2034 WC to be Held in Saudi Arabia after Australia Pulls out

Saudi getting the 2034 world cup and the shuffling of cards fifa did to make it happen is extremely suspect. The 2030 world cup is now set across 6 countries in two continents. The opening 3 games of the bloated 48 team world cup being hosted in Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. The rest of the games hosted by morroco, Spain and Portugal.

Mental gymnastics (to get around the issue of the WC moving continents every 4 years) so Saudi could get 2034.

Must be so lucrative to be a part of the executive branch of FIFA.
 
Saudi getting the 2034 world cup and the shuffling of cards fifa did to make it happen is extremely suspect. The 2030 world cup is now set across 6 countries in two continents. The opening 3 games of the bloated 48 team world cup being hosted in Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. The rest of the games hosted by morroco, Spain and Portugal.

Mental gymnastics (to get around the issue of the WC moving continents every 4 years) so Saudi could get 2034.

Must be so lucrative to be a part of the executive branch of FIFA.
You mean three continents, no?
 
Saudi getting the 2034 world cup and the shuffling of cards fifa did to make it happen is extremely suspect. The 2030 world cup is now set across 6 countries in two continents. The opening 3 games of the bloated 48 team world cup being hosted in Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. The rest of the games hosted by morroco, Spain and Portugal.

Mental gymnastics (to get around the issue of the WC moving continents every 4 years) so Saudi could get 2034.

Must be so lucrative to be a part of the executive branch of FIFA.
Yep, 3 continents but your point is spot on. It’s so corrupt and they’re not even hiding it anymore. We last had an African World Cup in 2010 and because Morocco will “jointly host” (with 5 other countries and 2 other continents), they can say Africa’s had another - just so that football can go back to Saudi in 2034 after Qatar recently hosted. They’re not even really hiding it anymore or pretending. Money talks.
 
You mean three continents, no?

He does, but that just further supports his point that it was an incredibly suspect move to add the South American nations.

The rules are essentially that there needs to be two World Cups before it can return to the same continent.

2026 being in North America and the bid for 2030 being awarded across Europe and Africa meant that 2034 could be in either Asia or South America (or Oceania, but not really as Australia count as Asian in football). By adding the South American nations (who I believe had submitted a separate bid for 2030) they limited 2034 to just Asia.

They then suddenly brought forward the bidding process for 2034, the Saudis submitted their bid suspiciously quickly, while the other interested nations were still very much discussing whether to actually make a bid (chiefly Australia/New Zealand).

I'm also fairly sure there were rules about having a certain number of existing, suitable stadiums that the Saudi bid failed to meet, but they were also ignored.
 
At some point FIFA had this stated ambition, that was clearly bollocks, of leaving a lasting sporting legacy through infrastructure development, that would benefit local communities for generations to come. With Qatar, a country that spend 200bn pounds on infrastructure for the last World Cup, the result is a ton of stadiums with a capacity that not even the entire population of Qatar can fill. In terms of wasted resources in a world on the brink of environmental disaster, it’s a truly staggering feat of marketing and sports washing over any common sense or human interest.

Now we have Saudi Arabia. Their bids calls for Riyadh to end up with eight stadiums of 46,000 capacity or more. One of them 70k and the other 92k. Jeddah would have a further 4 stadiums of 50k-ish. All absolute glamour projects. But post World Cup, what? The entire enterprise will be reliant on importing occasional games and sporting events from Europe and the Americas? In terms of white elephant building, it rivals the madness of Qatar.
 
I see their plan. Play all the Saudi games in Mecca. Non Muslims aren’t allowed so other teams will struggle to field a side
 
Not only will it definitely get built, it'll be the host venue for the inaugural Queer Eye for the Saudi Guy final in 2035. And my hair will also grow back.
You in 2034

FIxcEuaVIAkvhqv.jpg
 
Will not be watching more than my own countries games for this one for sure. Way worse country than Qatar.
 
Bit on the nose for the Saudis isn’t it? Building a stadium that looks like it’s been beheaded.

