Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup – 10/31/2023 – Sports

FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced this Tuesday (31) that Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup. In a post on Instagram, the director confirmed the choice of the Asian country as the host of the sporting event in 2034.

“The greatest spectacle on Earth will be organized by Canada, Mexico and the United States in 2026, in North America. The next two editions of the FIFA World Cup will be held in Africa (Morocco) and Europe (Portugal and Spain), with three commemorative matches played in South America (Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay), in 2030; and in Asia (Saudi Arabia), in 2034”, wrote Infantino in the publication.

“Three editions, five continents and ten countries involved in the tournament’s matches. This makes football truly global”, added the director.

Earlier on Tuesday, FIFA announced that Saudi Arabia was the only football association to submit a bid to host the 2034 World Cup before the deadline.

After choosing Spain, Morocco and Portugal as hosts for the 2030 edition, with Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay hosting commemorative games, the entity that controls world football invited countries from Asia and Oceania to present their proposals for the tournament by 31 October. The objective was to respect the rotation of continents.

A few minutes after the call, Saudi Arabia said it would apply.

Australia announced on Tuesday that it will not present a proposal to host the tournament. Australia and Indonesia even evaluated the possibility of presenting a joint bid to host the 2034 World Cup, but did not move forward with the plans.

Saudi Arabia, which already had the 2030 World Cup as its target and has been investing heavily to establish itself in world football, received almost immediate support from the AFC (Asian Football Confederation).

Also according to Infantino, the bidding processes for the next editions of the World Cup were approved by consensus by the FIFA Council, where the six regional football confederations are represented.

“Football unites the world like no other sport, and the FIFA World Cup is the perfect stage for a message of unity and inclusion, as well as providing an important illustration of how different cultures can come together and learn and better understand each other. others”, wrote the entity’s president.

The Swiss-Italian also wrote that, “as we live in an increasingly divided and aggressive world, we have shown once again that football, the leading global sport, unites like no other. We all need these occasions of unity and the upcoming World Cups provide a unique force for good in this regard.”

Despite the leader’s speech, the choice of Saudi Arabia should provoke a new wave of criticism of FIFA. Football’s highest governing body has already been the target of a series of protests in recent years for choosing Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup, won by Argentina.

Activists encouraged the boycott of the championship and said that a regime like the Qatari one, which did not support basic human rights for women, immigrant workers and the LGBTQIA+ community, could not be the stage for such an event.

The FIFA president even said that he saw criticism of Qatar due to complaints about the situation of migrant workers as hypocrisy. In a long speech, the Swiss-Italian said Europeans should apologize for the next 3,000 years for their own histories before they “start lecturing people.”

Using sport to rebuild a reputation is called “sportswashing”, an old strategy used by governments, especially autocrats, to change their image in the international community.

The same strategy of using sport to improve reputation has also been used by Saudi Arabia. In addition to plans to host the 2034 World Cup, the Asian country has invested this year in hiring football stars for the Saudi Championship.

Brazilian Neymar, with an estimated salary of 100 million euros (R$534.3 million), and Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo (200 million euros; R$1.07 billion) are among the main stars who agreed to play in Saudi in this year.

In the Qatar Cup, the Arab team surprised the football world by beating Argentina 2-1. After the stumble, the South American team, led by star Lionel Messei, ended up becoming three-time world champions. The Arab team lost the remaining matches in the group stage, to Poland (2-0) and Mexico (2-1) and did not qualify for the knockout stage.

With Reuters