Saudi Arabia prepares to organize a winter World Cup in 2034, after a FIFA evaluation report for the tournament’s sole candidate highlighted the likelihood of the competition taking place “between October and April” due to “local climatic conditions” and cited it as “high risk”.
FIFA will announce the hosts for the 2030 and 2034 World Cups on December 11, with a combined bid from Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay expected to be announced as hosts. 2030 to mark the centenary of the first World Cup. in Uruguay in 1930.
And Saudi Arabia will become the second Middle Eastern country to host the tournament after neighboring Qatar, which hosted the 2022 World Cup.
Despite concerns over human rights in the country, the FIFA assessment report ranked this issue as a medium risk in its assessment, resulting in Saudi Arabia receiving 419.8 points out of 500, the highest evaluation score of any previous World Cup candidate.
The FIFA report says that improving human rights in the country “will require a lot of effort and time”, but adds that hosting the World Cup “could help to have positive impacts on human rights”.
The FIFA report also says Saudi Arabia poses a “medium” stadium risk due to the country’s plans to build several new stadiums by 2034, including a “stadium in the sky” in the future. . under construction city of Neom, which is planned to be built 350 meters above the ground.
The tournament schedule in Saudi Arabia, however, is likely to prove controversial, following the disruption of major leagues around the world at the Qatar final, which took place in November and December 2022 due to heat concerns in the country during the summer. month.
Seasons have been extended and major leagues closed for a month to accommodate 2022, but FIFA downplayed concerns about the calendar in its assessment report which forecasts 2034 due to its international match schedule which does not has not yet been defined for this period.
The report states that “should the (Saudi) bid be successful, any decision regarding the competition schedule would take these issues into consideration when seeking to provide optimal conditions for teams and spectators.”
It is also noted that it is “important to take religious events into account when determining the competition schedule. Ramadan, the annual Muslim period of fasting and prayer, and the annual Hajj pilgrimage, during which more than 1.5 million pilgrims from around the world travel to Saudi Arabia, should be taken into account.
Due to uncertainty over the dates for hosting the 2034 World Cup, the FIFA report states that it poses a “high risk” in terms of the event’s schedule.