Picture Credit: X
FIFA is set to confirm the hosts for the 2030 and 2034 edition of the men’s World Cups on Wednesday, December 11. The 2030 edition of the marquee tournament will be hosted across three-continents and six nations, after the bid which was led by Morocco, Spain and Portugal. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia is set to host the 2034 edition after there were no competing bids. The development had come in October last year, when the global governing body confirmed that there were no competing bids, which automatically made the forthcoming announcement just a formality.
However, a day before the announcement, it was still unclear the format a vote on the decision would adopt. Earlier on Tuesday, the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) said that it would vote against the awarding of hosting rights by acclamation. It also criticised FIFA’s bidding process and labelled it “flawed and inconsistent.” It is to be noted that Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay had submitted a joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup in 2022. However, the FIFA later announced that Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay would instead host one match during the tournament.
FIFA to return to Gulf after more than 12 years
As FIFA is set to announce Saudi Arabia as the host for the 2034 edition of the tournament, it will see the sport returning to the Gulf after more than a decade. It was in 2022 when Qatar last hosted the World Cup. However, Saudi Arabia had to fight to secure hosting rights. As per a report from the Danish research organisation Play of the Game, the country made 910 sponsorship deals across 28 sports out of which 194 were in football.
Not only this, but the country also reportedly signed 48 MOUs. Moreover, according to another report, Neom, which is Saudi’s ambitious megacity project, became AFC’s global partner from 2021 to 2024. In addition, the country got an impressive rating of 4.2 out of 5 in FIFA’s latest evaluation of Saudi Arabia’s bid for the 2034 edition.
