The tournament is primarily due to be held in Spain, Portugal and Morocco, but one-off celebratory matches are set to be staged in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay following a surprise announcement last week, subject to ratification from next year's FIFA Congress.

It served as something of a compromise as there had been a planned Iberian bid and South American bid for the World Cup, although Chile, which was part of the latter's initial proposal, was left outraged having been snubbed.

Up until now, the men's FIFA World Cup has only been held in more than one country when South Korea and Japan hosted the 2002 edition.

However, FIFA plans to expand the tournament from 32 to 48 teams for 2026, when 104 matches are set to be played across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

For 2030, climate activists drew attention to wide spread of matches and travel across the Atlantic Ocean this would require for teams and fans.

Sport ecologist Madeleine Orr from the University of Toronto suggested the plans were problematic given FIFA's stated commitments to combat climate change, including a 50 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and "net-zero" by 2040.

"The big problem is that they're continuously growing the event," Orr said, as reported by Reuters.

"Every decision that grows the World Cup is going to increase the carbon footprint of the event.

"That's the unfortunate truth, it's a trade-off.

"You get growth economically and as a result, you're getting a bigger environmental footprint.

"FIFA itself have said that they are considering the environment, yet all of the actions suggest otherwise."

Walker Ross also questioned the logic of requiring teams to travel to South America during the 2030 World Cup.

"For the last World Cup in Qatar, travel within the country was quite minimal because the country is so small," he said, as reported by Reuters.

"You're going to have teams fly down to South America, play a match and then they're going to fly back to, let's say Spain.

"That just seems quite carbon intensive."

FIFA claimed Qatar 2022 was the first "fully carbon neutral" World Cup, suggesting it had offset 3.63 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

However, the Swiss Fair Trade Commission in June found this was "misleading".

Ross additionally noted the benefits of "offsetting" emissions, for example through planting trees, requires "years and years" for a meaningful positive impact.

insidethegames has asked FIFA for a comment on the criticism related to the 2030 World Cup.

It has vowed to "take all required measures to mitigate the environmental impact of the FIFA World Cup", and insisted the vast majority of matches will be played "in a footprint of neighbouring countries in close geographic proximity and with extensive and well-developed transport links and infrastructure".

FIFA has additionally argued its Council selecting one bid rather than a full bidding process "significantly reduces travel in relation to site inspection visits and other meetings".