FIFA confirms Saudi Arabia only bidder for 2034 World Cup | OneFootball

Saudi Arabia moved a huge step closer to hosting its first ever World Cup on Tuesday, with FIFA confirming theirs is the only bid to host the 2034 men’s tournament.

A bid from Australia was seen as the only potential challenger to Saudi Arabia after FIFA announced earlier this month that they would be restricting the process only to countries from Oceania and Asia.

But a statement from Football Australia earlier on Tuesday confirmed that they would not be submitting a bid, clearing a path for Saudi Arabia, whose bid made earlier this month is being supported by the Asian Football Confederation.

And a statement released by FIFA later in the day confirmed that Saudi Arabia are the sole bidders for the tournament as things stand.

“The FIFA administration will conduct a targeted dialogue with bidders, to ensure complete, comprehensive bids are received and evaluated against the minimum hosting requirements as also previously approved by the FIFA Council,” read the statement from world football’s governing body.

“This dialogue will focus on the defined priority areas of the event vision and key metrics, infrastructure, services, commercial, and sustainability and human rights. Following this, FIFA will publish its evaluation reports and, should those requirements be met, the member associations gathered at the FIFA Congress will appoint the hosts of the respective competitions.”

Hosting a World Cup would be the next big step in Saudi Arabia’s vast investment into football, which has already seen them attract the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema to play in the Saudi Professional League.

Their bid will attract greater scrutiny into the kingdom’s human rights record, and hosting the tournament could see Saudi Arabia forced to fall in line with FIFA requirements to not discriminate against LGBTQ+ people – changes which were introduced in the fallout from the 2022 World Cup going to Qatar despite its anti-LGBTQ+ laws.

Speaking in a statement released by the Saudi Press Agency, Saudi minister of sport, Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki al Faisal, said: “Hosting a FIFA World Cup in 2034 would help us achieve our dream of becoming a leading nation in world sport and would mark a significant milestone in the country’s transformation.

“As an emerging and welcoming home for all sports, we believe that hosting a FIFA World Cup is a natural next step in our football journey.”