The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia should no longer be the only contender to host the 2034 Football World Cup. A week after the Saudi candidacy was made official, the President of the Indonesian Federation, Erick Thohir, announced on Tuesday that Indonesia was discussing with Australia with a view to jointly organizing the 2034 World Cup.
After the designation, on October 4, of Spain, Morocco and Portugal as hosts of the 2030 edition (with the organization of three matches in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay), the International Federation of Association Football ( FIFA) has launched a call for applications for the 2034 tournament. By virtue of the principle of rotation of the continents, the Asian and Oceanic confederations hold the rope for the organization of this edition.
A few minutes after this call, Saudi Arabia, which had already positioned itself to organize the 2030 World Cup, confirmed that it would be a candidate for 2034. The Saudis then immediately received the support of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). ), which places them in the position of big favorite to host the competition.
Like Qatar in 2022, the country intends to make this World Cup a powerful tool of soft power. In a press release published on X (formerly Twitter), the Saudi federation announces that it “plans to deliver a world-class tournament and will draw inspiration from Saudi Arabia’s ongoing social and economic transformation, and the country’s deep-rooted passion for football.”
“Open” to work with other countries
Mr. Thohir’s comments suggest that Saudi Arabia may not be the only one in the running. According to the president of the Indonesian federation, a joint candidacy between his country and Australia had been under discussion since the last FIFA congress organized in March in Rwanda. “At that point the Australian side said ‘let’s go together’, I said ‘ok’, we’re in,” said the former owner of Inter Milan (from 2013 to 2018), who is also Indonesia’s minister of state enterprises.
Supported by Joko Widodo, Indonesian President Erick Thohir said discussions were accelerating between the two nations as the deadline set by FIFA to formalize a bid, October 31, 2023, was fast approaching. For its part, the Australian federation confirmed a week ago that it was working on a project for the organization of this World Cup, without mentioning a joint project with the South-East Asian country.
Mr. Thohir said to himself ” open “ to an alliance with other countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, or New Zealand. The member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will, however, have to prove to FIFA that a tragedy like that of 1er October 2022, in the Kanjuruhan stadium in Malang, on the island of Java, is not about to happen again: a stampede there left 135 dead.