Saudi Arabia’s official bid book detailing its plans to stage the 2034 Fifa World Cup has left plenty to the imagination, with eight of the listed stadiums yet to be built and no details offered on the tournament’s timing.
Saudi Arabia was positioned as the only bidder to host the 2034 World Cup after Football Australia dropped its plans ahead of Fifa’s October deadline to lodge expressions of intent. Now, the Kingdom has laid bare its bold ambitions for the tournament yesterday (Wednesday) in a published 125-page bid book that is big on stunning stadium renderings and light on details such as ‘when’ and ‘how much’.
Saudi Arabia is intending to stage the 48-team tournament in 15 stadia across just five cities: Riyadh, Jeddah, Al Khobar, Abha and Neom – the latter of which itself does not even exist. In total, 11 of the venues are either planned or in the process of being built, with the remaining four requiring refurbishment or improvements.
An additional 10 cities will be used to host training bases, while the bid proposes a total of 134 training sites across Saudi Arabia: 61 existing facilities and 73 newly built venues.
The lack of existing infrastructure is not unprecedented for a bid of this nature. Qatar, too, had very little stadium infrastructure in place when it released its own bid book for the 2022 Fifa World Cup but delivered the tournament as promised, receiving plenty of rebuke for the working conditions faced by those building the stadiums.
Saudi Arabia’s infrastructure commitment is set to outstrip even that undertaken by Qatar, given it is staging a 48-team tournament. This is opposed to the latter’s 32-team event played in eight venues across five cities.
Saudi Arabia’s 2034 bid book states that all new stadia will be completed between 2026 and 2032, but gave no indication of how much the project would cost – a genuine concern for the Kingdom at present. It is currently cutting billions of dollars in spending on some of its biggest development projects, including Neom, and has placed other plans on hold as its vast economic makeover proves difficult to control.
Financial media outlet Bloomberg reported two weeks ago that a government committee led by the Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman is close to completing a major review of mega projects, with Neom expected to be allocated 20 per cent less than its targeted budget for this year.
Other developments being curtailed include Qiddiya Coast, an unannounced tourism and entertainment project in Jeddah on the Red Sea that at one point had a potential budget of $50bn.
In December, it was announced that some projects would be delayed or brought forward after the government reviewed its ability to finance its commitments without affecting its credit rating.
Projects in Riyadh have become a priority ahead of Saudi Arabia’s hosting of first the World Expo in 2030 and then the 2034 Fifa World Cup, with the capital to house eight of the 15 tournament venues: of which five are in the planning process, one is already under construction and another two being redevelopments of existing facilities.
The Royal Commission for Riyadh City and Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Sport this week unveiled plans for what will become one of the world’s largest stadiums, the 92,000-seater capacity King Salman Stadium. The stadium would host the World Cup opening game and final, later becoming the national stadium for Saudi Arabia’s national team.
Meanwhile, the new Neom Stadium will be situated more than 350 metres above ground and located in The Line, a proposed 106-mile-long linear city featuring two parallel skyscrapers connected by walkways, stretching across desert and mountains.
Refurbishments are planned for the existing four stadiums: King Saud University Stadium, King Abdullah Sports City Stadium, King Khalid University Stadium and King Fahad Sports City Stadium.
Calendar conundrum
One of the most controversial elements of Qatar 2022 was the decision to move the tournament from its traditional months of June and July to November and December. That officially came in February 2015, more than four years after the Gulf state was awarded the tournament.
In its bid book, Saudi Arabia has given no public indication of when it would like to stage the World Cup, noting that decision would be taken in partnership with Fifa and all stakeholders.
It said factors to be taken into account include: climatic conditions; the schedule of other sporting events in Saudi Arabia and globally; and important religious events both within Saudi Arabia and around the world, noting that Ramadan and the annual Hajj pilgrimage
“need to be taken into account”.
This year’s Hajj took place from June 14-19 – traditionally when a World Cup would be under way – and drew some 1.5 million visitors.
Hundreds of people are thought to have died during the Hajj pilgrimage this year, most of them due to extreme heat as temperatures soared past 51C (123F).
The Saudi bid book details average temperatures in the proposed host cities in June, July, and August of mid-30 degrees Celsius, except in the cooler Abha. It also cited average temperatures between 15 and 26 degrees Celsius depending on the city between December and February.
In addition to Saudi 2034, the bid books for the 2030 World Cup were submitted by the proposed hosts of Spain, Portugal and Morocco, with the first three matches of the tournament be hosted by South American countries Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Fifa will assess both bids and publish its evaluation report in the fourth quarter of this year.