It was more or less confirmed last October that Saudi Arabia would host the 2034 FIFA World Cup. The only country in the Middle East to compete for the hosting rights, Saudi Arabia was essentially the sole contender. The final formality was completed yesterday at FIFA’s Congress, where the host countries for both the 2030 and 2034 World Cups were officially announced. However, critics have argued that FIFA broke its own rules in the process, and they’ve provided explanations for how this happened.
According to FIFA’s usual procedure, 211 member countries cast votes to decide the World Cup host. In previous years, the voting battles have been fierce, with multiple contenders competing. This time, however, FIFA selected the hosts for both the 2030 and 2034 World Cups together. To make this happen, FIFA implemented a new approach to select the hosts. Both the 2030 and 2034 World Cup hosts were decided by a single vote.
The 2030 World Cup will be held across three continents in six countries, all of which joined forces to bid for the tournament. There were no other contenders. Saudi Arabia was the only contender for the 2034 World Cup. To ensure no country would vote against Saudi Arabia due to its human rights record, FIFA created a voting system where a “yes” vote meant support for both World Cup bids, while a “no” vote meant opposition to both bids. This meant that if any country voted against Saudi Arabia, it would effectively be voting against the joint bid of Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay.
However, due to the lack of competition, FIFA did not use ballots for the vote. During the online Congress, it was announced that members would show their support by raising their hands, without any debate. Voters simply applauded after hearing the names of the countries bidding to host the World Cups.
Critics have pointed out that FIFA broke the rules, though the organization had previously announced changes to its voting system. FIFA stated that the changes were made after consultations with all confederations, though they did not provide an explanation for why the votes for both World Cups were held together.
Since the host countries were more or less decided in advance, there was little excitement or enthusiasm surrounding the announcement. At FIFA’s headquarters yesterday, only a few Saudi journalists attended, and there was a minimal media presence. No representatives from the countries selected as hosts for the two World Cups were present either.
There was a protest against Saudi Arabia’s selection as host outside FIFA’s headquarters, led by a Swedish citizen. Additionally, Norway’s absence was significant, as the country had already declared that it would not participate in the online Congress due to objections over Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.
