2034 FIFA World Cup

• 1. Introduction

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  The 2034 FIFA World Cup will be the 25th edition of football's world championship. It will make Saudi Arabia the second nation from the Arabian Peninsula to host the tournament within twelve years, following Qatar in 2022.

  FIFA confirmed the kingdom as host in December 2024, at the end of what was officially an uncontested bidding process. That single word, uncontested, invites a question: how does the biggest sporting event on the planet end up with a single bidder?

  The tournament has already drawn accusations of sportswashing and scrutiny of Saudi Arabia's human rights record before a single match has been played. What follows traces how Saudi Arabia became the only country on the ballot, and the stadiums now rising across the country. It also examines the human rights concerns raised by observers and workers' families, and the climate question that may force FIFA to move the calendar.

• 2. Clearing The Field

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  On the 4th of October 2023, FIFA opened the bidding process for the 2034 tournament under the same rules that governed the 2030 World Cup. Within months, FIFA lowered the requirement for existing 40,000-capacity stadiums from seven down to four. Because of FIFA's confederation rotation policy, only member associations from the Asian Football Confederation and the Oceania Football Confederation could bid. The 2026 World Cup was already set for North America. FIFA had also chosen three continents, Africa, Europe and South America, to jointly host the 2030 edition. Together, those decisions meant the 2034 tournament had to go to Asia or Oceania.

  On the 31st of October 2023, FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced that Saudi Arabia would host the 2034 World Cup. It made Saudi Arabia the third nation from the Asian Football Confederation to host the tournament. Japan and South Korea had hosted jointly in 2002, and Qatar hosted alone in 2022.

  According to investigative reporting by The New York Times, Infantino played a key role in Saudi Arabia's selection. He engaged in private diplomacy on the kingdom's behalf. He explored whether Greece would partner with Saudi Arabia to host the 2030 World Cup. When Spain, Portugal and Morocco announced a joint bid for 2030, the Saudis judged that bid unbeatable and withdrew their own.

  FIFA then made two moves that The New York Times described as "curious". It announced that the 2030 World Cup would be jointly hosted by Spain, Morocco and Portugal. But the first three matches would be played in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the first World Cup, held in Uruguay. That decision ruled Europe, Africa and South America out as bidders for 2034, leaving Asia and Oceania as the only eligible confederations. FIFA also gave interested nations just 25 days to declare their intent to host in 2034. Saudi Arabia announced its intentions within minutes.

  On the 11th of December 2024, FIFA confirmed Saudi Arabia as host during an Extraordinary FIFA Congress in Zürich, Switzerland. Delegates finalized the hosts for both the 2030 and 2034 tournaments in the same session, settling Saudi Arabia's bid by acclamation in the first round. That compressed timeline left little room for the human rights and labor questions that would soon follow Saudi Arabia's bid.

• 3. The Fifteen Stadiums

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  The bid book confirmed the official list of proposed stadiums on the 31st of July 2024. Saudi Arabia's plan spreads the tournament across five cities: Riyadh, Jeddah, Khobar, Neom and Abha. Fifteen stadiums will host matches in total, five of them renovated and ten newly built.

  Riyadh alone will hold seven of the stadiums. Among them is the King Salman International Stadium, a new build with a capacity of 92,760, the largest venue on the list. Jeddah, Khobar, Neom and Abha will each host the remaining grounds. Among them are the renovated King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah and the new Aramco Stadium in Khobar.

  Two FIFA Fan Festival locations are planned for each of the five host cities. The draw for the tournament's groups is set to take place at the Line Convention Center, located in The Line, in Neom.

• 4. Voices Against The Bid

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  The pressure FIFA applied on Qatar before the 2022 World Cup became the reference point for a new round of criticism aimed at Saudi Arabia. Law, human rights and Saudi activists asked FIFA to apply that same pressure over the kingdom's human rights record. The trade union Building and Wood Workers' International warned that awarding Saudi Arabia the tournament conflicted with its own conditions on human rights. The law firm Clifford Chance carried out its own assessment of human rights in the country. Eleven rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, criticized that report.

  On the 11th of November 2024, Amnesty International called on FIFA to halt the bidding process entirely, citing human rights concerns in Saudi Arabia. On the 21st of November, the labor group ITUC-Africa filed a United Nations complaint over the mistreatment of African migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. It warned that the tournament could deepen problems migrant workers already face.

  On the 25th of November 2024, United States Senators Ron Wyden and Dick Durbin urged FIFA not to award the tournament to Saudi Arabia. They cited risks to citizens, workers, athletes, tourists and members of the press, warning that women and LGBTQ people faced the greatest risk. Three days later, German MEP Daniel Freund and Danish MEP Niels Fuglsang criticized the bid's closed-door process. They suggested a boycott was the only way to prevent human rights violations.

  UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called on FIFA to keep human rights as its top priority throughout the tournament's preparation. FIFA responded on the 27th of January 2025 by rejecting calls for an independent group to monitor migrant workers' conditions. It said the Saudi government had already committed to its own workers' welfare system.

