The Athletic FC ⚽ is The Athletic’s daily football (or soccer, if you prefer) newsletter. Sign up to receive it directly to your inbox.
Hello! If you tipped Saudi Arabia to host the 2034 World Cup, good job. It won’t lose a one-horse race.
🏆 Saudi’s fait accompli
🎢 Mbappe’s yin and yang
🗣️ Slot criticises Liverpool
📐The Arsenal corner playbook
World Cup Confirmation: Saudi set to be 2034 hosts after unopposed bid
You might not recall the frenzy around the bidding to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, but I certainly do. Football stood captivated as Sepp Blatter — then the president of world governing body FIFA — pulled the names of Russia and Qatar from two sealed envelopes.
We’ll get none of that suspense or theatre when FIFA awards the 2034 tournament to Saudi Arabia later today. I’m writing as if the choice has already been ratified (it hasn’t, officially) but on the basis that there is only one bidder, the Saudis will sail through unopposed. It’s a done deal, a fait accompli.
For Saudi, securing a World Cup is the culmination of Vision 2030, an attempt to expand its reach and influence on the globe, in part through vast investment in sports ventures. The scheme launched in 2016 and while it might be delivering the World Cup four years later than intended, Saudi Arabia won’t split hairs. It craved the tournament. It will get it in the coming hours, when FIFA’s 211 members hold a token vote.
The online poll is genuinely a formality. First, members will ratify the hosts for 2030: Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. That joint bid across three continents has no rivals. After that, a second vote will ordain the Saudis — the culmination of a controversial process which left the oil-rich nation alone in the box seat.
How did this happen?
Bin Salman with FIFA President Gianni Infantino, and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (L-R) during the opening ceremony for the 2018 World Cup (Photo: Pool/Getty Images)
FIFA picking Russia for 2018 and Qatar for 2022 was highly controversial, Qatar especially. The same is true of Saudi Arabia, a country which faces constant scrutiny and criticism about human rights abuses there. Jacob Whitehead has explained those concerns here.
But FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, is very close to the Saudi ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, and the governing body has championed the Saudi campaign. Two weeks ago, it published an evaluation of the bid and gave it a rating of 4.2 out of five, the highest FIFA has ever awarded. Human rights risks were classed as “medium”.
In shooting for 2034, the Saudis could not miss. The rules of FIFA’s World Cup bidding prevent a continent which hosts a tournament from doing so again during the next two cycles. North America has 2026. The three-continent plan for 2030 — a deliberately broad affair to mark the 100th anniversary of the first tournament — conveniently left only the Asia and Oceania federations as contenders for 2034.
Last October, FIFA announced it was truncating the process for 2030 and 2034 by bolting the bidding together. Overnight, candidates for 2034 were left with a mere 25 days to submit their proposals. Saudi was more than ready, having aimed for 2030 anyway. Australia considered its options but the tight timeframe made committing to an expensive, complex tournament impossible.
Australia stepped back. One bidder remained. Norway’s Football Association has spoken out against the coronation but nobody is listening. Inside FIFA’s bubble, dissenting voices are few.
What next?
The proposed King Salman Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – designed by Populous (Photo: Populous via Getty Images)
There are certain things we can’t be sure of yet. For example, Qatar 2022 was staged over the winter to avoid the severe summer heat in the Middle East. It’s still to be decided if 2034 will follow suit.
We also don’t know how the landscape will look, because the Saudis are planning 11 stadiums which are not yet built, including one in a city (Neom) which is not yet built either.
But what we do know is that 2034, a competition of 48 nations, will be highly lucrative. And after FIFA’s resolute promotion of Qatar, another host which faced major human rights questions, the sight of it cuddling up to the Saudis is no surprise. Saudi cash is reaching every corner of sport. Football has taken it, at home and abroad. Why would FIFA or the World Cup be any different?
- From one Saudi mission which has come to fruition, to another which is in danger of losing disciples: it’s all gone stale at Newcastle United. The Athletic columnist and former Newcastle striker Alan Shearer is worried about the drift.
News round-up
Around Europe
A thought for the day after another hectic night in the Champions League: how many times can Real Madrid ride the rollercoaster without being sick?
🇪🇸 Kylian Mbappe would love to get off but having opened the scoring against Atalanta (and mimicked the Ronaldo ‘calma’ celebration) he lasted 35 minutes before coming off injured. Madrid went through the wringer on the way to a 3-2 win, reprieved by Mateo Retegui fluffing from a few yards out with the last kick in anger (above).
🏴 Fewer white knuckles for Liverpool, who are six-and-oh and cruising. Arne Slot got a bit humpty with their pressing and intensity in a 1-0 victory at Girona but he really is having to find things to moan about (much as more output from Darwin Nunez would be nice). His team will qualify at a canter.
🇮🇹 Italy’s Inter conceded their first goal of the competition, losing 1-0 at Bayer Leverkusen. It was a pinball-wizard of a shambles too, but no major harm done.
🏴 Jhon Duran’s standard rocket from downtown helped Aston Villa beat RB Leipzig 3-2 and stay in the hunt for an automatic knockout place. Leipzig’s European form has been dismal. They’ve failed to pick up a point, and they’re out.
🇫🇷 Paris Saint-Germain soothed TAFC’s angst about them, beating Red Bull Salzburg 3-0. Luis Enrique’s side have work left to do, but they’re hanging in.
Calciopoli revisited
(Photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
Juventus and Manchester City meet in the Champions League this evening, two veteran campaigners facing off. While they’re in the same corner of Turin, they can also trade stories about fighting the law.
City, as you well know, are braced for the outcome of the many, many charges brought against them by the Premier League. With that verdict looming, James Horncastle has written a superb piece on Calciopoli, the scandal which consumed Juve in 2006 and saw them relegated to Serie B.
The saga itself is gripping, but more pertinent in relation to City is the way it still rankles and festers today, almost two decades on. The warning could not be more stark: however the club’s fight with the Premier League ends, grievances will persist long into the night.
Best of TAFC
Catch a match
(Selected games)
UEFA Champions League (all Paramount+/TNT Sports unless stated): Atletico Madrid vs Slovan Bratislava, 12.45pm/5.45pm — CBS, Paramount+, Fubo, Amazon Prime/TNT Sports; Arsenal vs Monaco, 3pm/8pm; Benfica vs Bologna, 3pm/8pm; Borussia Dortmund vs Barcelona, 3pm/8pm — Paramount+, Fubo/TNT Sports; Juventus vs Manchester City, 3pm/8pm.
UEFA Europa League: Fenerbahce vs Athletic Club, 10.30am/3.30pm — Paramount+/TNT Sports.
Championship: West Bromwich Albion vs Coventry City, 3pm/8pm — CBS, Paramount+, Amazon Prime/Sky Sports.
And finally…
To Championship side Millwall, where they love jellied eels, cold beer and an old-fashioned tear-up.
They generally love Neil Harris too. He’s their record goalscorer — check out the last of his 138 strikes, above — and current manager but yesterday, Millwall announced that he and the club would be parting company.
A few days earlier, Harris had referred to a section of critical fans (those he felt were failing to appreciate the impact of injuries on his team) as “thickos”. Funnily enough, the natives weren’t pleased, and Harris is gone.
Except not quite. First, he’ll manage tonight’s league game against Sheffield United. And then he’ll manage Saturday’s trip to Middlesbrough. I don’t know about you but I’ll be rubbernecking.
(The top picture shows a view of stadium models displayed during a media tour in the FIFA football 2034 World Cup Saudi bid exhibition in Riyadh. By Fayez Nureldine/AFP via Getty Images)
