Australia has dropped out leaving only Saudi Arabia as a bidder
Less than a decade after Saudi Arabia decided to make a push into global sports, the Kingdom is set to claim the prize it covets most: the soccer World Cup.
The country learned on Tuesday that it was the only bidder left standing to host the 2034 edition of the tournament, after Australia formally withdrew from the process earlier in the day. Once the decision is formally ratified, likely without a vote or debate next fall at a meeting of the FIFA Congress, Saudi Arabia will reach the pinnacle of a multibillion-dollar process that is reshaping the world’s most popular sport and using it to remake the Kingdom’s image.
The unique situation arose from FIFA’s stipulation that only countries from Asia or Oceania would be allowed to bid for the 2034 tournament in order to keep the World Cup rotating through different continents. North and Central America were out because the U.S., Canada, and Mexico are co-hosting in 2026. And the peculiar set up of 2030—co-hosted by Spain and Morocco with opening games in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay to mark the World Cup’s centennial—ruled out Europe, Africa, and South America.
That opened the door for an Australian bid for 2034 after the country’s successful hosting of the 2023 Women’s World Cup. But as Tuesday’s deadline neared, Football Australia said it would shift its attention to the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup and the 2029 Club World Cup.
That left only Saudi Arabia for the biggest sporting event in the world.
The Kingdom hasn’t released any details of how the 2034 tournament might look. By then, the men’s World Cup will have expanded to 48 teams and likely require more than a dozen state-of-the-art stadiums in a country where most soccer infrastructure is dated and tired.
It will also run into the question of when in the calendar to organize the tournament, since summer temperatures in the desert make it impossible. Qatar, the host of the 2022 World Cup, solved that problem by having it in November and December in air-conditioned stadiums. But soccer’s top leagues have already expressed serious concerns about FIFA’s management of the calendar.
www.wsj.com
Less than a decade after Saudi Arabia decided to make a push into global sports, the Kingdom is set to claim the prize it covets most: the soccer World Cup.
The country learned on Tuesday that it was the only bidder left standing to host the 2034 edition of the tournament, after Australia formally withdrew from the process earlier in the day. Once the decision is formally ratified, likely without a vote or debate next fall at a meeting of the FIFA Congress, Saudi Arabia will reach the pinnacle of a multibillion-dollar process that is reshaping the world’s most popular sport and using it to remake the Kingdom’s image.
The unique situation arose from FIFA’s stipulation that only countries from Asia or Oceania would be allowed to bid for the 2034 tournament in order to keep the World Cup rotating through different continents. North and Central America were out because the U.S., Canada, and Mexico are co-hosting in 2026. And the peculiar set up of 2030—co-hosted by Spain and Morocco with opening games in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay to mark the World Cup’s centennial—ruled out Europe, Africa, and South America.
That opened the door for an Australian bid for 2034 after the country’s successful hosting of the 2023 Women’s World Cup. But as Tuesday’s deadline neared, Football Australia said it would shift its attention to the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup and the 2029 Club World Cup.
That left only Saudi Arabia for the biggest sporting event in the world.
The Kingdom hasn’t released any details of how the 2034 tournament might look. By then, the men’s World Cup will have expanded to 48 teams and likely require more than a dozen state-of-the-art stadiums in a country where most soccer infrastructure is dated and tired.
It will also run into the question of when in the calendar to organize the tournament, since summer temperatures in the desert make it impossible. Qatar, the host of the 2022 World Cup, solved that problem by having it in November and December in air-conditioned stadiums. But soccer’s top leagues have already expressed serious concerns about FIFA’s management of the calendar.
Saudi Arabia’s Lavish Sports Push Earns It the 2034 World Cup
The Kingdom was the only country to formally register its interest in hosting the tournament by Tuesday’s FIFA deadline, marking the culmination of a fast-moving, multibillion-dollar project that is reshaping the sports world.
www.wsj.com
