The vote for 2034 World Cup hosting rights has descended into farce with claims a $1 trillion “atrocity” is about to be made official.
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FIFA will on Thursday (AEDT) confirm the hosts of the 2030 and 2034 World Cups and the outrage has begun before the result is even made official.
A joint bid led by Morocco, Spain and Portugal is set to be awarded the 2030 hosting rights, while, Saudi Arabia has been a controversial choice to host the event in 2034.
The awarding of hosting rights for both tournaments will go to a vote during a FIFA Congress to be held virtually, but there is no doubt about the outcomes with neither bid having a rival.
The 2026 World Cup will be co-hosted by the USA, Canada and Mexico.
Saudi Arabia’s bid for 2034 was boosted heavily as FIFA invoked its principle of continental rotation, therefore only welcoming bids from Asia or Oceania.
Controversially, the body gave potential bidders barely a month late last year to submit candidacies, and Australia and Indonesia quickly abandoned their interest.
That left Saudi Arabia as the sole candidate, clearing the way for the World Cup to return to the Gulf region following Qatar’s hosting in 2022.
FIFA also linked the 2030 and 2034 votes together meaning European nations who would otherwise object to the Saudi event would be forced to vote against the Morocco, Spain and Portugal tournament – which they won’t.
The kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has been using sport for some time now to amass influence and improve its global image.
Being handed the 2034 World Cup will be a crowning moment, and Saudi will win despite currently only boasting two stadiums with a capacity of 40,000, when a minimum of 14 are required.
The centre pieces of the bid were a stadium that will be built at the $1 trillion mega-city of Neom and a 92,000 seat venue to be called King Salman Stadium in Riyadh.
Beyond that logistical challenge, the baking temperatures in the northern hemisphere summer could mean pushing the tournament back to later in the year, as happened in 2022.
However, the fact that Ramadan will take place in December that year is an added complication.
Moreover, the awarding of the World Cup to Saudi will make the issue of human rights a major talking point again, just as in 2022.
Rights groups highlight mass executions in Saudi Arabia and allegations of torture, as well as restrictions on women under the conservative country’s male guardianship system. Free expression is severely restricted too.
Saudi Arabia, which is hosting several high-profile events including Formula One and the WTA Finals tennis, is often accused of “sportswashing” — using sport to divert attention from its rights record.
The push back has already begun.
Norway’s soccer federation plans to abstain from giving its approval when the vote is formalised, AP reports.
“FIFA’s own guidelines for human rights and due diligence have also not been adequately integrated into the process, increasing the risk of human rights violations,” Norway federation president Lise Klaveness said in a statement Tuesday.
Steve Cockburn, Amnesty’s head of labour rights and sport, said in a recent statement: “There will be a real and predictable human cost to awarding the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia without obtaining credible guarantees of reform.
“Fans will face discrimination. Migrant workers will face exploitation, and many will die.
“FIFA must halt the process until proper human rights protections are in place to avoid worsening an already dire situation.”
He earlier said: “As expected, FIFA’s evaluation of Saudi Arabia’s World Cup bid is an astonishing whitewash of the country’s atrocious human rights record.
“There are no meaningful commitments that will prevent workers from being exploited, residents from being evicted or activists from being arrested.
“By ignoring the clear evidence of severe human rights risks, FIFA is likely to bear much responsibility for the violations and abuses that will take place over the coming decade.
“Fundamental human rights reforms are urgently required in Saudi Arabia, or the 2034 World Cup will be inevitably tarnished by exploitation, discrimination and repression.”
The 2030 tournament, meanwhile, will mark a century since the first World Cup was held in Uruguay, and as a result the bid will also see the South American nation handed a game along with Argentina and Paraguay.
That makes it a remarkable and completely unprecedented bid, involving three different continental confederations.
FIFA already confirmed over a year ago that the joint proposal led by Morocco, Spain and Portugal was the sole contender for 2030, with all other potential candidacies having fallen by the wayside.
A joint British and Irish bid was abandoned when they decided to focus on hosting Euro 2028, while there were suggestions of a bid from South Korea, China, Japan and North Korea.
Four South American countries launched a joint bid in 2019, convinced that the centenary World Cup should entirely take place on the same continent where it all began.
In late 2022, UEFA promoted a bid uniting Spain and Portugal with war-torn Ukraine in a show of “solidarity” following the Russian invasion.
However, Ukraine was quietly dropped from that candidacy last year as Morocco joined forces with the Iberian neighbours, while South America agreed to step aside in exchange for being awarded the hosting of three games, one each for Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina.
Following these “centenary celebrations” in the comparative chill of the southern hemisphere winter, the six teams involved — along with their fans — will have to cross the Atlantic Ocean to play a part in the remaining 101 matches.
This tentacular tournament will conclude with the final on July 21, and it remains to be seen where that game will be staged.
Spain, which hosted the 1982 World Cup, is set to be the centrepiece as it boasts 11 of the 20 proposed stadiums.
Morocco — which has tried and failed on five previous occasions to be awarded the staging of the tournament — will become the second African nation to host the competition after South Africa in 2010.
Potential venues for the final include the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid and Barcelona’s renovated Camp Nou, as well as the planned Hassan II stadium between Casablanca and Rabat, which is set to become “the biggest stadium in the world” with a capacity of 115,000.
Portugal, which hosted Euro 2004, will offer two stadiums in Lisbon and one in Porto, and hopes to stage a semi-final.
— with AFP
