By co-hosting the Centenary 2030 World Cup with Portugal and Morocco (plus Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay), Spain will be the first reigning World Champions to be the host country for a Men’s FIFA World Cup.

Interestingly, it has happened twice previously in the FIFA Women’s World Cup, as the United States won the 1999 Women’s World Cup as hosts, then hosted the tournament again in 2003 as defending champions after winning the bid in October 2000, then Germany (Who won that 2003 Women’s World Cup) hosted the 2011 Women’s World Cup after defending their title in the 2007 edition in China, with the winning bid for the 2011 tournament coming only a month after their 2007 success.

And another fun fact, by receiving automatic qualification as co-hosts for 2030, the Spanish will become the first country to achieve automatic qualification while being defending champions since France in 2002, who were the last World Champions to benefit from the old automatic qualification rule for defending champions, which was first granted to Italy in 1938 and was ended by FIFA in 2001 before the qualification cycle for the 2006 World Cup, forcing Brazil to become the first defending champions to have to qualify for the FIFA World Cup…

A unique way to apply a rule that dominated World Cups for generations.

A few other ones – Spain are the first country to simultaneously hold the Men’s and Women’s FIFA World Cups… in fact, were it not for the English women at Women’s Euro 2025, Spain would be European and World Champions in Men’s and Women’s football simultaneously.

And they are also the first country since Italy in 1936 to be both the reigning men’s FIFA World Cup champions and the reigning Olympic Gold Medalists in Football, with the only other country to achieve the feat being Uruguay, who were Olympic Gold Medalists in 1928 and won the inaugural FIFA-organised World Cup in 1930.