising. This is how the members of Últimes Vesprades a Mestalla see Candela's words. According to them, the lack of documents enabling a thorough audit is a breach of the contract with the city under which Valencia was granted the building permit. Among a number of potential irregularities they list are also costs, unadjusted for inflation caused by the war in Ukraine. Combined with the price increases announced by CEO of Vielca, this could uncontrollably increase construction costs. We will go to every instance we see fit, including the courts, to demand that Valencia City Council fulfil its role as guarantor of the public interest, they warn.

Former Valencia CF vice-president Miguel Zorío pointed out that the deadline for presenting the results of the audit had already passed. In this city, nothing ever happens to Peter Lim for his failings, and if the audit is not delivered on time, nothing will happen either. We already know that the audit will be incomplete and therefore the bail that will be demanded from Peter Lim too, he says.

© Amunt Mestalla | Until May, only preparatory work is going to be carried out at Nou Mestalla construction site.