Saudi Arabia has been confirmed as the host nation for the 2034 football World Cup.
According to the official announcement, Spain, Portugal, and Morocco will host the 2030 World Cup, while the 2034 tournament will take place in Saudi Arabia.
Also confirmed were the hosts for the 2030 World Cup, which was awarded to six countries and will take place across three continents to celebrate 100 years of the tournament. Spain, Portugal and Morocco will co-host in a six-nation project, with Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay each getting one of the 104 games.
As for 2034, FIFA invoked its principle of rotating its flagship tournament between continents, only welcoming bids from Asia or Oceania — the 2026 World Cup, the first involving 48 teams, will take place across North America.
Controversially, the body gave potential bidders barely a month last year to submit candidacies, and Australia and Indonesia quickly abandoned their interest.
That left Saudi Arabia as the sole candidate, clearing the way for the World Cup to return to the Gulf region so soon after Qatar hosted in 2022.
As the sole bidder for the 2034 competition, Saudi Arabia host status was confirmed on Wednesday after an online meeting of the 211 members of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA).
The members confirmed the unchallenged bids by acclamation – simply clapping during the virtual meeting led by FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
As well as the World Cup, Saudi Arabia is hosting football’s 2027 Asian Cup, the 2029 Asian Winter Games and the 2034 Asian Games. It also has long-term ambitions to host more major events, including the Women’s World Cup, according to Sky Sports News.
Before both of them, the US, Canada and Mexico will co-host the 2026 World Cup.
Saudi Arabia first published its bid for the World Cup back in August after FIFA controversially fast-tracked the process for hosting the tournaments in 2030 and 2034.
But the plan for the 2034 tournament has led to criticism from activist groups, who argue that Saudi laws will not protect workers overseas.
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The tournament will require the construction of eight new stadiums, for a total of 15 hosting venues, plus the addition of 175,000 hotel rooms, which will rely heavily on migrant labour.
Saudi Arabia has been criticised for its human rights violations, the criminalisation of homosexuality, free-speech restriction and lack of women’s rights.
The country will host football’s most high-profile tournament for the first time and is the latest example of Saudi’s growing influence on global sport.
Saudi Arabia’s bid was given the highest-ever score by FIFA’s bid evaluation team and deemed only ‘medium risk’ on human rights. Amnesty International described FIFA’s report as “an astonishing whitewash.”
In response to the critics, Hammad Albalawi, head of Saudi Arabia’s bid, said at the beginning of December that the country has made significant progress in human rights while aiming to attract “more fans than ever” to the event.
He said Saudi Arabia is committed to transforming its social and economic landscape under Vision 2030 – a government programme announced back in 2016.
“We have come a long way and there’s still a long way to go. Our principle is to develop something that is right for us. Our journey started in 2016, not because of the World Cup bid,” Mr Albalawi told the Reuters news agency.
“We’ve launched initiatives granting employees the freedom to move between employers. Documents of these employees are now uploaded into government systems, ensuring they have rights within their contracts.”
He added that the tournament would be held in a “safe and family-friendly environment” regardless of the sale of alcohol – which is banned in the country.
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 effectively handed the finals by an agreement reached at a FIFA Council meeting on October 4 last year.
– Unprecedented bid –
The 2030 tournament will mark a century since the first World Cup was held in Uruguay, and as a result the bid will also see the South American nation handed a game along with Argentina and Paraguay.
That makes it a completely unprecedented bid, involving three different continental confederations.
FIFA confirmed over a year ago that the joint proposal led by Morocco, Spain and Portugal was the sole contender for 2030, with all other potential candidacies having fallen by the wayside.
A joint British and Irish bid was abandoned when they decided to focus on hosting Euro 2028, while there were suggestions of a bid from South Korea, China, Japan and North Korea.
Four South American countries launched a joint bid in 2019, convinced that the centenary World Cup should entirely take place on the same continent where it all began.
In late 2022, UEFA promoted a bid uniting Spain and Portugal with war-torn Ukraine in a show of “solidarity” following the Russian invasion.
However, Ukraine was quietly dropped from that candidacy last year as Morocco joined forces with the Iberian neighbours, while South America agreed to step aside in exchange for being awarded the hosting of three games, one each for Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina.
