The signs have long been there, pointing us towards the inevitable. And today, unopposed, Saudi Arabia will get its big moment when it is named as host nation by FIFA, football’s global governing body, for the 2034 men’s World Cup.
Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay will share games at the 2030 tournament, a grand and global event to mark the 100th anniversary of the first World Cup being staged, but 2034 will be all Saudi’s. It is going to be the first 48-team World Cup played in a single country.
The controversial selection process has drawn criticism. A bidding window truncated by FIFA, world football’s governing body, effectively left Saudi without a challenger and, just as with its neighbour Qatar in 2022, human-rights campaigners are already questioning the Gulf nation’s suitability to host football’s greatest spectacle.
None of those misgivings will be heard when FIFA’s congress gives Saudi Arabia 2034 the nod, though, as a coveted prize is handed over uncontested.
The Athletic examines how we got here and what happens next.
What is happening today?
A FIFA Congress meeting, held virtually rather than in person, will confirm plans for the next two tournaments that follow the 2026 World Cup in the U.S, Canada and Mexico, with member associations asked to approve what is already preordained.
There will be 210 FIFA nations asked to ratify Saudi’s position as 2034 hosts when meeting online this afternoon and, unlike previous editions, there will be no suspense or intrigue around the result.
It is expected a vote by acclamation will see a decision reached without individual votes delivered. The Norwegian FA have indicated they would abstain but the backing of the German FA, announced last week, indicates any resistance will only be symbolic.
How far back do Saudi’s plans to host a World Cup go?
It is impossible to tell the story of Saudi Arabia’s pursuit of the World Cup without beginning at Vision 2030.
A government programme, launched in 2016, Vision 2030 mapped out ambitious plans for where the country would head under Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS), targeting economic, social and cultural diversification to lessen the nation’s dependency on its vast oil and gas reserves.
Sport, and its global appeal, was earmarked as a key component in giving Saudi more gravitational pull in a wider world. High-profile events, including boxing, Formula 1 motor racing and pro wrestling, were all brought to locations they had never been to before, while the 2021 launch of LIV Golf, a breakaway from the existing European and U.S. professional tours, signalled an aggressive intention to make a Saudi-owned competition that sport’s glitzy future.
Huge investment also went into bringing some of football’s biggest names to clubs in the domestic Saudi Pro League, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Karim Benzema. That came after a majority shareholding in Premier League club Newcastle United had already been secured in 2021 through the country’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), a body chaired by MBS.
The greatest aim, though, was always to host a World Cup, an event that would guarantee billions of eyes being drawn towards Saudi every day for a month.
The past decade has shown what football can do for other, smaller countries in the Gulf region. None more so than Qatar, the nation bordering Saudi Arabia that hosted the World Cup in 2022. Saudi, with its own ambitions to grow tourism and inward investment, has wanted a piece of the same action ever since.
Amnesty International activists in the Netherlands protest against the 2034 World Cup being awarded to Saudi Arabia (Robin van Lonkhuijsen/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)
Was the aim always for 2034?
No. The initial target was 2030. Despite Qatar staging the World Cup in 2022, in theory blocking any nation from the Asia Football Confederation (AFC) it and Saudi are members of from doing the same until at least 2034, because FIFA rotates the tournament among its continental regions, a series of co-hosting partnerships with other countries were explored in an attempt to quickly follow in their neighbour’s footsteps.
The Athletic reported in 2021 that Italy, then men’s champions of Europe, had been considered one option, as had Morocco from CAF, the African confederation. It was eventually decided a bid with Europe’s Greece and Africa’s Egypt, two political and military allies, would represent the best hope of Saudi winning the race for 2030 but the plan always had imperfections in its infrastructure and appeal.
A World Cup held predominantly in Europe for the first time since Russia 2018 was consistently regarded as the more favourable option for 2030, with Spain and Portugal teaming up with Morocco to present an attractive proposition that trumped a joint bid from the United Kingdom and Ireland, who instead chose to (successfully) pursue the 2028 European Championship.
The prevailing wind was blowing towards south-west Europe and North Africa, and by last autumn there was a pivot towards waiting another four years for the chance for Saudi to go it alone.
How have relations built up between FIFA and Saudi?
