International Football Federation, FIFA made decisions on the hosts of two future editions of its marquee men's World Cup on Wednesday by controversially confirming Saudi Arabia to host the 2034 tournament while picking Spain, Portugal and Morocco as joint hosts for the 2030 event.
FIFA confirmed Saudi Arabia as the host of the 2034 World Cup despite concerns raised by many organizations over the country's alleged history of human rights violations.
The hosts for both World Cups were confirmed at Wednesday's Extraordinary FIFA Congress meeting following a vote. All 211 of Fifa's member nations were represented at the meeting over a video link.
The three opening matches of the 2030 tournament will be staged in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay as a way of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the competition. The opening match of that event will be played in Uruguay, which hosted the inaugural 1930 finals, with the next two games to be staged in Argentina and Paraguay respectively before the rest of the tournament is played in the three main co-host countries.
Both the tournaments and 2030 centenary hosts were done by two votes separately. The first confirmed the hostship of Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina to the Centenary.
The Extraordinary FIFA Congress subsequently ratified the three co-hosts of 2030, while handing Saudi Arabia the 2034 event. Saudi Arabia was the only applicant for hosting the finals that will take place 10 years down the road. The Middle Eastern country and also the 2030 co-host received approval through online voting by acclamation from a FIFA Congress.
Saudi Arabia was the only interested party in the voting as the agreement for South America to stage the opening games in 2030, which was reached in October last year, paved the way for them to get the 2034 finals.
Saudi Arabia endorsed a desire to host on the same day the 2030 accord was published, with FIFA limiting further expressions of interest to nations from the Asian and Oceania confederations and setting a deadline of less than a month to declare that interest.
As FIFA expresses its willingness to take Saudi Arabia on board in hosting the event, many members have voiced disappointment in the choice because of controversy over claims of the regime's violation of human rights.
The Norwegian football federation said Tuesday it would abstain from any acclamation vote, and criticized the process followed by FIFA in deciding on 2030 and 2034 hosts as "flawed".
Human rights organisation Amnesty International said last week there had been a “deafening silence” from national governing bodies over Saudi’s hosting, compared to how many spoke out regarding Qatar’s staging of the 2022 finals.
The European countries also opposed the Saudi Arabia hosting the 2034 World Cup, citing their plans to stage the event in winter. Efforts to stage the 2034 finals in winter as a way of avoiding scorching daytime temperatures in the summer are likely to face opposition from Europe's domestic leagues, who are already party to a legal action against FIFA.
So, the war for 2034 did not end with FIFA making Saudi Arabia its choice; the battle will continue for some more years in courts as well as on international forums.
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