How FIFA Bent Its Rules To Make S’Arabia 2034 World Cup Host

The 2034 men’s football World Cup will be held in Saudi Arabia.

The cash-rich Gulf nation was confirmed as host of the 2034 men’s FIFA World Cup yesterday after emerging as the only bidders for the tournament contrary to FIFA free fair choice. The hosts for the multi-nation tournament in 2030, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, were also rubber-stamped at an online FIFA Congress yesterday.

Under FIFA’s rules, the organization’s 211 member nations are supposed to select one tournament host during a single vote, and usually there are multiple contenders. But yesterday, FIFA’s members voted at the same time for two tournaments — the World Cup in 2030 and 2034.

FIFA said recently that the rule changes “followed a comprehensive consultation process across all confederations,” but has not explained why the bids for the two tournaments were combined. This week FIFA published an evaluation of the Saudi bid, saying the country was on the path toward reforming its labour system, with changes that will reduce risk to workers engaged in the building work required for the World Cup.

Football’s return to the cash-rich Gulf after only 12 years — Qatar hosted the 2022 World Cup — is a study of how a nation wove a web of influence across the world through sponsorships, Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) and investments to secure the biggest single-sport event.

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Hosting the World Cup forms part of an ambitious plan by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to reorient the country, in part by diversifying its economy. Sports and entertainment have been at the center of this plan over the past decade as the Prince brought the world’s top sports and sporting talent to Saudi Arabia, at eye-popping cost.

“We’ve hosted more than 85 global events and we’ve delivered on the highest level,” Saudi Arabia’s sports minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal, told the BBC in a podcast published earlier this month. “We want to attract the world through sports. Hopefully, by 2034, people will have an extraordinary World Cup.”

The 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia will also be the first time the expanded 48-team tournament is held in just one country, with the 2026 World Cup being held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Saudi Arabia was awarded the World Cup for the first time in its history, while this will be the second time that the top men’s football tournament will be played in the Middle East.

The Kingdom had proposed in its bidding campaign that the matches will be held across 15 stadiums in five cities (Riyadh, Jeddah, Khobar, Abha, NEOM).

The Green Falcons have competed at the last two editions of the World Cup, failing to reach the knockout stages on both occasions despite stunning eventual champions Argentina at Qatar 2022.