Dubai: Fifa on Wednesday confirmed that Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup, underlining the Gulf kingdom’s growing influence in world sport.
At the same time, a virtual Congress of world football’s governing body confirmed that Morocco, Spain and Portugal will be joint hosts of the 2030 World Cup, in which three games will also be played in South America.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, congratulated Saudi Arabia on winning the bid, hailing it as a historic milestone for the Arabs after Morocco won the co-hosting rights of the 2030 showpiece.
In a post he shared on his official X account, Sheikh Mohammed said: “It is a source of Arab Gulf Islamic pride and joy. Congratulations to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for winning the bid to host the 2034 World Cup. I extend my congratulations to my brother, King Salman Bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, and to the brotherly Saudi people, whose great determination and strength will never know the impossible.”
He also added, “I congratulate my brother, King Mohammed VI, on Morocco’s successful bid to co-host the 2030 World Cup with Spain and Portugal. For two consecutive sessions, the World Cup will be held in our region. Today, Arabs share in the joy of Saudi and Moroccan achievements, and we look forward to the best World Cup tournaments.”
Proud day for Saudi Arabia
The Saudi bid was waved through by acclamation during the meeting of Fifa’s 211 national member associations, with no rivals standing in its way.
“It is a proud day, a day of celebration, a day that we invite the entire world to Saudi Arabia,” said Abdulaziz Bin Turki Bin Faisal Al Saud, the Saudi Minister of Sports.
“We intend to have an extraordinary version of the World Cup in our kingdom.”
FIFA had invoked its principle of rotating the World Cup between continents, which meant only bids from Asia or Oceania were welcome for 2034.
The unprecedented organisation of the 2030 tournament will involve three continental confederations in Europe, Africa and South America, while the next World Cup in 2026 — the first involving 48 teams — will take place across North America.
Potential candidacies
The 2030 tournament will mark a century since the first World Cup was held in Uruguay, and as a result the unrivalled joint bid by Morocco, Spain and Portugal will also see the South American nation handed one game along with Argentina and Paraguay.
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.
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.
‘Centenary celebration’
Meanwhile, Morocco replaced Ukraine as a partner for Spain and Portugal, while South America agreed to step aside in exchange for hosting three games.
Following these “centenary celebrations” in the southern hemisphere winter, the six teams involved will cross the Atlantic to play the rest of the tournament.
Second African nation to host showpiece
Spain, which hosted the 1982 World Cup, should be the centrepiece as it boasts 11 of the 20 proposed stadiums.
Morocco — after failing on five previous occasions to be awarded the staging of the tournament — will become the second African nation to host the competition after South Africa in 2010.
Potential venues for the July 21 final include the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid and Barcelona’s renovated Camp Nou as well as the planned Hassan II stadium between Casablanca and Rabat, set to boast a capacity of 115,000.
- With inputs from Khitam Al Amir, Chief News Editor
