FIFA president Gianni Infantino confirmed the host nations for the upcoming men’s World Cups at Wednesday’s extraordinary congress, with the 2030 tournament split across six countries and three continents and 2034 controversially going to Saudi Arabia.
The announcement on Wednesday was effectively a formality, but confirmed that all 211 FIFA nations voted.
The unique scheduling for the tournament in 2030 has been public knowledge for more than a year. Morocco, Spain and Portugal will be the main staging posts for the festival of football, while the opening trio of matches will be split across the three South American nations Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay to celebrate the World Cup‘s 100th anniversary.
Saudi Arabia were the only official bidders for the 2034 World Cup. FIFA regulations prohibit a confederation from hosting any of the following two World Cups after staging the global competition. The tournament in 2026 will be hosted by CONCACAF nations USA, Mexico and Canada, while CAF, UEFA and CONMEBOL play some role in the 2030 edition. That left only countries from Asia or Oceania as applicable hosts for 2034.
Australia briefly entertained the idea of putting in an official bid, having successfully hosted the 2023 women’s World Cup alongside New Zealand. However, FIFA only afforded interested parties 25 days to submit their bid for the 2034 competition after unexpectedly opening the process on 6 October 2023.
The Socceroos contingent ultimately didn’t have time to assemble a full report and pulled out of the process last year, leaving Saudi Arabia as the sole candidates.
Norwegian Football Federation president Lisa Klaveness has been a vocal critic of the process behind Saudi Arabia’s bid and the FA had a letter read out at the extraordinary committee “raising concerns about the bidding process”.
A joint statement from 11 organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, labelled the report into Saudi Arabia’s treatment of migrant workers as a “whitewash [of] the reality of abuse and discrimination faced by Saudi Arabia’s citizens and residents”.
Despite the widespread concerns, the Saudi Arabian bid was awarded a record-high mark of 419.8 out of 500 after an assessment from FIFA. While not confirmed, it is likely that a Saudi Arabian World Cup will take place in January 2034.
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