FIFA president Gianni Infantino confirms Saudi Arabia as 2034 World Cup host
Hours after Australia's soccer federation announced that it would not bid to host the FIFA men's World Cup in 2034 — leaving Saudi Arabia as the lone remaining candidate on the final day for applicants to throw their hats in the ring — Gianni Infantino, the president of global soccer's governing body, confirmed in an Instagram post that the Saudis will indeed stage the biggest event in sports.
It's the second World Cup host announcement in less than a month: On Oct. 11, FIFA revealed that the 2030 edition would be held in Morocco, Portugal and Spain — with the first three games of that tournament to be played in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay to mark the World Cup's centennial. The first showpiece competition was hosted in Uruguay in 1930.
Canada, Mexico and the United States were chosen in 2018 to co-host the 2026 World Cup, which will be the first to include 48 participating nations. From France 1998 to last year's World Cup in Qatar, the men's tourney was contested by 32 teams.
"Three editions, five continents and ten countries involved in staging matches in the tournament - that's making football truly global!" Infantino wrote on the social media site.
The selections were not without controversy. FIFA has for decades rotated World Cups between its six regional confederations. Since 2002, the World Cup has been held in Asia and Europe twice and Africa and South America once, with North America — which last hosted in 1994 — up next.
South America was therefore long expected to host the entirety of the centennial event, but a joint bid by Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay failed. Now, because of those three first round games it will host in 2030, the continent wasn't eligible to bid for 2034 at all. With Africa, Europe and North America all also off the table as recent hosts, only potential suitors from the Asian and Oceania regions were left in the mix.
FIFA gave interested countries just 25 days to submit a formal bid for the 2034 World Cup. In the end, Australia — which co-hosted a wildly successful Women's World Cup with New Zealand over the summer — apparently determined that it would not be able to beat out the Saudi bid, which is backed by the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund.
"We have explored the opportunity to bid to host the FIFA World Cup and - having taken all factors into consideration - we have reached the conclusion not to do so for the 2034 competition," Football Australia wrote Tuesday on its website.
"We wish FIFA and the eventual hosts of the FIFA World Cup 2034 the greatest success for the good of the game and for everyone who loves our sport."
Infantino said that the bidding processes for 2030 and '34 "Were approved by consensus via the FIFA Council - where all six confederations are represented — after constructive dialogue and extensive consultation," he wrote.
"Football unites the world like no other sport, and the FIFA World Cup is the perfect showcase for a message of unity and inclusion, as well as providing an important illustration of how different cultures can be together and can learn and better understand one another," Infantino's post continued.
"As we live in an increasingly divided and aggressive world, we show once again that football, the leading global sport, unites like nothing else. We all need these occasions of unity and the upcoming FIFA World Cups provide a unique force for good in this respect."
Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has covered United States men's and women's national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.
