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(AP) — Saudi Arabia was officially confirmed Wednesday by FIFA as host of the 2034 World Cup in men’s soccer, giving the oil-rich kingdom its biggest prize yet for massive spending on global sports driven by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The Saudi bid was the only candidate and was acclaimed by the applause of more than 200 FIFA member federations. They took part remotely in an online meeting hosted in Zurich by the soccer body’s president Gianni Infantino.
“The vote of the congress is loud and clear,” said Infantino, who had asked officials on a bank of screens to clap their hands at head level to show their support.
The decision was combined with approving the only candidate to host the 2030 World Cup. Spain, Portugal, and Morocco will co-host a six-nation project, with Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay each getting one of the 104 games.
The South American connection will mark the centenary of Uruguay hosting the first World Cup in 1930.
The decisions complete a mostly opaque 15-month bid process which Infantino helped steer toward Saudi Arabia without a rival candidate, without taking questions, and which human rights groups warn will put the lives of migrant workers at risk.
“We look forward to hosting an exceptional and unprecedented edition of the FIFA World Cup by harnessing our strengths and capabilities to bring joy to football fans around the world,” Prince Mohammed said in a statement.
FIFA and Saudi officials have said hosting the 2034 tournament can accelerate change, including more freedoms and rights for women, with Infantino on Wednesday calling the World Cup a “unique catalyst for positive social change and unity.”
“I fully trust our hosts to address all open points in this process, and deliver a World Cup that meets the world’s expectations,” the FIFA president said.
An international collective of rights groups said FIFA made a “reckless decision” to approve Saudi Arabia without getting public assurances, and the Football Supporters Europe group said it was “the day football truly lost its mind.”
A fast-track path to victory was cleared last year by FIFA accepting the three-continent hosting plan for the 2030 World Cup. It meant only soccer federations in Asia and Oceania were eligible for the 2034 contest, and FIFA gave countries less than four weeks to declare a bid. Only Saudi Arabia did.
The win will kick off a decade of scrutiny on Saudi labor laws and treatment of workers mostly from South Asia needed to help build and upgrade 15 stadiums, plus hotels and transport networks ahead of the 104-game tournament.
Amnesty International said awarding the tournament to Saudi Arabia represents “a moment of great danger” for human rights.
“FIFA’s reckless decision to award the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia without ensuring adequate human rights protections are in place will put many lives at risk,” said Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s Head of Labor Rights and Sport.”
One of the stadiums is planned to be 350 meters (yards) above the ground in Neom — a futuristic city that does not yet exist — and another named for the crown prince is designed to be atop a 200-meter cliff near Riyadh.
During the bid campaign, FIFA has accepted limited scrutiny of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record which was widely criticized this year at the United Nations.
Saudi and international rights groups and activists warned FIFA it has not learned the lessons of Qatar’s much-criticized preparations to host the 2022 World Cup.
“At every stage of this bidding process, FIFA has shown its commitment to human rights to be a sham,” Cockburn said.
The kingdom plans to spend tens of billions of dollars on projects related to the World Cup as part of the crown prince’s sweeping Vision 2030 project that aims to modernize Saudi society and economy. At its core is spending on sports by the $900 billion sovereign wealth operation, the Public Investment Fund, which he oversees.
“It’s amazing. The infrastructure, the stadiums, the conditions for the fans, and everything. After what I see, I’m more convinced that 2034 will be the best World Cup ever,” Cristiano Ronaldo said in a recorded package posted on X.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner has been part of Saudi Arabia’s lavish spending on soccer — stunning the sport when agreeing to sign for Al Nassr in 2022 for a record-breaking salary reportedly worth up to $200 million a year.
Critics have accused Saudi Arabia of “sportswashing” the kingdom’s reputation.
The prince, known as MBS, has built close working ties to Infantino since 2017 — aligning with the organizer of the sport’s most-watched event rather than directly confronting the established system as it did with the disruptive LIV Golf project.
The result for Saudi Arabia and FIFA has been smooth progress toward the win Wednesday with limited pushback from soccer officials, though some from women international players.
The steady flow of Saudi cash into international soccer is set to increase.
FIFA created a new and higher World Cup sponsor category for state oil firm Aramco, and Saudi funding is set to underwrite the 2025 Club World Cup in the United States which is a pet project for Infantino.
North American soccer body CONCACAF signed a multi-year deal with PIF, Saudi stadiums host Super Cup games for Italy and Spain, and nearly 50 FIFA member federations have signed working agreements with Saudi counterparts.
Lavish spending by PIF-owned Saudi clubs in the past two years buying and paying players – including Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Karim Benzema, and Sadio Mané – put hundreds of millions of dollars into European soccer.
That influence could be key in talks to agree on which months to play the 2034 World Cup. The November-December slot taken by Qatar in 2022 to avoid extreme midsummer heat is complicated in 2034 by the holy month of Ramadan through mid-December and Riyadh hosting the multi-sport Asian Games.
Still, January 2034 could be an option — and likely better for European clubs and leagues —after the International Olympic Committee said it saw few issues in clashing with the Salt Lake Winter Games opening Feb. 10, 2034. The IOC also has a major commercial deal with Saudi Arabia, to host the new Esports Olympics.
On Wednesday, football’s global governing body FIFA officially confirmed the joint bid of Spain, Portugal, and Morocco to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup as well as Saudi Arabia’s bid to host the quadrennial mega event four years later. As both bids were unchallenged, the final decision, made at a virtual “Extraordinary FIFA Congress”, was a mere formality, but FIFA wouldn’t be FIFA if the entire process hadn’t been surrounded by controversy.
First, there was the way the organization circumvented its own “principle of confederation rotation” by adding Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay to the 2030 ticket as part of a 100-year celebration and thereby ruling out any South American bids for 2034, not to mention the environmental and physical impact of flying teams across the globe in the middle of a tournament. By making sure that only federations from Asia and Oceania could bid for the 2034 World Cup and setting a deadline too tight to meet for other applicants, FIFA effectively fast-tracked Saudi Arabia’s hosting ambitions, shortly before announcing a multi-year global partnership with Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant.
Secondly, there was the expected uproar from human rights groups, who flagged the treatment of migrant workers in the Gulf state as well as its treatment of women and members of the LGBTQ community. In its official “Bid Evaluation Report”, FIFA largely swatted these concerns aside, giving the Saudi bid an overall score of 4.2 out of 5 – the highest score ever awarded. According to the report, the inclusion of human rights within the criteria for evaluating bids is “about making decisions based on evidence of how effectively bidders intend to address human rights risks connected with a tournament. It is not about peremptorily excluding countries based on their general human rights context”. Reacting to the report, Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s Head of Labour Rights and Sport, said: “As expected, FIFA’s evaluation of Saudi Arabia’s World Cup bid is an astonishing whitewash of the country’s atrocious human rights record. There are no meaningful commitments that will prevent workers from being exploited, residents from being evicted or activists from being arrested.”
As our chart shows, Saudi Arabia’s “general human rights context” is in fact sub-optimal, as the country routinely ranks near the bottom of international indices on governance and human rights.