FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, officially declared that Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup on Tuesday. Saudi Arabia remains the sole candidate for hosting the 2034 World Cup as Australia withdrew before closing the bid‘s deadline.
FIFA said: “As established in the Bidding Regulations approved by the FIFA Council, the FIFA administration will conduct thorough bidding and evaluation processes for the 2030 and 2034 editions of the FIFA World Cup, with the hosts to be appointed by FIFA Congresses expected to take place by Q4 2024.”
Gianni announced on his Instagram that the World Cup 2034 will be held in Saudi Arabia. He wrote:” The greatest show on the earth will be organized by Canada, Mexico, and USA in 2026. The next two editions of the World Cup are set to be hosted in Africa ( Morocco) and Europe( Portugal and Spain ) in 2030, in Asia( Saudi Arabia ) in 2034 ”He added: “Three editions, five continents and 10 countries involved in staging matches in the tournament – that’s making football truly global.”
“ Football united the world like no other sport and the FIFA World Cup is the perfect showcase for a message of unity and inclusion as well as providing an important illustration of how different cultures can be together and can learn and better understand one another.” He wrote. He continued: “we all need these occasions of unity and the upcoming FIFA world cup provides a unique force for good in this respect.”
Saudi Arabia’s Preparations
Recently, the kingdom had a significant presence in hosting sports events as it’s supposed to host the men’s Asian Cup in 2027. This came after the keenness of Saudi Arabia to diversify its economy in light of Vision 2030. Saudi Arabia is working on revamping its stadium in preparation to host all these events and to be in line with FIFA standards. The Kingdom already has two stadiums with capacities exceeding 62,000 seats and eyes to build additional stadiums in Riyadh, Qiddiya, NEOM, Jeddah, and Dammam.
Most Notably, three countries from two continents (Spain, Portugal, and Morocco) will host the 2030 World Cup. This will be the first World Cup held in Africa since 2010, in South America since 2014, as well as in Europe since 2018. The 2026 World Cup will be held in the US, Mexico, and Canada.
In addition, FIFA has declared about Football initiative in Jeddah, on its Instagram that introduces girls to football from an early age providing matches, training, and exercises for more than 100 girls.
