Saudis Awarded 2034 World Cup in Uncontested Vote

FIFA officially awarded Saudi Arabia the 2034 World Cup in an uncontested vote Wednesday.

The outcome was expected. Due to FIFA’s rotation policy, only the Asian and Oceania Football confederations were able to host. Australia, New Zealand, and a number of countries in Southeast Asia expressed interest, but only Saudi Arabia submitted a bid. FIFA president Gianni Infantino said last year that Saudi Arabia will host the event; the vote at the Extraordinary FIFA Congress in Zurich was simply a formality.

In addition to geographically restricting hosts, FIFA shortened the bidding process by several years. Saudi Arabia was initially interested in hosting in 2030, and it posted a statement with its intentions for hosting 2034 less than an hour after FIFA released its plans for 2030. 

The competition will be the 25th men’s World Cup and include 48 teams, an expanded format that will begin in the United States in 2026.

Also Wednesday, FIFA confirmed the 2030 World Cup will span six countries on three continents: Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Morocco, Portugal, and Spain. It will be the first multi-continent World Cup. The first three matches will take place in South America, but Morocco, Portugal, and Spain are the main hosts.

The opening match of the 2030 tournament will occur in Montevideo’s Centenario Stadium, which hosted the World Cup final in 1930, exactly a century ago.

The Norwegian Football Federation criticized the 2030 and 2034 processes earlier this week in a letter to FIFA dated Monday, raising concerns about the “seemingly pre-determined nature of the current bidding process.” NFF is one of several critics of Infantino’s cozy relationship with the Saudis and expedited process for their bid.

Similar to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, FIFA’s evaluation report suggests the 2034 World Cup will take place off the usual summer cycle. The Premier League, LaLiga, other domestic leagues, and the players union FIFPRO Europe filed a legal complaint in October to the European Commission protesting FIFA’s influence over the calendar, specifically around the 2025 Club World Cup and 2026 World Cup.

Like Qatar, FIFA’s 2034 selection heightened human rights concerns, from NFF and others, especially toward the kingdom’s treatment of women, LGBTQ+ people, and other minorities. Leaders of groups of migrant workers have spoken out after an unknown number of deaths building FIFA stadiums in Qatar. Most of the stadiums for the 2034 World Cup will require new construction.

“It’s disheartening, if not surprising, that FIFA has awarded Mohammed bin Salman’s Saudi Arabia hosting rights for the World Cup based on a heavily flawed bid, which side-stepped engagement with external stakeholders or the Saudi public themselves. Now it’s happened, urgent and sustained action is needed to mitigate the grave risks of labour and civil rights violations associated with the tournament, including by securing major and credible reforms,” Lina Alhathloul, the head of a Saudi human rights organization, said in a statement.

Questions have also arisen over player safety after April’s Saudi Super Cup final when a fan used a whip to strike player Abderrazak Hamdallah.