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2034 FIFA World Cup
2034 كأس العالم لكرة القدم
Kaʾs al-ʿālam li-kurat al-qadam 2034
Tournament details
Host countryFlag of Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia
DatesTBA
Teams48 (from 6 confederations)
Venue(s)15 (in 5 host cities)
2030
2038

The 2034 FIFA World Cup will be the 25th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament contested by the men's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It is set to be hosted in Saudi Arabia, as it was the only nation to submit a bid in time for FIFA's deadline of 31 October 2023.

FIFA restricted the hosting eligibility to Asia or Oceania after it made the controversial decision to host the 2030 World Cup on three continents (Africa, Europe and South America). Observers characterised this as paving the path for Saudi Arabia to host the 2034 World Cup by substantially reducing potential competing host bids. FIFA president Gianni Infantino also had strong ties with Asian Football Confederation president Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, who backed Saudi Arabia's bid.

Host selection[]

The bidding process for the 2034 World Cup began on 4 October 2023 and used the same requirements as the 2030 World Cup. Due to FIFA's confederation rotation policy, only member associations from the Asian Football Confederation and Oceania Football Confederation were eligible to host. FIFA had made the decision to host the 2030 World Cup in three continents (Africa, Europe and South America) and the 2026 World Cup had been set to be held in North America, which meant that the 2034 World Cup would necessarily have to be held in Asia or Oceania. Observers saw this as paving the path for Saudi Arabia to host the 2034 World Cup by substantially reducing potential hosting bids.

On 31 October 2023, FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced that Saudi Arabia would host the 2034 World Cup, making it the third time the Asian Football Confederation hosted the World Cup, after the 2002 tournament in Japan and South Korea and the 2022 tournament in Qatar, as well as the second time being held in the Middle East, after Qatar 2022.

According to investigative reporting by The New York Times, Infantino played a key role in the selection of Saudi Arabia as host. He engaged in private diplomacy on Saudi Arabia's behalf, as he explored whether Greece would be willing to partner with Saudi Arabia to host the 2030 World Cup. When Spain, Portugal and Morocco announced that they would bid together for the 2030 World Cup, the Saudis considered it unlikely that the bid could be beaten. Thus, the Saudis backed out of bidding for 2030. FIFA subsequently made two moves that The New York Times described as "curious", as FIFA announced that the first three games of the 2030 World Cup would be played in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay while the rest would be played in Spain, Morocco and Portugal. This decision ruled Europe, Africa and South America out as potential bidders for the 2034 World Cup, and meant that the only potential bidders could be from Asia or Oceania. FIFA also unexpectedly sped up the bidding process for the 2034 World Cup, giving only 25 days for interested nations to express their intent to host. Within minutes, Saudi Arabia announced its intentions to host.

On 11 December 2024, FIFA confirmed that the 2034 World Cup would be hosted by Saudi Arabia. The decision was announced during an Extraordinary FIFA Congress meeting, where the hosts for both the 2030 and 2034 tournaments were finalized following a vote.

2024 Extraordinary FIFA Congress
11 December 2024 – Zürich, Switzerland
Nation Round 1
Flag of Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia Acclamation

Bids[]

Main article:2034 FIFA World Cup bids

Saudi Arabia[]

Main article:Saudi Arabia 2034 FIFA World Cup bid

After Saudi Arabia abandoned its 2030 bid alongside Greece and Egypt, they switched their focus to a solo 2034 bid. Similar strategies to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, which was held in November–December as opposed to the usual summer scheduling, may be used to mitigate the country's summer heat, though SAFF insisted on a plan to host in the summer. The country's bid was announced on 4 October 2023. On 5 October, AFC President Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa backed Saudi Arabia's bid. On the 9th, Saudi Arabia announced that it submitted the official letter of intent and signed the declaration to FIFA to bid to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup, and that over 70 member associations already pledged their support for its bid.

On 11 December 2024, FIFA confirmed that the 2034 Men's Football World Cup will be hosted by Saudi Arabia. The decision was announced during an Extraordinary FIFA Congress meeting, where the hosts for both the 2030 and 2034 tournaments were finalized following a vote.

