On Wednesday (December 11), FIFA will reveal world football’s worst-kept secret: the winning bid for the 2034 World Cup. In what’s expected to be a fairly drama-free affair, the sport’s global governing body will name Saudi Arabia, the lone bidder, as the host.
Football’s return to the cash-rich Gulf after only 12 years — Qatar hosted the 2022 World Cup — is a study of how a nation wove a web of influence across the world through sponsorships, Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) and investments to secure the biggest single-sport event.
It is also a note for India as to what they are up against in their bid to win the hosting rights for the 2036 Olympics. Saudi Arabia — the destination for the 2034 Asian Games apart from the football World Cup — and 2030 Asian Games hosts Qatar are India’s two biggest competitors in the race for the 2036 Olympics.
And how Saudi won the football World Cup rights unopposed could be an indication of the way the Kingdom would push for the 2036 Olympics, depending on how badly they want it.
910 sponsorship deals
Earlier this week, Danish research organisation Play the Game traced the football World Cup’s curvy path to Saudi.
Saudi Arabia, the investigation found, had 910 sponsorship deals across 28 sports, including multisport events like the Islamic Solidarity Games and the Saudi Games.
Of these, 194 sponsorships were only in football. The billion-dollar Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, was involved in 346 of the total sponsorships.
Further, the country entered into 48 MoUs, including countries from all continents, which Play the Game noted have been ‘powerful strategic ties’. “Beyond fostering goodwill, MoUs pave the way for increased collaboration, development initiatives and direct access to key decision-makers within federations. Ultimately, these decision-makers play a critical role in voting on significant agendas within FIFA, including host selection and governance issues,” the report said.
For instance, on October 6, 2022, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) signed a MoU with its Saudi Arabian counterpart. According to the AIFF, it included ‘the provision of technological support, the organization and hosting of youth competitions for both men and women on a regular basis, as well as exchange of football and governance experts.’
The AIFF hasn’t publicly said since then how much of it has been implemented. However, on December 5, 2022, India — after splurging tax-payer money on the bidding process — suddenly and surprisingly withdrew from the two-horse race involving Saudi Arabia to host the 2027 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup. On February 1, 2023, the AFC named Saudi as the host for the continental showpiece event.
Partnerships with AFC
Simultaneously, the country also enhanced its relationship with the AFC through partnerships. For instance, Play the Game reported that ‘Neom, Saudi’s ambitious megacity project, became AFC’s Global Partner from 2021 to 2024’, a deal that was renewed for another five years. Additionally, Visit Saudi became the official Global Partner of the AFC until December 2024.
This was a stepping stone to finding its seat on world football’s highest table in FIFA. In February 2023, on the same day when the AFC declared Saudi Arabia as the hosts of the 2027 Asian Cup, the country’s football federation’s president Yasser Al-Misehal was elected as Asia’s representative to the all-powerful FIFA Council, which decides on the most important matters about world football.
Aramco steps in
Aramco, the Saudi state-owned oil and gas company, then entered into a partnership with FIFA. The deal was widely criticised and in October, more than 100 female footballers wrote an open letter to FIFA, urging them to end it. They cited Saudi’s alleged human rights violations and restrictions on women’s rights as the reasons.
All this while, Saudi continued to splurge on getting the world’s top footballers — including Cristiano Ronaldo — to play in their league while simultaneously acquiring teams in Europe, the nerve centre of world football. For example, Riyadh Air sponsors former Spanish league champions Atletico Madrid, Riyadh Season is the sponsor of Italian Serie A side AS Roma and the PIF owns English Premier League side Newcastle United.
Additionally, Play the Game reported that Saudi royal family member Abdullah bin Musaid Al Saud owns Belgian club Beerschot VA, UAE’s Al Hilal United, France’s LB Chateauroux, and England’s Sheffield United. In March 2021, Al Saud added India’s lower division club, Kerala United, to his portfolio.
After establishing its footprint all over the world, Saudi made a move to host the World Cup.
Australia pulls out
In October 2023, FIFA set a 25-day deadline for countries to express interest in hosting the 2034 World Cup. Less than two hours after the announcement, Saudi officially declared its bid. A few days later, Australia entered the race but pulled out to focus on securing the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup and the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup.
That left Saudi Arabia as the sole bidder for the 2034 World Cup. Last week, FIFA gave a glowing review of Saudi’s bid, scoring it 4.2 out of 5 — more than the 2026 bid of USA, Canada and Mexico, which received 4 out of 5.
On Thursday, Cristiano Ronaldo supported the Saudi bid, writing on his social media handles: “The @Saudi2034bid is inspiring so many young footballers with the promise of #GrowingTogether…”
Two trainee pilots were killed and two others were severely injured in a road accident on the Baramati-Bhigwan Road on Monday. The four passengers were from the Redbird Flight Training Academy in Baramati. Krishna Singh, 21, allegedly lost control of the car, causing it to collide with the roadside and overturn around 3.15 am. Police said that prima facie they had consumed alcohol.
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