July 29, 2024 1:29 PM ET
Aside from the Paris Olympics, FIFA is also doing business with future hosts of the men’s World Cup, including Saudi Arabia.
FIFA said on Monday it had received formal bids in Paris from representatives of its seven member federations, the exclusive bidders for the 2030 and 2034 World Cups.
The 2030 World Cup will be co-hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco, as well as three neighbouring South American countries – Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, the first country to host the tournament in 1930 – and each will host one of the tournament’s 104 matches.
Saudi Arabia is the only candidate for the 2034 World Cup, which was awarded early hosting by FIFA last year.
Editor’s Pick
1 Related
The two bids are due to be approved at an online meeting of FIFA’s 211 member confederations on December 11.
First, FIFA’s draft World Cup project plan, due to be published later this week, must be hundreds of pages of detailed information, including plans for stadiums, hotels, training grounds, transport and national security.
“FIFA will thoroughly review the bidding documents and publish an evaluation report in the last quarter of the year,” it said in a statement.
Candidate countries for the World Cup must also be assessed on their human rights obligations to host the tournament, and FIFA was asked in May to work with independent experts to assess the candidates.
FIFA’s human rights policy was introduced eight years ago and first applied to bidders for the 2026 tournament, after awarding the 2018 and 2022 tournaments to Russia and Qatar respectively.
The United States, Canada and Mexico will co-host the 2026 World Cup, which will be the first to feature 48 teams instead of 32. The three nations beat rival Morocco 134-65 in a 2018 vote in Moscow.
