While the football federations have until Tuesday October 31, 11:59 p.m., to declare themselves candidates, to the International Football Federation (FIFA), for the organization of the 2034 World Cup, one of between them has, on the contrary, just withdrawn. Early in the morning, the Australian federation announced on X (formerly Twitter) that it was officially refusing to host the event. “We studied the possibility of submitting a bid to host the FIFA World Cup and, after taking into account all factors, we decided not to do so for the competition organized in 2034,” announces the federation in its press release.
At the beginning of October, Australia had nevertheless reported working on a project for the organization of this World Cup. A week later, she even considered a joint ticket with Indonesia. Erick Thohir, the president of the Indonesian federation, explained that Australia was “leaving” for a joint candidacy with his country, since “discussions during the last FIFA congress”organized in March, in Rwanda.
Read also: 2034 World Cup: Indonesia and Australia consider joint bid against Saudi Arabia
Finally, after the change of position of the Indonesian federation, which supported the Saudi candidacy around ten days ago, Australia decided to throw in the towel. It justifies this decision by a desire to concentrate on the organization of the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup and the 2029 Club World Cup. The federation added that “Achieving this, following the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, would represent a truly golden decade for Australian football”.
Free field for Saudi Arabia
Thanks to this withdrawal, Saudi Arabia is now extremely favored to host this World Cup. After the designation, on October 4, of Spain, Morocco and Portugal as hosts of the 2030 edition (with the organization of three matches in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay), FIFA launched a call for candidatures for the 2034 tournament. By virtue of the principle of rotation of the continents, the Asian and Oceanic confederations hold the rope for the organization of this edition.
Read also: The 2030 FIFA World Cup will take place in Morocco, Spain and Portugal
A few minutes after this call, Saudi Arabia, which had already positioned itself to organize the 2030 World Cup, confirmed that it would be a candidate for 2034. The Saudis then immediately received the support of the Asian Football Confederation, which which already placed them in the position of big favorite to organize the competition.
Like Qatar in 2022, the country intends to make this World Cup a powerful tool of soft power. In a press release published on X, the Saudi federation announced on October 4 that it “plans to offer a world-class tournament and [qu’elle] will draw inspiration from Saudi Arabia’s ongoing social and economic transformation, and the country’s deep-rooted passion for football.” Although the suspense is now almost zero, the organizer of the 2034 edition should be officially revealed at the end of 2024 by FIFA.
Read the editorial: Saudi Arabia: football serving the ambitions of “MBS”