Declined bids[]

  • Flag of ASEAN ASEAN
  • Flag of Australia Australia, Flag of New Zealand New Zealand, and Flag of Indonesia Indonesia
  • Flag of the People's Republic of China China, Flag of Hong Kong Hong Kong, and Flag of Macau Macau
  • Flag of Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, Flag of Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan, and Flag of Uzbekistan Uzbekistan

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)[]

The first bid for the 2034 FIFA World Cup was proposed as a collective bid by the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ten countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam]). The idea of a combined ASEAN bid was mooted as early as January 2011, when the former Football Association of Singapore President, Zainudin Nordin, said in a statement that the proposal was made at an ASEAN Foreign Ministers meeting, despite the fact that countries cannot bid (as that's up to national associations). In 2013, Nordin and Special Olympics Malaysia President, Datuk Mohamed Faisol Hassan, recalled the idea for ASEAN to jointly host a World Cup. Under FIFA rules as of 2017, the 2030 World Cup cannot be held in Asia (AFC) as Asian Football Confederation members are excluded from the bidding following the selection of Qatar in 2022. Therefore, the earliest bid by an AFC member could be made for 2034.

Later, Malaysia withdrew from involvement, but Singapore and other ASEAN countries continued the campaign to submit a joint bid for the World Cup in 2034. In February 2017, ASEAN held talks on launching a joint bid during a visit by FIFA President Gianni Infantino to Yangon, Myanmar. On 1 July 2017, Vice General Chairman of the Football Association of Indonesia Joko Driyono said that Indonesia and Thailand were set to lead a consortium of Southeast Asian nations in the bid. Driyono added that due to geographic and infrastructure considerations and the expanded format (48 teams), at least two or three ASEAN countries combined would be in a position necessary to host matches.

In September 2017, the Thai League 1 Deputy CEO Benjamin Tan, at the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Council meeting, confirmed that his Association "put in their interest to bid and co-host" the 2034 World Cup with Indonesia. On the same occasion, the General Secretary of the AFF, Dato Sri Azzuddin Ahmad, confirmed that Indonesia and Thailand would submit a joint bid. Indonesia was the first Asian team and the only Southeast Asian country to have participated in the World Cup, when the territory was known as the Dutch East Indies.

However, in June 2018, FIFA executive committee member, Yang di-Pertuan Agong and Sultan of Pahang, Tengku Abdullah, who is also the former president of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), expressed interest in joining the two countries in hosting the World Cup together. The same year, Vietnam expressed interest in joining the bid for the same competition, despite some infrastructure concerns. The four countries jointly hosted a football event before during the 2007 AFC Asian Cup.

In June 2019, the Prime Minister of Thailand, Prayut Chan-o-cha, announced that all 10 nations of ASEAN would launch a joint-bid to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup, being the first to submit a ten-country joint bid in the FIFA World Cup history.

On 9 October 2019, five ASEAN countries officially proposed hosting the 2034 FIFA World Cup. Thailand is to lead the initiative.

On 15 June 2022, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, in his role as chair of ASEAN, said he would urge Southeast Asian leaders to bid to host the FIFA World Cup in 2034 or 2038.

Australia and New Zealand with other hosts[]

After its failed bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Australia considered a joint bid with neighbouring New Zealand, an OFC member with which they co-hosted the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. Australia re-established this intention in August 2021, shortly after Brisbane's success in bidding to host the 2032 Summer Olympics. A joint bid with Indonesia and other ASEAN countries instead of New Zealand was also discussed by Football Australia. However, Indonesia remained reluctant to the joint bid with Australia, considering the country was also taking part in the ASEAN bid for the same competition. An alternative suggestion was for Australia and New Zealand to partner alongside Malaysia and Singapore, instead of Indonesia even though both countries were also involved in the ASEAN bid as well.

Football Australia chief executive, James Johnson, said his organisation was "exploring the possibility" following FIFA's deadline for bids to be submitted by 31 October 2023. A major challenge to the bid however was the need to construct more stadiums or expand current stadiums to FIFA standards. Indonesia was in talks with Australia, Singapore, and Malaysia with a joint bid, though they pulled out on 18 October, backing the Saudi bid instead like much of the AFC.

On 31 October, Football Australia announced that it would not bid to host the 2034 World Cup, leaving Saudi Arabia as the sole candidate.

Venues[]

The official list of stadiums was confirmed on 31 July 2024 by the bid book. The tournament will be held in 5 cities, Riyadh, Jeddah, Al Khobar, Abha and Neom, with a total of 15 stadiums (11 of which will be new). The King Salman Stadium in Riyadh is expected to host the opening and final.

