Football World Cup: we now know who will organize the competition in 2030 and 2034

Gianni Infantino announced the news on Tuesday. EFE – SERGIO PEREZ

The 2030 World Cup will be jointly hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco, with three of the first matches in South America (Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay), a virtual FIFA Congress approved as expected on Wednesday, December 11, also announcing that the 2034 World Cup will be hosted in Saudi Arabia.

Meeting by videoconference, the 211 member federations ratified this double designation by acclamation, without the slightest suspense: the two files were the only ones in the running after a series of withdrawals and, for 2034, a lightning procedure limited to Asia and Oceania, in the name of continental rotation.

The Norwegian federation (NFF), already very critical of the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, nevertheless refused to approve a process “defective and incompatible” with the principles “of responsibility, transparency and objectivity” claimed by FIFA, it indicated in a press release.

In 2030, the “World of the Centenary”will therefore unite six countries, a unique arrangement since the first edition of the jewel of global football in 1930, which brought together 13 teams in Montevideo. Thirty-two teams participated in the 2022 World Cup, and the final phase will have 48 from 2026.

Spain as main host

After three matches in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay, scheduled for June 8 and 9, 2030, in the cool of the southern winter, the six teams concerned and their supporters will cross the Atlantic for the other 101 matches, from June 13 to July 21.

With 11 of the 20 proposed stadiums, Spain should be the main host after having already organized the 1982 World Cup, but Morocco, a five-time unsuccessful candidate for the organization, will become the second country on the African continent to welcome him, after South Africa in 2010.

Spain and Morocco are still competing in the opening match and the final, offering respectively the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid or the Camp Nou in Barcelona and the future Hassan-II stadium between Casablanca and Rabat, which aims to become the “largest stadium in the world” with 115,000 seats. Portugal offers the two stadiums of Lisbon and Porto, and is aiming for a semi-final.

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The 2034 World Cup in winter ?

Invoking the principle of geographical rotation, FIFA had limited its call for applications for 2034 to the Asian and Oceanic confederations, conducted at a cracking pace in a short month in the fall of 2023.

And Saudi Arabia, the budding superpower of world sport – from F1 to the future e-sports Olympics, including the 2029 Asian Winter Games – found itself the only candidate after Australia and Indonesia withdrew and China's football ambitions were shelved.

The ultraconservative kingdom, embarked on a strategy of economic diversification and image improvement, currently only has two of the 14 stadiums with at least 40,000 seats required.

Beyond the logistical challenge, the scorching summer could force the competition to be moved to winter or late autumn, as in Qatar in 2022, but it will have to deal with Ramadan, expected in December.

Associations up in arms

The 2030 tricontinental formula was greeted last year with questions about its environmental impact, as well as the cost to supporters, but it is above all the designation of Saudi Arabia that is the focus of criticism and fears.

It “puts lives in danger and reveals the emptiness of FIFA's commitments in terms of human rights”, estimated Wednesday in a joint text 21 organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Sport and Rights Alliance and Football Supporters Europe (FSE).

“Today, the evidence is abundant: migrant workers exploited and victims of racism, activists sentenced to decades in prison for peacefully speaking out, women and LGBTQIA+ people facing legalized discrimination, or residents forcibly evicted to make way for state projects”, their statement reads.

For the signatories, “it is clear that without urgent action and comprehensive reforms, the 2034 World Cup will be marred by repression, discrimination and exploitation on a large scale”.

In its assessment report, FIFA estimates that Saudi Arabia's human rights commitments will require “a significant effort in time and energy” by 2034, but sees “a non-existent probability negligible that competition serves as a catalyst for ongoing and future reforms”.