King Salman Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Featured image credit: Populous
The FIFA World Cup will head to Spain, Portugal, Morocco and three South American nations in 2030, followed by Saudi Arabia in 2034, world football’s governing body officially confirmed today (Wednesday).
Today’s decision comes after the FIFA Council yesterday advanced the two bids to the Extraordinary Congress, determining that they exceeded the minimum hosting requirements for the World Cup, whose next edition, expanding to a 48-team tournament, will take place in the United States, Canada and Mexico in 2026.
The FIFA Council was also updated on the accompanying independent auditor’s reports by BDO, which concluded that both evaluation processes were “executed with objectivity, integrity and transparency”.
Today’s Extraordinary Congress saw FIFA’s member associations approve the award of the two tournaments by acclamation, meaning that no formal vote was required.
The path to today
The destinies of both the 2030 and 2034 World Cups have been effectively set out for over a year. In October 2023, FIFA confirmed that the joint proposal from Morocco, Portugal and Spain was the sole candidate to host the 2030 World Cup.
A bid from Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile had also been in contention to host the event, which will take place 100 years after Uruguay staged the inaugural World Cup in 1930. Although the bid was ultimately not successful, a compromise was reached whereby Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay will host one match each.
At this point, FIFA also launched the bidding process for the 2034 World Cup, with member associations from Asia and Oceania invited to submit their proposals. Saudi Arabia immediately announced its intention to bid, and with Football Australia opting against entering a rival proposal, FIFA confirmed at the end of the month that the only declaration of interest it had received for the 2034 tournament was from the Saudi Arabian Football Federation.
Saudi’s expansive stadium vision
FIFA published the official bid books for the 2030 and 2034 World Cups in July, with Saudi Arabia’s ambitious proposals for the latter tournament featuring 11 new stadiums and no fewer than eight venues in the capital city of Riyadh.
The 2034 World Cup has been proposed to take place in just five cities, with the bid book promising a “compact” tournament concept. A total of 15 venues will be used for the 48-team tournament.
Three new stadium projects were announced ahead of the bid book being published. They are ROSHN Stadium (45,000 capacity), King Salman Stadium (92,000 capacity), and New Murabba Stadium (45,000 capacity). All three will be located in Riyadh.
Other planned venues in the capital include Prince Mohammed bin Salman Stadium (46,979 capacity) and South Riyadh Stadium (47,060 capacity). Three more new venues are planned in the shape of Qiddiya Coast Stadium (Jeddah, 46,096 capacity), King Abdullah Economic City Stadium (Jeddah, 45,700 capacity) and NEOM Stadium (46,010 capacity).
The four existing stadiums to be used are King Fahad Sports City and King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh, King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah, and King Khalid University Stadium in Abha.
Both King Fahad Sports City Stadium and King Abdullah Sports City Stadium will be refurbished ahead of the World Cup, with the former already being renovated ahead of the 2027 Asian Cup. King Saud University Stadium and King Khalid University Stadium will have their capacities temporarily increased for the tournament.
Three more stadiums are also currently under construction: Aramco Stadium in Al Khobar, Prince Faisal bin Fahad Sports City Stadium in Riyadh and Jeddah Central Development Stadium in Jeddah. Aramco Stadium is set to be ready by 2026, with Prince Faisal bin Fahad Sports City Stadium and Jeddah Central Development Stadium to be completed by 2027.
King Salman Stadium, which will serve as the new home of the Saudi national team, is set to host the opening match and the final of the World Cup. All new stadiums are scheduled to be completed by 2032.
The 2034 World Cup will be the second edition of the tournament to take place in the Middle East, after the 2022 event in Qatar, which also built several new stadiums ahead of hosting. The scale of the 2034 tournament will be much larger, with Qatar only using eight stadiums compared to the 15 planned by Saudi Arabia.
The Qatar tournament was rescheduled for November and December due to the intense summer heat in the country, which faced scrutiny over its working conditions for migrant workers who helped build its stadiums. Saudi Arabia has faced similar scrutiny in the lead-in to today’s announcement.
The contenders for 2030
In July, the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) announced its 11 proposed stadiums for the 2030 World Cup: Anoeta (San Sebastián), Camp Nou (Barcelona), Gran Canaria (Las Palmas), La Cartuja (Seville), La Rosaleda (Malaga), Civitás Metropolitano (Madrid), Nueva Romareda (Zaragoza), RCDE Stadium (Barcelona), Riazor (A Coruña), San Mamés (Bilbao), and Santiago Bernabéu (Madrid). These were all then included in the bid book.
The six stadiums proposed in Morocco are: Grand Stade d’Agadir (Agadir, 46,000 gross capacity), Grand Stade Hassan II (Casablanca, 115,000 gross capacity), Stade de Fès (Fez, 55,800 gross capacity), Grand Stade de Marrakech (Marrakech, 45,860 gross capacity), Stade Prince Moulay Abdellah (Rabat, 68,700 gross capacity) and Grande Stade de Tanger (Tangier, 75,600 gross capacity).
The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) selected its three stadiums in March: Estádio José Alvalade (Lisbon, 50,103 gross capacity), Estádio da Luz (Lisbon, 65,209 gross capacity) and Estádio do Dragão (Porto, 51,075 gross capacity).
FIFA president Gianni Infantino had already confirmed that the first match of the tournament would be played at the Estádio Centenário in Montevideo, which hosted the 1930 World Cup. The stadium currently holds 60,000 fans but a renovation project is in progress ahead of 2030 to increase this to 63,000 and install a roof.
Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires will also be used. The stadium, which currently has a capacity of 84,000, has undergone several renovations in recent years.
One Paraguayan host venue proposed in the bid is Estadio Defensores del Chaco, which is located in the capital city of Asunción. It has a current capacity of 37,000 but this would be increased to 41,000 for the World Cup.
The bid book also references a ‘New National Stadium’ in Paraguay. It will feature a capacity of 45,000 and is expected to be open by 2028.
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