List of candidate host cities
City Stadium Capacity
Abha King Khalid University Stadium 45,428
Jeddah King Abdullah Sports City Stadium 62,345
Qiddiya Coast Stadium 46,096
Jeddah Central Development Stadium (New) 45,794
King Abdullah Economic City Stadium (New) 45,700
Khobar Aramco Stadium (New) 46,096
Neom Neom Stadium (New) 46,010
Riyadh King Salman International Stadium (New) 92,000
King Fahd Sports City Stadium 70,000
South Riyadh Stadium 47,060
Prince Mohammed bin Salman Stadium (New) 46,979
Prince Faisal bin Fahd Sports City Stadium 46,865
King Saud University Stadium 46,319
New Murabba Stadium (New) 46,010
Roshn Stadium (New) 46,000

In addition to the venues, 2 FIFA Fan Festival locations have been proposed in each of the host cities. The draw of the groups will take place at the planned Line Convention Center, located in The Line, Neom.

Teams[]

Qualification[]

AFC

Controversies[]

Human Rights[]

The selection of Saudi Arabia as a host has already attracted controversy due to human rights violations in the country. Law, human rights, and Saudi activists have asked for FIFA to put pressure on the country to improve its human rights record, similar to the pressure put on Qatar when it hosted in 2022. The trade union Building and Wood Workers' International has warned that FIFA awarding Saudi Arabia the tournament goes against their conditions of human rights. When Clifford Chance did an assessment of human rights in the country, the report was criticised by eleven rights organisations including, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The nontransparent nature of the bid has also been criticised by Norwegian Football Federation president Lise Klaveness, who stated that despite the reforms after the 2015 FIFA corruption case, little measures were taken to ensure that hosts met risk and human rights assessments; the NFF later abstained from voting on 11 December. Norwegian club Fredrikstad have put pressure on their federation to boycott the tournament. On 11 November 2024, Amnesty International called on FIFA to stop the bidding process for the 2034 FIFA World Cup, citing human rights concerns in Saudi Arabia. On 21 November 2024, ITUC-Africa filed a complaint to the United Nations over the mistreatment of African migrant workers in Saudi Arabia and warned that the 2034 FIFA World Cup could amplify existing problems for migrant workers. On 25 November 2024, United States Senators Ron Wyden and Dick Durbin urged FIFA not to award the 2034 FIFA World Cup to Saudi Arabia citing human rights concerns for citizens, workers, athletes, tourists, and members of the press in the country with no guarantee that human rights would be upheld during the tournament. Three days later, German and Danish MEPs Daniel Freund and Niels Fuglsang respectively criticised the closed door nature of the bid and suggested for a boycott if the tournament was awarded to Saudi Arabia to as they believed it was the only way to ensure a prevention of human rights violations. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called for FIFA to keep human rights as the top priority for hosting the tournament in Saudi Arabia.

Despite this, some football federations that were previously critical of Qatar during their World Cup such as The Football Association, the Danish Football Association, the German Football Association, the Swiss Football Association, and the Royal Belgian Football Association have either backed Saudi Arabia or remained silent. DBU chairman Jesper Møller and DBU secretary general Erik Brogger Rasmussen have stated that they are optimistic that the human rights situation will improve by the start of the World Cup as part of Saudi Vision 2030; the FA stated that they would back Saudi Arabia to avoid accusations of hypocrisy if they wanted England to participate; the RFBA congratulated Saudi Arabia for their bid and were also optimistic about human rights improving; the ASF-SFV backed Saudi Arabia but called for an independent human rights group to monitor the situation; the DFB later decided to support Saudi Arabia with a goal of working to improve the human rights situation. Meanwhile German coach Julian Nagelsmann and German captain Joshua Kimmich stated that despite the host being Saudi Arabia, they will not make a protest about the human rights conditions in the country like the German team did in 2022 and instead focus on football.

Environmental concerns[]

Fossil Free Football has raised concerns about the tournament stating that the amount of new stadiums that would be built would increase pollution, and that the tournament would be used to greenwash the country's fossil fuel industry.

Scheduling[]

Because of the climate of the country, it will be almost impossible to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup during the usual summer window, which means that the tournament is very likely to be played in the winter, just like the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Like the 2022 World Cup, there is concern that this will disrupt the normal football schedule, as most leagues and confederations would still be at the height of their own schedules. However, there is also the added concern that the tournament will clash with the 2034 Winter Olympics in February, Ramadan in December, and the 2034 Asian Games also being held in Saudi Arabia in November and December. The International Olympic Committee has stated that there is no risk of overlap with the Winter Olympics, and that it might be good for fans.

External links[]

2022 FIFA World Cup emblem
FIFA World Cup FIFA World Cup
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