World Cup hosting decisions set to kick off a decade of scrutiny on Saudi Arabia and FIFA
Geneva: The inevitable result has been clear since last year: Saudi Arabia will be confirmed by FIFA as the 2034 World Cup host on Wednesday.
The 2030 World Cup also will be awarded to a six-nation, three-continent project led by co-hosts Spain, Portugal Morocco. It gives a single game each at South American neighbors Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, the first host in 1930.
Two men’s World Cups, one candidate for each, both a shoo-in to win.
The outcome will be as FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino intended in October last year. Then, on the same day, the 2030 race was effectively decided and the 2034 one surprisingly opened.
FIFA is sending one of the biggest prizes in world sports toward the state modernizing project of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. A decade of global scrutiny will follow.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN ON WEDNESDAY?
FIFA hosts a special congress in Zurich from 3 p.m. local time (1300 GMT) and its 211 member federations will attend remotely online. The closed-doors meeting at FIFA headquarters should be streamed live on its website.
The 37-member FIFA council, including Saudi federation president Yasser al Misehal, meets on Tuesday and should advise to approve both bids.
Confirming the 2030 and 2034 hosts should be done in a combined decision by acclamation rather than a registered vote. FIFA published each member’s choice in June 2018 in Moscow when the United States, Canada and Mexico won the 2026 World Cup hosting vote 134-65 against Morocco.
The Saudi bid team said in a statement “as a nation that loves football it is expected that fans across the entire kingdom will naturally take to the streets and celebrate this historic moment if their country is confirmed as hosts.”
WHAT WAS THE FIFA PROCESS TO BID AND WIN?
These World Cup hosting contests happened gradually and then suddenly.
In June 2018, days after losing to the financially strong North American bid, Morocco King Mohammed VI announced his nation would seek the 2030 World Cup. Most expected it would be Europe’s turn.
Soon, Spain’s government invited Morocco — separated by about 14 kilometers (10 miles) of sea — into its expected bid with Portugal. The project has survived a brief flirtation in 2022 with war-torn Ukraine.
Saudi Arabia worked in 2022, with what seemed to be Infantino’s diplomatic help, on an unlikely 2030 co-hosting bid with Egypt and Greece or Italy that was unacceptable to European soccer body UEFA.
When FIFA’s council eventually met to discuss World Cup bidding, the Spain-led bid now had South American partners.
The bigger picture deal was letting Infantino open a 2034 contest only Asia and Oceania members could enter within four weeks.agencies