Note: I haven’t seen the renders, so I’m just going to assume that’s what it’ll look like.
 
He does, but that just further supports his point that it was an incredibly suspect move to add the South American nations.

The rules are essentially that there needs to be two World Cups before it can return to the same continent.

2026 being in North America and the bid for 2030 being awarded across Europe and Africa meant that 2034 could be in either Asia or South America (or Oceania, but not really as Australia count as Asian in football). By adding the South American nations (who I believe had submitted a separate bid for 2030) they limited 2034 to just Asia.

They then suddenly brought forward the bidding process for 2034, the Saudis submitted their bid suspiciously quickly, while the other interested nations were still very much discussing whether to actually make a bid (chiefly Australia/New Zealand).

I'm also fairly sure there were rules about having a certain number of existing, suitable stadiums that the Saudi bid failed to meet, but they were also ignored.
Oh, for sure. FIFA paved the way for Saudi by bending their own rules.
 
FIFA really has done a terrific job of ruining the sport. Nothing really surprises me anymore.
 
Unless there is a miracle (there won’t be) at the Congress this will be officially confirmed today.

 
This announcement livestream has gone shockingly and has been littered with technical issues.
 
What an absolute joke. How many people will die and work for slave Labour whilst building these stadiums? As others have said, nothing encompasses the state of football at the moment than this.
 
Expect pelters on here but I've just taken a job working for the company that will be building that mental looking stadium (amongst a load of other projects).

Will be moving out there early next year.

Will be very interested to see what they are like in terms of the slave labor claims as all the process so far has been very professional and efficient.
 
Expect pelters on here but I've just taken a job working for the company that will be building that mental looking stadium (amongst a load of other projects).

Will be moving out there early next year.

Will be very interested to see what they are like in terms of the slave labor claims as all the process so far has been very professional and efficient.

That's interesting. It's insane what's being planned for the stadiums there, do you think it's realistic or will there be changes to the final setup
 
As usual, 10 years early, the moral police have started their anti Saudi campaign. Qatar was a great World Cup and I sure this will be too.
 
As usual, 10 years early, the moral police have started their anti Saudi campaign. Qatar was a great World Cup and I sure this will be too.
6500 migrant workers died building the infrastructure for the Qatar World Cup.


I don’t think Qatar being a good tournament is worth that cost.
 
As usual, 10 years early, the moral police have started their anti Saudi campaign. Qatar was a great World Cup and I sure this will be too.
Are you seriously surprised that people have an issue with this? I think it's a disgrace that Saudi would get a tournament like the WC but then again sportwashing is now basically accepted as standard practice for violent autocratic regimes.
 
That's interesting. It's insane what's being planned for the stadiums there, do you think it's realistic or will there be changes to the final setup

Things like the stadium will happen (if it looks exactly like the AI photos is another matter) but I do believe it will get done and to a very high standard.

Neom have cut back some of their plans due to timeframes as they want a lot finished for 2030, but even with the cut backs it looks to be estimated that they will spend somewhere in the region of £300 Billion.

The company I'm going to work for is also similar in scale so even if they also need to tailor expectations due to timeframes there will be somewhere between £500 Billion and a Trillion quid spend between now and 2034. It's genuinely hard to comprehend what that means in terms of development.
 
The good news: We can watch the matches without getting up in the middle of the night. The bad news: Everything else.
 
Are you seriously surprised that people have an issue with this? I think it's a disgrace that Saudi would get a tournament like the WC but then again sportwashing is now basically accepted as standard practice for violent autocratic regimes.

How do you feel about the next WC?
 
Aaaaaand the ME whataboutery wheel goes for another spin. Round and round we go.

I didn’t defend the WC, so I’m not sure why it would be “whataboutery”.

Just interested in your view.
 
Last edited:
I didn’t defend the Saudi WC, so I’m not sure why it would be “whataboutery”.

Just interested in your view.
Start another thread about it if you want to discuss, as you note it has nothing to do with this one. While we're here, though, how do you feel about the Saudi WC?