FIFA Announces Hosts for 2030 World Cup
The world will compete for the FIFA World Cup Trophy across three continents in 2030. (Wikimedia Commons)
The FIFA council announced on October 4, 2023 that the 2030 World Cup would be held in Spain, Morocco, and Portugal as the main hosts, with the first three games being played in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. Sporting News writes that the announcement came as a shock to many observers, including those connected to FIFA, as the traditional bidding process would have seen the hosts announced in the 2024 congress. However, the most shocking aspect of the announcement was that the tournament will span three continents and thousands of miles, an unprecedented change for an event that has until now been held in one continent at a time. Although FIFA justified its decision in the announcement saying that the chosen bid was the sole candidate remaining and that the centennial of the first World Cup in 1930 necessitated special celebration, critics quickly pointed to FIFA’s notorious corruption and other possible motivations for the decision.
Since the 2015 corruption scandal, where an array of high ranking officials within the international organization were accused of accepting bribes, FIFA has been under heavy scrutiny for its seemingly irrational actions. FIFA’s decisions to award the hosting of the 2018 World Cup to Russia and 2022 World Cup to Qatar provoked allegations of widespread bribery. The U.S. Department of Justice accused Russia of bribing officials from multiple federations to vote for its bid in 2020 and did the same for Qatar in late 2022, according to The New York Times. As of now, however, no legal action has been taken against the organization or any members suspected of corruption.
Although critics have not extended similar accusations of corruption to the planned host countries for 2030, they have emphasized the impact of this choice on the still unannounced 2034 World Cup host. FIFA has committed to what it calls the “confederation rotation principle,” under which all continents are guaranteed the opportunity to host a World Cup in eight year rotations. As North America will host the 2026 World Cup, the decision to hold the 2030 World Cup in Europe, Africa, and South America paves the way for an Asian World Cup locale in 2034, wrote The Athletic.
According to some commentators, FIFA’s history with corruption and the recent influx of sovereign money into the world of football indicates the influence of one specific country: Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia took center stage in football when members of its sovereign investment fund purchased English team Newcastle United in 2021, and again when a set of Saudi teams brought in highly renowned players from European teams, including Brazilian superstar Neymar Jr., for almost one billion dollars in the 2023 summer transfer window, according to The New York Times.
Saudi Arabia has spent large quantities of capital to not only build football infrastructure, but also foster a domestic football culture through its investments. The investments also have the potential to legitimize the Saudi government in the eyes of the international sports community, as Human Rights Watch says hosting the 2018 World Cup did for Russia by “sportwashing” the brutal regime. Although FIFA has yet to announce any decision regarding the 2034 host, some say the decision for 2030 perfectly sets up Saudi Arabia for seizing the process as Russia and Qatar did in the past.
Speculations on the implications of FIFA’s choice of host are yet to be confirmed by any whistleblowers. As of now, the only certainty regarding the decision is that the 2030 World Cup will be an unprecedented celebration of the centennial of an event that draws massive audiences from across the globe. All else is yet to be seen.