Saudi Arabia has been announced as the host nation of the 2034 World Cup at an online FIFA Congress after not a single alternative candidate came forward.
The acclamation of football nations, rather than a vote, brings to an end a rapid 14-month process which has seen the Middle East nation make an unrivalled march to win the right to host the finals.
The bid was open to any country from the Asia and Oceania regions that felt it could afford to stage a competition involving 104 matches, with Saudi the only real contender.
In recent years, FIFA president Gianni Infantino has made a series of visits to the nation to check on its progress, even taking in a trip to the palaces of Diriyah in the midst of the Covid pandemic in 2021.
Indeed, the writing seemed firmly on the wall this August when he launched the country’s Esports World Cup in Riyadh instead of attending his body’s much-heralded video game tournament in Liverpool.
And now, at Wednesday’s congress of FIFA’s 211 member nations, Saudi Arabia has completed its no-contest surge to host football’s most prestigious competition despite concerns that it might need to be held in January.
Saudi Arabia has been named the host of the 2034 World Cup at a FIFA congress (pictured: FIFA president Gianni Infantino)
Infantino has made a number of visits to the country lately, including in 2023 (pictured)
Infantino confirmed Saudi Arabia as the 2034 hosts during FIFA’s ‘extraordinary’ congress
The Spain-Portugal-Morocco bid for the 2030 edition was confirmed with the trifecta of nations also winning their contest without a single rival.
The bid had initially been up against a rival South American bid, but an arrangement was made for South America to instead stage the opening three matches of the centenary 2030 finals with Spain, Portugal and Morocco hosting the rest.
This effectively handed Saudi Arabia the following finals with FIFA rules dictating that countries from Europe, Africa and South America could not apply and that any interested nation had just one month to submit their bid.
In fact, the 2030 and 2034 votes were combined into a single vote on Wednesday which made it impossible for any member to oppose one bid and back the other.
FIFA finds itself in the same spot of bother it did ahead of the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022, with temperatures between May and September in their latest choice routinely topping 40C.
This makes it likely that the competition will have to be moved to a slot outside of the traditional summer window. Between October and April average temperatures drop to between 20C and 30C.
A January World Cup appears to be the most convincing option in order to avoid Christmas, New Year and Ramadan, which is scheduled to take place between November 11 and December 10 in 2034.
But there is also the Winter Olympics to take into account, with the quadrennial event being held in Salt Lake City, Utah from February 10.
Among the expected investments is a $1billion ‘cliffhanger’ stadium to be built for the finals
Infantino sat with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the 2018 World Cup
FIFA faces the same problems as at the 2022 World Cup, won by Argentina, with the summer months too hot to host football
These considerations leave a very narrow window in which to host the competition, given that it now takes 38 days to complete following the expansion from 32 teams to 48, starting from the next edition in USA, Canada and Mexico.
European football halted for a month when Qatar hosted the 2022 edition from November 20 to December 18, causing a fixture backlog into 2023.
FIFA’s evaluation report claims the Saudi Arabian bid is: ‘Factoring in a number of considerations ranging from climatic conditions to the schedule of football and other sporting and cultural events locally and globally’.
‘Temperatures in Saudi Arabia are at their mildest between October and April,’ says the report and that between May and September ‘peak daytime temperatures can exceed 40 degrees at the hottest times of the day in Riyadh’.
‘Any decision regarding the timing of the competition would take these matters into consideration when seeking to provide optimal conditions for teams and spectators,’ the report adds.
‘Furthermore, it would be important to consider religious events in determining the timeline for the competition.
‘Ramadan, the annual Muslim period of fasting and prayer, and the yearly Hajj pilgrimage, when more than 1.5million pilgrims travel to Saudi Arabia from around the world, would have to be taken into account, as would the Christmas to New Year period in late December and early January.’
The Premier League and other European top divisions are likely to oppose any attempt to stage a Saudi World Cup in the winter.
Temperatures in the Saudi Arabian summer regularly exceed 40 degrees between May and September
FIFA’s bid evaluation team gave Saudi Arabia the highest score in their history
Football in Saudi Arabia during the summer months brings a risk to player and fan welfare due to the sweltering heats
Saudi Arabia’s hosting of the tournament would likely require another winter World Cup
European Leagues, which includes the Premier League among its membership, is already involved in a legal row with FIFA over what it sees as a lack of consultation over the international calendar, and there are believed to be huge concerns among leagues over the fixture chaos a winter World Cup in 2034 would cause.
As of yet, none of the British football associations have issued any comment on either the process or Saudi Arabia’s suitability to host the finals, despite warnings from human rights campaigners that migrant workers will die without major reforms.
But one body that has been outspoken in their criticism of the process is the Norwegian football federation.
The NFF previously said it would vote against any effort to award the 2034 finals by acclamation.
The Nordic federation lodged its formal criticism of the process in a letter to FIFA and wanted that criticism to be officially recorded in the Congress minutes.
‘Tomorrow’s vote is not about who gets the 2030 and 2034 World Cups – that has already been decided,’ NFF president Lise Klaveness said on Tuesday.
‘The Congress is primarily about providing feedback on FIFA’s allocation process. The board’s assessment is that the process does not align with the principles of a sound and predictable governance system. By abstaining from acclamation, we are sending a deliberate signal that we cannot support FIFA’s approach.’
Saudi Arabia’s bid was given the highest ever score by FIFA’s bid evaluation team and deemed only ‘medium risk’ on human rights. The report stated there had been a commitment to ‘respecting, protecting and fulfilling internationally recognised human rights in connection with the competition’.
Saudi Arabia’s staging of the 2034 World Cup has a ‘medium’ human rights risk, FIFA claim
The nation is set to build 11 new stadiums as part of their plans for the 2034 World Cup
The Norwegian Football Federation says it will vote against any effort to award the 2030 and 2034 finals by acclamation (Pictured: NFF president Lise Klaveness)
This included in areas such as safety and security, and labour rights, as well as the rights of children, gender equality and non-discrimination, while also guaranteeing press freedom.
There was no explicit mention of LGBT rights in Saudi Arabia, where homosexuality is still criminalised.
The report, however, noted ‘gaps and reservations in the implementation of relevant international standards, in particular where they are seen to contradict Islamic law.’
Amnesty International described the report as ‘an astonishing whitewash’.
Saudi Arabia’s stadium infrastructure and accommodation were other areas to be judged as carrying a ‘medium’ risk in the report, with no categories deemed to be a high risk.
Saudi Arabia are building 11 new venues for the 2034 showpiece to go with four current stadiums, including a space-age $1billion ‘cliffhanger’ stadium.
The report promised ‘the establishment of robust workers’ welfare systems to protect workers connected to tournament infrastructure’.
This follows heavy criticism FIFA received around the 2022 World Cup in Qatar over the hosts alleged treatment of migrant workers.
FIFA’s relationship with the kingdom deepened when a sponsorship deal with oil and energy company Aramco was sealed in April, worth a reported 100 million US dollars a year.
There have been reports Saudi Arabia could also make an investment into DAZN, the broadcaster which last week struck an exclusive global rights deal for FIFA’s Club World Cup next year, worth a reported £784million.
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