Football fans around the globe will likely be heading to the Middle East again for 2034 World Cup, MySportDab reports.
FIFA decided to host the tournament in Oceania or Asia and had invited bids from all interested countries who want to host the tournament from the two continental associations.
The deadline for all bid for the tournament to fall in was today October 31, 2023.
According to reports reaching us from BBC, two countries – Saudi Arabia and Australia – were leading the race to host the prestigious sports event.
With the deadline for submission of bids set to elapse today, it has been confirmed Saudi Arabia are the only country standing to host the tournament.
Australia have withdrawn from the race, leaving Saudi Arabia with an express lane to win the hosting rights as they had no rival bid any longer.
Australia FA confirmed they have pulled out of the race to host the tournament as they are eyeing other FIFA tournaments.
Their withdrawal comes just hours before the deadline set by FIFA for entertaining bids elapses today.
Saudi Arabia will now be the second Asian country to host FIFA Men’s World Cup after Qatar successfully hosted the tournament in 2022.
The emergence of Saudi Arabia as the only option for FIFA has been met with mixed reactions with some pundits blasting the country for an attempt to gloss over their poor human right records by engaging the global community through sports.
Saudi Arabia have recently made the spotlight with their money-spinning recruitments and signings into Saudi Pro League.
They have poached several high-profile footballers from Europe since last summer with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante, Sadio Mane, Jordan Henderson, and others all plying their trade with different clubs in Saudi Arabia.
Hosting the 2034 World Cup will be another big milestone for the country in their attempt to modernize football in the country.
