Why has Saudi Arabia been awarded the 2034 World Cup?

With 48 teams, the 2034 tournament will be the largest World Cup ever — and perhaps the most expensive.
2 min read
13 December, 2024
Fifa has announced that Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup [Getty]

On Wednesday, world football’s governing body confirmed that Saudi Arabia had been chosen to host the 2034 World Cup.

The 2034 tournament will be the largest ever, for the first time featuring 48 teams competing for the coveted trophy. Here’s what we know so far about the tournament.

Where will the games be played?

Games will be played in 15 stadiums in five cities across the country: Riyadh, Jeddah, Al Khobar and Abha, as well as Neom—Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's half-a-trillion-dollar futuristic megaproject under construction in the north-west of the country.

MBS is likely tospend lavishly on the construction of 11 new stadiums as well as infrastructure capable of hosting thousands of spectators from around the world.

The plans include the construction of a huge new stadium in the Saudi capital, which will host the opening match and the final. When completed, the King Salman International Stadium will have capacity to host 92,000 people, making it one of the largest football stadiums in the world.

The country’s sovereign wealth fund is leading the development on a number of ambitious stadiums, among them —a 45,000-capacity arena made up of a clutch of rock-like buildings separated by canyons—and the similarly-sized , which is comprised of a series of crystalline shard-like structures pointing into the sky.

When will it take place?

It remains to be seen whether the tournament will be held in the summer or whether it will follow Qatar to become only the second-ever World Cup to be held in the winter.

The head of the Saudi Football Association a summer tournament though it is more likely to take place later in the year due to the sweltering temperatures in the kingdom.

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Why Saudi?

In its evaluation, Fifa handed the Saudi bid its highest-ever mark with an average score of 4.2 out of 5 due to the proposed infrastructure, the huge investment plans and the tournament’s commercial potential.

The selection of Saudi Arabia to host the World Cup has generated controversy in some quarters due to the country’s human rights record.

In a statement on Wednesday, 21 rights groups including Amnesty International, Saudi monitors and international trade unions, condemned the decision to award the tournament to Riyadh due to its poor labour protections.

Campaign groups have long accused the Saudi state of using sports to divert attention from its poor human rights practices and environmental policies, a practice known as ‘sportswashing’.

assigned medium-risk to the human rights component of the bid, saying that Saudi authorities had provided “concrete commitments” to respect human rights.

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