Football Australia announced it will host the 2034 World Cup, hours before FIFA’s bid deadline, paving the way for Saudi Arabia.
“We have explored the option of submitting a bid to host the FIFA World Cup and, after contemplating all factors, have come to the conclusion not to do so for the 2034 competition,” a statement from the country’s sports governing body read.
Instead, Football Australia will host the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup as well as the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup.
“For overseas tournaments, Australia’s time zones offer significant opportunities for broadcasters, and we are close to billions of people in Asia and Oceania, which is also helping to provide strong advertising clients for competitions,” Football Australia said.
FIFA had announced in the past that the tournament would be held in Asia or Oceania and Tuesday was the last day for countries to submit their bids. Australia’s decision to withdraw leaves Saudi Arabia as the only declared candidate.
The Gulf country has announced its interest in hosting the 2034 tournament, securing the addition of members of the Asian Football Confederation, adding Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Lebanon, India and Japan, The Associated Press reported earlier this month.
“Japan has a plan to host the FIFA World Cup until 2050, but now is the time for Asia to come together and come up with a single bid [by 2034],” Japanese FA official Tsuneyasu Miyamoto said, congratulating Saudi Arabia on its “long football history”. “. . . An immense hobby and a glorious vision for 2034. “
Despite such support, Saudi Arabia will most likely be seen as a questionable host country, with human rights organizations preemptively denouncing the move.
Human Rights Watch published an article in its last week, denouncing the eventual (now most likely) host of 2034.
“The option for FIFA to award Saudi Arabia the 2034 World Cup despite its appalling human rights record and closed doors to any oversight exposes FIFA’s human rights commitments as a travesty,” said Minky Worden, director of global initiatives.
On Tuesday, Amnesty International insisted that all potential hosts make “human rights commitments” before reaching a final resolution.
“FIFA will now have to make transparent how it expects its hosts to respect its human rights policies,” said Steve Cockburn, FIFA’s head of economic and social justice. The dangers are not credibly addressed.
“The best chance for FIFA to secure binding pledges to protect workers’ rights, guarantee freedom of expression and prevent discrimination related to the World Cup is the host country selection procedure, not after the hosts and arrangements for the tournament have been shown. has begun. “
The country is criticised for its prolific use of the death penalty, with 147 executions last year, according to an AFP tally. Another eighty-one people were executed in a single day for “terrorism-related” crimes, prompting an international outcry.
The 2018 killing of U. S. journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government, shattered the country’s reputation.