FIFA will officially announce the locations of the 2030 and 2034
Spain, Portugal and Morocco (with matches also taking place in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay to mark the 100th anniversary of the first tournament) will host the 2030 tournament, while Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 tournament, as they are the only candidates.
Spain, Portugal and Morocco (with matches also taking place in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay to mark the 100th anniversary of the first tournament) will host the 2030 tournament, while Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 tournament, as they are the only candidates.
If this dual decision is put to a vote during the FIFA Congress, which will be held via video conference, all the suspense has evaporated since the two bids were the only ones to bid for each tournament last year.
The withdrawals that paved the way
The 2030 World Cup, which will mark a century since Uruguay first hosted the tournament in 1930, was led by an unprecedented agreement between confederations.
Great Britain had expressed interest before backing out of Euro 2028. South Korea briefly considered a joint bid with China, Japan and North Korea, but it did not move forward. Four South American countries started in 2019, and UEFA proposed a Spain-Portugal-Ukraine “marriage” at the end of 2022, a “message of solidarity and hope” after the Russian invasion.
But last year, Ukraine discreetly withdrew when Morocco joined Spain and Portugal. Then South America (which also had very serious financial issues) withdrew in exchange for a symbolic presence: the organization of the first three matches of the tournament in Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina.
After these "centenary celebrations" scheduled for June 8 and 9, 2030, in the cool of their own winter, the 6 interested teams and their supporters will have to cross the Atlantic for the other 101 matches of the tournament, from June 13 to the final on July 21.
The “battle” for the final
With 11 of the 20 stadiums proposed, Spain should be the main host, having already hosted the 1982 World Cup, but Morocco, with five unsuccessful bids to organize the tournament, will become the second African country to host the football festival after South Africa in 2010.
Spain and Morocco are still competing for the final, offering respectively the “Santiago Bernabeu” in Madrid or the “Camp Nou” in Barcelona and the future “Hassan II” between Casablanca and Rabat, which aims to become the “largest stadium in the world” with 115,000 seats. However, the historic and renovated “Bernabeu” in Madrid is gaining ground lately.
Portugal, the host of Euro 2004 but never associated with a World Cup, is offering the two stadiums in Lisbon and Porto, and is seeking to host one of the semi-finals.
Saudi Arabia opens up new horizons for football
FIFA, rightly invoking the principle of continental rotation, had limited its invitation to bid for the 2034 tournament to the confederations of Asia and Oceania, which was held immediately in the autumn of 2023.
And Saudi Arabia, the emerging superpower of world sports, found itself the only candidate after the withdrawal of Australia and Indonesia and the "withdrawal" of China's football ambitions.
The Gulf kingdom, which embarked on a strategy of diversification, currently has only two of the 14 stadiums with a capacity of at least 40,000 spectators required to host the 48 teams. Of course, it has enough money to be able to present an impressive and well-planned organizational program when the big moment of the games arrives. New stadium, new facilities, a change of everything in this great and large Arabian country that hopes to play a leading role in the world of football in the coming years.
In addition to the logistical challenge, the hot summer could force the event to be moved to winter or late autumn, as in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, but it would also have to deal with Ramadan, from November 11 to December 10.
Finally, as always happens in such matters, the planned assignment was criticized by Amnesty International and the Sports and Rights Alliance (SRA), even calling on FIFA, on November 11, to “stop the candidacy process.” However, the promises of Saudi Arabian officials have reassured the leadership of the World Federation, which believes that, as in Qatar, everything will work smoothly in Saudi Arabia and in 2034 we will all enjoy a football spectacle together in amazing facilities and a new, completely different country.
Manos Staramopoulos
Journalist and Analyst of International Football and Affairs
Chief Editor English Zone of Discoveryfootball.com
Athens (Greece)
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