  Helene Elatr, the widow of the assassinated Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, asked FIFA to honor her late husband during the tournament. Khashoggi was killed in Istanbul in 2018, in a killing that allegations have linked to the Saudi government. In May 2025, lawyers Mark Pieth, Stefan Wehrenberg and Rodney Dixon filed an official complaint with FIFA. Their complaint argued the bidding process "failed to ensure that human rights standards were met". It said FIFA remains obligated to hold Saudi Arabia to those standards.

• 5. A Divided Football World

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  Norwegian Football Federation president Lise Klaveness criticized the closed nature of the bidding process. She noted that despite reforms after the 2015 FIFA corruption case, FIFA took few measures to ensure host nations met risk and human rights assessments. The Norwegian federation went on to abstain from the vote on the 11th of December. The Norwegian club Fredrikstad pressed its own federation to boycott the tournament outright.

  The Football Association in England said it would back Saudi Arabia, to avoid accusations of hypocrisy given its wish for England to take part. The Royal Belgian Football Association congratulated Saudi Arabia on its bid and voiced optimism that human rights conditions would improve. Denmark's federation, the DBU, struck a similar tone. Chairman Jesper Møller and secretary general Erik Brogger Rasmussen said they were optimistic conditions would improve by kickoff, pointing to the Saudi Vision 2030 program.

  The Swiss federation, known as the ASF-SFV, backed Saudi Arabia's bid but called for an independent human rights group to monitor the situation. Sweden's federation, the SvFF, backed the bid too, though not without cost: the decision triggered protest inside the federation and several resignations followed the vote. Germany's federation, the DFB, decided to support Saudi Arabia, framing its position as working to improve the human rights situation from within.

  German coach Julian Nagelsmann and German captain Joshua Kimmich said the team would not repeat the protest German players made in Qatar in 2022. Both said they intended to focus on the football itself. How this tournament treats the workers building it would soon become its most contested subject.

• 6. Migrant Labor

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  Migrant workers across the wider Gulf region, according to several NGOs, face harsh living conditions, discrimination and racism under the kafala sponsorship system. In Saudi Arabia specifically, the five largest groups of migrant workers come from India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Egypt.

  Amnesty International said the human cost of awarding Saudi Arabia the World Cup was high, warning bluntly that "many will die". In April 2026, the UN's human rights office, the OHCHR, called on Saudi Arabia to end the kafala system altogether. Despite the kingdom's earlier promise of labor reforms, the OHCHR found no such changes had materialized in the tournament's preparation.

  The first migrant worker death connected to the tournament was reported on the 12th of March 2025. Muhammad Arshad, a worker from Pakistan, died after falling from an upper level of the Aramco Stadium construction site in Khobar.

  In May 2025, the organizations FairSquare and Human Rights Watch reported that numerous migrant workers had died from causes including decapitation, electrocution and falls. Their report said Saudi authorities were failing to protect workers from preventable deaths. It also found failures to investigate workplace incidents and to compensate the families of those who died.

• 7. Alcohol And Emissions

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  On the 12th of February 2025, Prince Khalid bin Bandar Al Saud stated that alcohol would not be sold anywhere during the tournament, including hotels. Later reports suggested the ban would be lifted in 2026, permitting limited alcohol sales at tourist areas such as hotels and fan fests. Saudi authorities denied those reports.

  The group Fossil Free Football has raised a different objection, aimed at construction rather than alcohol. It argues the number of new stadiums being built will increase pollution. It also warns the tournament risks being used to greenwash Saudi Arabia's fossil fuel industry. None of that construction timeline accounts for the question FIFA has yet to resolve: what time of year the tournament will actually be played.

• 8. A Calendar In Question

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  The 2024-25 Saudi Pro League season runs from August until May, illustrating how Saudi Arabia's climate already pushes major sporting events into the cooler months. Between May and September, nighttime and daytime temperatures make outdoor sport particularly difficult across the country.

  Neighboring Qatar's climate closely resembles Saudi Arabia's. When Qatar hosted the 2022 World Cup, FIFA scheduled it for November and December to ensure comfortable playing conditions. That precedent has fueled speculation that the 2034 tournament in Saudi Arabia could follow a similar winter calendar.

  A winter World Cup would collide with European football, which typically runs from August to May. The 2022 tournament in Qatar had already interrupted that season once. Leagues in other parts of the world are less exposed. Competitions in China, Japan and Brazil do not run through the Northern Hemisphere winter at all. Leagues in Argentina, Colombia and Egypt start or end close enough to it that disruption stays minimal.

  Academic meta-analysis of major tournaments held mid-season within European club calendars found player performance actually improved compared with tournaments at other times of year. Commentators also judged the resulting games more entertaining, citing a higher quality of football on display.

  Fans accustomed to experiencing the World Cup in June and July voiced frustration when Qatar's edition moved to winter. But in regions where summer heat makes social viewing of the tournament difficult, the winter shift changed that. Those fans got to experience a World Cup that way for the first time.

  Ramadan falling in December could complicate the calendar, and Saudi Arabia is separately hosting the 2034 Asian Games in Riyadh that same November and December. The International Olympic Committee has said it sees no clash between the World Cup and the 2034 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. Those Olympics are currently scheduled for 10-the 26th of February 2034. Because of Ramadan, FIFA may still shift the tournament into January 2035, and president Gianni Infantino has said he is open to considering that change.