CNN: Saudi investment in sports culminates in hosting the 2034 World Cup

Western media outlets considered that the announcement by the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has won the right to host the 2034 World Cup confirms the Kingdom’s growing presence in global sports.

Highest rating

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) indicated that Riyadh’s bid to host the world’s most prominent sporting event received the highest technical rating in history for any bid submitted to host the tournament, as FIFA rated the bid to host the 2034 World Cup at 419.8 out of 500 points.

The American network CNN warned that talk about Saudi Arabia hosting the World Cup should come within a broader framework and not just organizing the event, but rather as part of a broad plan to invest in sports, which came through the sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, as Saudi Arabia has invested billions of dollars in changing the sports scene, such as golf, boxing, e-sports and Formula 1 races in recent years.

Saudi Arabia stresses that the investment is part of Vision 2030, a project led by the Crown Prince to diversify the economy and position the Kingdom as one of the world’s leading countries. Its focus has been on football, perhaps the world’s most popular sport, and in recent years the Kingdom has bought a famous football club – the English Premier League team Newcastle United – and has added a group of legends to the Saudi Professional League, most notably Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Neymar Jr. In the same vein, the Associated Press considered that Saudi Arabia’s winning of the bid to host the 2034 World Cup gives Riyadh its biggest prize yet in return for its huge spending on global sports. The agency indicated that the Saudi file is the only candidate, and has received the support of more than 200 member associations of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), who participated remotely in an online meeting hosted by FIFA President Gianni Infantino in Zurich. In the same context, Asian media celebrated the event, as the Times of India newspaper covered the event within the framework of the Kingdom’s efforts to host the World Cup, noting that Saudi Arabia has proposed 15 stadiums, eight of which are still under construction. Each stadium is scheduled to host at least 40,000 fans. The opening and final matches of the tournament are scheduled to be held in a 92,000-seat stadium in Riyadh, King Salman Stadium. The newspaper believes that, similar to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the World Cup cannot be hosted in Saudi Arabia during the traditional period of June to July, when temperatures in the country usually exceed 40 degrees Celsius. To deal with the heat, FIFA moved the World Cup hosted by Qatar to November and December, although this led to a major change in the calendar for European clubs and leagues whose seasons were suspended. This period is further complicated by the advent of the holy month of Ramadan in 2034, and Riyadh also hosting the Asian Games. That opens the door to the possibility of holding the tournament in January 2034, although that would be before the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

The IOC has indicated it would not oppose back-to-back major events.

For his part, Hamad Al-Balawi, the Saudi official in charge of the World Cup bid, said that determining the exact dates for the 2034 World Cup is up to the world body. “This is a FIFA decision,” Al-Balawi told The Associated Press in an interview. “We are ready to participate in this conversation. But ultimately it is a FIFA decision in conjunction with the confederations.”