LAUSANNE: FIFA on Wednesday confirmed that Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup, underlining the Gulf kingdom’s growing influence in world sport. At the same time, a virtual Congress of world football’s governing body confirmed that Morocco, Spain and Portugal will be joint hosts of the 2030 World Cup, in which three games will also be played in South America.

HH the Amir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on Wednesday sent cables of congratulations to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud and Crown Prince and Prime Minister Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Selecting the kingdom to host this international sports event depicts its high-esteem status and the great confidence in its potentials and expertise for organizing such an international event, he said. This achievement is a source of pride for GCC states and Arab and Muslim nations, HH the Amir noted. HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah and HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah also sent congratulatory cables to the Saudi leaders.

The Saudi bid was waved through by acclamation during the meeting of FIFA’s 211 national member associations, with no rivals standing in its way. “It is a proud day, a day of celebration, a day that we invite

the entire world to Saudi Arabia,” said Abdulaziz bin Turki bin Faisal Al-Saud, the Saudi Minister of Sports. “We intend to have an extraordinary version of the World Cup in our kingdom.”

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stressed the kingdom’s determination to contribute effectively to the development of football around the world, and to spread messages of love, peace and tolerance, armed with its great capabilities and potential, in addition to the energies of the people of the kingdom and their high spirits to overcome difficulties, among the fruits of which was winning the bid to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup.

FIFA had invoked its principle of rotating the World Cup between continents, which meant only bids from Asia or Oceania were welcome for 2034. The unprecedented organization of the 2030 tournament will involve three continental confederations in Europe, Africa and South America, while the next World Cup in 2026 – the first involving 48 teams — will take place across North America.

The body gave potential bidders barely a month last year to submit candidacies, and Australia and Indonesia quickly abandoned their interest. That left Saudi Arabia as the sole candidate, clearing the way for the World Cup to return to the Gulf region so soon after Qatar hosted in 2022. “We are inclusive and we are non-discriminatory, and we want to obtain positive social impact,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in closing remarks.

“We are of course aware of critics and fears, and I fully trust our hosts to address all open points from this process and deliver a FIFA World Cup which meets expectations.” He added that “social improvements and positive human rights impacts” are “responsibilities of hosting a World Cup.”

The 2030 tournament will mark a century since the first World Cup was held in Uruguay, and as a result the unrivaled joint bid by Morocco, Spain and Portugal will also see the South American nation handed one game along with Argentina and Paraguay. FIFA confirmed over a year ago that the joint proposal led by Morocco, Spain and Portugal was the sole contender for 2030, with all other potential candidacies having fallen by the wayside.

Four South American countries launched a joint bid in 2019, convinced that the centenary World Cup should entirely take place on the same continent where it all began. Meanwhile, Morocco replaced Ukraine as a partner for Spain and Portugal, while South America agreed to step aside in exchange for hosting three games. Following these “centenary celebrations” in the southern hemisphere winter, the six teams involved will cross the Atlantic to play the rest of the tournament.

Spain, which hosted the 1982 World Cup, should be the centerpiece as it boasts 11 of the 20 proposed stadiums. Morocco — after failing on five previous occasions to be awarded the staging of the tournament — will become the second African nation to host the competition after South Africa in 2010. Potential venues for the July 21 final include the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid and Barcelona’s renovated Camp Nou as well as the planned Hassan II stadium between Casablanca and Rabat, set to boast a capacity of 115,000. – Agencies