FIFA change stadium rule to effectively gift Saudi Arabia 2034 World Cup
FIFA made headlines by announcing the hosts of one World Cup last week – but world football’s governing body effectively spelt out a two-for-one deal.
Remarkably, FIFA has decided to hand the 2030 World Cup to six countries across three continents. Spain, Portugal and Morocco will be the main hosts in seven years’ time, while Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay will also have a game each to mark the centenary of the first World Cup.
Those plans were met with fury from environmental campaigners, who accused FIFA of being “totally detached from reality” in vastly increasing air miles by spreading venues out amid a climate crisis. But amid the shock of that announcement came another: bidding for the 2034 World Cup will only be open to countries from the Asian Football Confederation and Oceania Football Confederation.
By spreading the 2030 World Cup across three continents, FIFA effectively paved the way for Saudi Arabia to host in 2034. Before people could even take stock of the 2030 World Cup announcement, Saudi Arabia were already announcing their intention to bid for the following tournament.
Saudi minister of sport Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal said: “'Hosting a FIFA World Cup in 2034 would help us achieve our dream of becoming a leading nation in world sport and would mark a significant milestone in the country's transformation. As an emerging and welcoming home for all sports, we believe that hosting a FIFA World Cup is a natural next step in our football journey.”
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Quickly, endorsements from the country’s expensively-assembled star players followed. Jordan Henderson, Riyad Mahrez and Karim Benzema were among those to publicly state their excitement over the plans. Officially, Saudi Arabia were only throwing their hat into the ring. Unofficially, the tournament was already theirs.
Having successfully co-hosted the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Australia were planning to bid for the 2034 World Cup. Australian soccer federation chief executive James Johnson said on Thursday that the country was “exploring the possibility of bidding”. But a tight deadline of October 31 isn’t the only thing against them.
Karim Benzema is among the players recruited to the Saudi cause (Yasser Bakhsh/FIFA via Getty Images)FIFA president Gianni Infantino is close to Saudi’s ruler Mohammed bin Salman, while a whole host of African and Asian countries – from Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh and the Philippines to Lebanon, Syria and Qatar – have already announced their support for the Saudi bid. The lobbying has already been done and FIFA have even tweaked their own rules to smooth things over even more.
FIFA’s original overview of the bidding processes for the 2030 and 2034 tournaments noted that member associations “must propose a minimum of 14 suitable stadiums, of which at least seven must be existing stadiums”. Those stadiums would need a minimum capacity of 40,000 and a few of them would need to hold between 60,000 and 80,000 spectators.
That might have been a problem for Saudi Arabia, which currently doesn’t have the infrastructure necessary.
Luckily for Saudi Arabia, FIFA has quietly relaxed its original requirements, with a document released last week saying “of the 14 suitable stadiums proposed, any bid must propose a minimum of four existing stadiums…”. A FIFA spokesperson told the Guardian : “The requirement for four existing stadiums for the 2034 edition factors in the significantly longer lead in time to the tournament and guards against infrastructure being more out of date, making allowance for having the best quality possible.”
Like Qatar before them, Saudi Arabia will simply build what it doesn’t have. The Saudi Gazette reports that new stadiums will be built in Riyadh, Qiddiya, Jeddah, Dammam and in Bin Salman’s pet project, the proposed modern desert city of NEOM. The country will also modernise stadiums in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Taif and Buraidah.
The fact that Saudi Arabia is willing to splash the cash on football to gain a place on the world stage and diversify its oil-dependent economy – or “sportswash” its terrible human rights record – should not come as a surprise. The takeover of Newcastle by the country’s Public Investment Fund and the summer transfer window bonanza showed the lengths the Middle Eastern country is willing to go to.
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund own Newcastle United (OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)Hosting sporting events is another strand of Bin Salman’s grand plan. After buying into football, boxing and golf, Saudi Arabia will host this year's Club World Cup for the first time in December. It has also won the rights to host the 2027 Asian Cup, the 2029 Asian Winter Games and the 2034 Asian Games and is bidding to host the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup.
The 2034 World Cup will simply be the cherry on top of the cake. When it does become official it will simply be confirmation of the unstoppable rise of Saudi Arabia as a major player in world sport.
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