From Wiki:
According to investigative reporting by The New York Times, Infantino played a key role in the selection of Saudi Arabia as host. He engaged in private diplomacy on Saudi Arabia's behalf, as he explored whether Greece would be willing to partner with Saudi Arabia to host the 2030 World Cup. When Spain, Portugal and Moroccoannounced that they would bid together for the 2030 World Cup, the Saudis considered it unlikely that the bid could be beaten. Thus, the Saudis backed out of bidding for 2030. FIFA subsequently made two moves that The New York Times described as "curious",[3] FIFA announced that the 2030 World Cup would be jointly hosted by Spain, Morocco and Portugal, but that the first three matches would be hosted in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay as part of commemorations of the 100th anniversary of the inaugural World Cup in Uruguay, This decision ruled Europe, Africa and South America out as potential bidders for the 2034 World Cup, and meant that the only potential bidders could be from Asia or Oceania. FIFA also unexpectedly sped up the bidding process for the 2034 World Cup, giving only 25 days for interested nations to express their intent to host. Within minutes, Saudi Arabia announced its intentions to host.[6]
On 11 December 2024, FIFA confirmed that the 2034 World Cup would be hosted by Saudi Arabia. The decision was announced during an Extraordinary FIFA Congress meeting, where the hosts for both the 2030 and 2034 tournaments were finalized following a vote.[3]
Absolutely insane.
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volitairee
26 Comments
$$$
Pretty crazy that the 2030 world cup hosts have simultaneously ruled out Europe, Africa, and South America as hosts
“How Saudi Arabia BOUGHT the bid to host the 2034 World Cup” – here, fixed it for you. No need to thank me
I’m shocked
You forgot another point. For the 2030 WC, Portugal and Spain firstly thought of going only them together. Only after several months later was Morocco added. It could have been because FIFA commanded them to, or is just a conspiracy from my head?
Australia/New Zealand robbed
The most corrupt FIFA President since the previous most corrupt FIFA President:)
Spain, Portugal & Morocco bidding together already sounds suspicious to me, don’t Spain & Portugal have difficult relations to morocco politically?
Then Saudi funnelled hundreds of millions through DAZN to pay FIFA ostensibly for the CWC which they then screened for free….
Are we really entering an era where the FIFA World Cup and Olympics etc. aren’t hosted by one country, but several, so they can actually split the bill as not one of these events is actually profitable for the country, and instead can cost them up to a billion? We’ll soon be playing them all across Europe and reinventing another league so they can spread the games apart over a longer period of time for more TV licensing money, while also polluting the planet when flying teams on jets across those countries to play games.
Oil oil oil!
a lot of words to just say: corruption.
reminder that Oceania is the only federation left that hasn’t been given WC hosting rights … New Zealand is looking to do it for 2038 but are gonna either need help from the US (Hawaii) or Fiji to make it a joint bid
Insert gif of Fry shocked.
And yes this means 2038 will almost certainly be in North America, probably solo-hosted by the US and probably all in indoor NFL stadiums (there will be like 5 new ones by then)
Should never be allowed to host a world cup. It’s disgusting.
FIFA basically cleared the field and handed Saudi Arabia the keys, that’s wild corruption in plain sight.
I think the word you were looking for wasn’t “insane” it is “corrupt”
Blatter may be long gone, but the FIFA leopard doesn’t change it’s spots.
Everyone thought blatter was bad. Infantino is a joke.
Bribes, you can skip the article
Lots of money is the most likely answer
It’s really about time England host it! Can’t believe it probably won’t happen in my lifetime!
New face of fifa, same old scandals
Infantino feeds off of the corruption
“According to investigative reporting by The New York Times” you can stop reading here. None of murican journalism is trustwothy these days. Short answer without investigation – $$$
Kind of late. I honestly was baffled that there were no visible frustration with this in 2024. Football died when Infantino became president
Bribery? Bribery.