The alignment between the two — or more precisely, between FIFA president Gianni Infantino and MBS — has strengthened inexorably in recent years. The two figureheads sat together at the opening game of the 2018 World Cup, alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin, watching the hosts’ 5-0 win over Saudi in Moscow, and were back again rubbing elbows four years later in Qatar, sharing jokes at another opening ceremony.
Bin Salman, Infantino and Putin at the 2018 World Cup (Pool/Getty Images)
Infantino’s relationship with MBS has gone beyond football, too.
The pair attended the heavyweight boxing world title fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua in Jeddah, Saudi’s second city, in 2022 and the Esports World Cup in capital Riyadh earlier this year. Always positioned together, always smiling. Infantino even appeared in a promotional video for Saudi’s ministry of sport in 2021, praising the progress made within the country.
That closeness has led towards a lucrative commercial partnership being signed off. Aramco, the state-owned oil and gas company, became one of FIFA’s six global partners in April this year, extending a pattern that saw Russia’s Gazprom step forward ahead of the 2018 World Cup in that country and Qatar Airlines in the run-up to 2022. Visit Saudi, the country’s tourism arm, had also proposed sponsoring the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand last year before a backlash led to the idea being scrapped.
Infantino dismissed that as a “storm in a teacup”, and six months later came the announcement that would effectively seal Saudi Arabia’s place as hosts of the 2034 men’s equivalent.
How did FIFA turn towards Saudi for 2034?
It was October 4 last year when FIFA unexpectedly announced its plans for the 2030 World Cup. “In a divided world, FIFA and football are uniting,” said Infantino, in an address that added Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay to the hosts’ ticket first headed up by Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
What followed were details of a plan to make the 2030 tournament unique. “The FIFA Council unanimously agreed to celebrate the centenary of the FIFA World Cup, whose first edition was played in Uruguay in 1930, in the most appropriate way,” added Infantino. The tournament will begin with a match in each of the three South American nations mentioned above, before the bulk of the competition then unfolds in Europe and Africa.
The implications for 2034, though, were clear. Sharing the 2030 World Cup among those three continents left Asia and Oceania as the only FIFA federations eligible to host four years later. North and Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF), which will have had its latest turn in 2026, is also ineligible.
That left a shallow pool of potential host candidates for 2034. One that was drained further by FIFA’s decision to bolt the bidding process onto that of 2030. That sudden development effectively gave interested bidders a mere 25 days to declare their interests, ensuring a proposal led by Australia, the only feasible challenger to Saudi left, was barely given time to bring plans together.
Saudi, meanwhile, had its bid ready to go. Their intent to host was announced within hours of FIFA’s decision.
“We believe the time is right for Saudi Arabia to host the FIFA World Cup,” Yasser Al Misehal, president of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) said in a statement. “Our bid is driven by a love for the game. We want to celebrate our football culture and share our country with the world.”
Within days, Saudi had the key backing of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), scuppering any faint prospect of Australia teaming up with Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. That gave Saudi a free run at 2034, and the Australians duly bowed out of what can barely be called a race.
Infantino, posing with the World Cup trophy, then posted on his Instagram account how it would all play out in a vote that was still over a year away. “The next two editions of the FIFA World Cup are set to be hosted in Africa (Morocco) and Europe (Portugal and Spain) — with three celebratory matches played in South America (Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) — in 2030 and in Asia (Saudi Arabia) in 2034.”
What’s happened in the 13 months since?
Saudi’s official bid book was handed over to FIFA in Paris on July 30 by a delegation that included two youngsters picked to show a “young population transforming through rapid social change.” Infantino was there to collect it personally.
It confirmed that Saudi planned to build 11 stadiums to host the tournament, including one in Neom, a city that has yet to be built, 350m (half a mile) above sea level in the northwest of the kingdom. Eight of the grounds to be used will be in Riyadh (the others will be in Jeddah, Al Khobar and Abha), including the venue for the opening game and the final: the 92,000-capacity King Salman International Stadium, which is being designed by stadium architects Populous.
The proposed King Salman Stadium in Riyadh (Populous via Getty Images)
FIFA staff visited Saudi for an inspection tour of the host cities and current facilities in October. That led towards FIFA publishing its evaluation report on November 30, removing any doubt that Saudi would host in 2034. An average score of 4.2 out of 5 was a record high for a World Cup bid rating, with FIFA saying that staging the event in the kingdom would represent a “medium” human rights risk.
The hosts of the World Cup in 10 years’ time are already clear.
(Top photos: iStock)
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