In 2030, Spain will once again test its organizational capacity in a major sporting event, something that it has historically been very good at despite the clichés. There is practically no international event that has escaped a country that knew the benefits of being a sports capital long before the Arab countries discovered it. And even more so if what we are talking about is football. Spain, which on this occasion will share institutional honors with Portugal and Morocco, has a good mirror in the 82 World Cup in which to recognize itself. Beyond the sporting disaster of the national team, that World Cup served to give a boost to infrastructure. Only one new stadium was built, the José Zorrilla in Valladolid, but many of the existing ones underwent major renovations. Something similar could happen now. Before that, Spain had already hosted the last matches of the 1964 Euro Cup (semifinals and final), with a final played at the Santiago Bernabéu. The white coliseum has also hosted four Champions League finals (1956, 1969, 1980 and 2010) and even hosted the only Copa Libertadores final that has been played outside of South America, the famous River Plate-Boca Júniors in 2018. On the sidelines of the Chamartín stadium, the Camp Nou (1989, 1999), the Sánchez Pizjuán (1986) and the Metropolitano (2019) have also been the home of the most important club match at the continental level. But if there is one event that pushed the country’s organizational pulse to the limit, it was the Barcelona 92 Olympic Games. It is still, 32 years later, the most global event that Spain has faced. And it continues to bring a smile to those who experienced it because, despite the time that has passed, the legacy that it left in the city, the way in which it transformed it, is still valued. In the heat of those Games, and as a way of learning, they were organized world championships in some significant sports that ended up creating an authentic culture of championship promotion. Thus, two basketball World Cups have been organized (1986 and 2014), one handball World Cup (2013) and three swimming World Cups (1986, 2033 and 2013). And the La Cartuja stadium in Seville was the venue for the 1999 outdoor athletics World Cup. Cycling has also found national roads an ideal destination for its road World Cups. There have been seven throughout history, the most recent in Ponferrada 2014. A lot has to do with it that the Vuelta is one of the three great events of the year in the world of cycling. Because, beyond world or European , Spain has always offered guarantees to host major sporting events. It demonstrated this in golf, becoming in 1997 the first country, outside of the United States or Great Britain, to host the Ryder Cup. In tennis, Madrid hosts one of the nine Masters 1,000 tournaments of the season each year. And in 2019 it took over the first editions of the Davis Cup when it moved to a single venue format. That status has long been earned in the world of motorsport. In Formula 1, it has been hosting a grand prix uninterruptedly since 1986. Throughout history, up to six circuits have received single-seaters (Jarama, Montjuïc, Pedralbes, Valencia, Montmeló and Jerez), and in 2026 the track will be added urban of Madrid. In MotoGP, Spain has had up to four grand prix in the same season. And in rallies, the Canary Islands will take over next year the baton left by Catalonia, which was part of the World Championship until 2022. Another sport with large stages, sailing, found a safe harbor in Spain to celebrate the Copa América. Valencia was on two occasions (2007 and 2010), and this 2024 it was Barcelona that received the fastest boats on the planet. As if that were not enough, in 2025 borders and markets will continue to expand. If nothing goes wrong, in November of next year the Santiago Bernabéu will host the first game in Spain of the NFL, the American football league.
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