Saudi Arabia confirmed as sole bidder for 2034 World Cup
Saudi Arabia emerged on Tuesday as the likely winner in the shortened race to host the 2034 World Cup after the Australian Football Federation announced it would not bid for the tournament. The decision removed the only potential hurdle standing in Saudi Arabia’s way of bringing the world’s most watched sporting event back to the Gulf.
Australia announced its decision hours before a deadline set by football’s governing body, FIFA, for countries to express interest in hosting the World Cup. Saudi Arabia made clear weeks ago its intention to make a bid, and FIFA’s rules – and powerful allies – have all but ensured that the kingdom will prevail.
In a sudden and surprising move earlier this month, FIFA announced a shortened bidding timeline for the 2034 tournament, telling interested countries they had just 25 days to formally express their interest and make extensive statements about government support for an event with 48 teams in multiple cities. that typically requires billions of dollars and years of planning.
The decision to shorten that timeline to just a matter of weeks was made public on the same day FIFA formally announced that the 2030 World Cup would be shared between countries in Europe, Africa and South America. Football federations only learned of this possibility a week before the decision was confirmed.
FIFA’s decision to accelerate bidding for 2034 surprised many, coming eleven years before the tournament’s scheduled start and more than three years before the 2034 host would be decided. FIFA also said only bidders from Asia and Oceania, two of the six regional football federations, could be considered for selection, confirming on Tuesday evening that Saudi Arabia was the only bidder.
Saudi Arabia had been public about its desire to host the World Cup for years, and the country moved quickly to secure the tournament after FIFA set the rules this month. Its de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, announced the kingdom’s intention to make a bid within minutes of FIFA’s announcement of the official timeline, and within hours the Saudis had secured the support of the country’s top leader Asian football, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al Khalifa from Bahrain. , WHO announced that “the entire Asian football family” – a group that includes Australia – would “stand united in support” of the Saudi bid.
Australian officials concluded that they would have been outmatched if they had tried to challenge Saudi Arabia to secure the votes of the majority of FIFA’s 211 federations. Saudi Arabia has signed deals with numerous FIFA member states over the past year, allocating millions of dollars to projects across Asia and focusing heavily on Africa, where it signed an agreement with the regional governing body and sponsored a new tournament .
The dealings with football executives ranged from the high-profile to the personal: At an event for football officials in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, earlier this month, organizers announced that the Saudi Arabian Football Federation would pick up the daily laundry list for delegates.
With little hope of countering the influence and support of the Saudis, the Australian federation announced it was withdrawing and would pursue other events instead.
“We wish FIFA and the eventual host of the 2034 FIFA World Cup the greatest success for the good of the game and for all who love our sport,” the Australian federation said in a statement on its website.
A final announcement of the 2034 host will be made in the fourth quarter of 2024, FIFA said.
Saudi Arabia has gone from an international sports backwater to one of its most important players in just a few years, using its vast oil wealth to attract top stars to play in its cash-soaked football league; secure the biggest fights in boxing; and strike a deal to effectively take control of the global golf sector. All investments are seen as part of a broader plan to change the kingdom’s perception on the world stage and diversify its economy away from oil.
But inviting the World Cup – and the criticism it brings – would be one of the boldest undertakings yet.
Neighboring country Qatar spent more than a decade in the global spotlight after winning the hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup, becoming the first Arab and Muslim country to host the event.
That tournament was not without controversy. For years, the build-up was marked by criticism of the small gas-rich state’s treatment of the millions of migrant workers needed to rebuild the country in the run-up to the World Cup. Although Saudi Arabia is much more established on the world stage than Qatar, it will certainly face similar scrutiny.
Human rights organizations wasted little time in criticizing FIFA. Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch, an advocacy group, said FIFA had announced as early as 2016 that “human rights due diligence would be conducted ahead of future World Cups.”
“FIFA has effectively eliminated any pressure on Saudi Arabia and MBS to implement human rights reforms, reducing the influence on the labor market, press freedom and civil society protections that exist because Saudi Arabia desperately wants to organize the World Cup is being wasted,” said Ms Worden. an e-mail.
Yet FIFA’s bidding requirements were such that they almost matched Saudi Arabia’s current state of preparedness. A requirement that participating countries for the 2034 World Cup must already have at least seven stadiums suitable for tournaments was reduced to four, the exact number available in Saudi Arabia.
Since Saudi Arabia is the sole bidder in FIFA’s fast-track process, it will also avoid the kind of high-stakes politics that embroiled the organization in reputation-destroying corruption claims in 2010, when it organized simultaneous races for the 2018 and 2022 events. were secured by Russia and Qatar.
Australia, one of the losing bidders at the time, had spent more than $30 million of largely public money and secured just one vote, an outcome that scarred the football and political officials involved. Memories of that bitter and expensive failure led to the decision to walk away this time.