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FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced on Tuesday that the 2034 World Cup will be held in Saudi Arabia. The announcement confirms a hypothesis that had already been insistently advanced in recent days: Saudi Arabia’s candidacy was the only certain one, and there was time until today, 31 October, to present expressions of interest for the application.
In addition to Saudi Arabia, the other two much mentioned countries that could have applied to host the 2034 World Cup were Australia and China: Australia had evaluated the possibility, but just on Tuesday he had made it known that he has decided to renounce his candidacy.
Last week FIFA announced the shared organization of the 2030 World Cup between six countries (Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) and therefore, for the first time in the history of the tournament, three continents (Africa, Europe and South America). The only two confederations that could apply for 2034 were therefore the Asian one and the Oceanic one (North and Central America will instead host the 2026 edition, between the United States, Canada and Mexico).
Among the reasons why Saudi Arabia was favored was a recent change to the qualification requirements. FIFA is currently asking candidate countries for fourteen suitable stadiums with at least 40,000 seats, seven of which already exist or are under construction at the time of the application. In 2034, however, four existing stadiums will be enough, which is exactly the number of facilities that Saudi Arabia will be able to satisfy (two of which will be renovated and another is under construction).
Saudi Arabia’s interest in football is recent, but thanks to its enormous investment capabilities it has already had a significant impact. In just one year he invested almost 1 billion euros in his championship, the Saudi Pro League, which in this way attracted some of the most famous active footballers, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Karim Benzema. And in addition to having already secured the organization of tournaments such as the Italian and Spanish Super Cups for some time, this year Saudi Arabia will host the Club World Cup, while in 2027 it will organize the Asian Cup for the first time since 1956 .