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Last Wednesday, FIFA officially awarded Saudi Arabia the 2034 Men’s World Cup. Joining the United States, Canada, and Mexico in 2026 and a joint bid between Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay in 2030, Saudi Arabia will be the second-ever Middle Eastern country to host a World Cup, alongside Qatar in 2022.

Saudi Arabia’s bid was only one vote away from unanimous approval, with Norway being the only country of FIFA’s 211 member federations to vote against the hosting agreement. However, the reality is that this was never up for debate.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has spent the last several years systematically constructing a process to award the World Cup to Saudi Arabia. The most obvious sign was when FIFA unexpectedly announced its plan for the 2030 World Cup, adding Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay to the bid from Spain, Portugal, and Morocco.

Infantino talked about how this would unite football in a divided world, describing it as a historic event to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the World Cup. But with FIFA, there is almost always more to the story, and the implications were clear.

Each South American country was only awarded one match throughout the month-long tournament. But by dividing the 2030 World Cup among three continents — South America, Europe, and Africa — that left Asia and Oceania as the only FIFA federations eligible to host the tournament four years later, as FIFA rules state that confederation members must wait at least two World Cup cycles before hosting again.

Saudi Arabia then announced its intention to bid on the 2034 World Cup within an hour of FIFA’s 2030 announcement. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) backed Saudi Arabia’s hosting bid on the same day that they made it, and FIFA ended up shortening its typical multi-year bidding process to just four weeks.

Australia was also interested in hosting the 2034 World Cup but withdrew from consideration when it became obvious where the process was headed. Saudi Arabia was then the tournament’s only bidder, allowing them to secure the event unopposed.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has been aiming to host the World Cup since 2017. We have discussed the country’s Vision 2030 plan at length, with the main idea being that Saudi wants to diversify its economy away from oil by spending billions on sports to clean its global image and eventually increase tourism.

This is why the country’s $900 billion sovereign wealth fund has spent over $10 billion on sports investments over the last five years, including hosting agreements with Formula 1 and WWE, and ownership stakes in Newcastle United and LIV Golf.

But these investments are just an appetizer. The World Cup is the main course.

Crown Prince MBS has spent several years courting FIFA President Gianni Infantino. The two sat with Vladimir Putin during the opening match of the 2018 World Cup in Russia and did the same thing in Qatar in 2022. MBS and Infantino were also together during the Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua heavyweight title fight in 2022, and Infantino attended the Esports World Cup in Riyadh earlier this year.

This wasn’t just friendly banter. Real money has been exchanged. FIFA made an entirely new World Cup sponsor category so that Saudi-owned oil company Aramco could give them money. Saudi Arabia is also financially backing the 2025 Club World Cup in the United States, one of Infantino’s biggest initiatives as FIFA president. And nearly 50 FIFA member federations now have deals with Saudi Arabian entities.

Ultimately, this is why FIFA overlooked potential issues in awarding Saudi Arabia its first World Cup. Despite adding human rights to its hosting criteria a few years ago, FIFA gave Saudi Arabia an average score of 4.2 out of 5 — the highest score ever for a World Cup bid and higher than the 4.0 score received by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico for the 2026 World Cup.

The primary concern is that Saudi Arabia’s hosting agreement requires significant construction. For example, Saudi Arabia plans to build 11 new stadiums from scratch and renovate four existing ones. They must also build over 185,000 new hotel rooms and expand the country’s airport, rail, and transportation systems.

The size of the project makes this an ambitious task, but it gets even more complicated when you consider the scope. Some stadiums will seat over 90,000 people (King Salman Stadium in Riyadh), while others will be built 650 feet off the ground, perched over a cliff with a massive LED wall (Prince Mohammed bin Salman Stadium).

The renderings look like something out of a movie. This has caused many people to doubt whether Saudi Arabia can even pull this off over the next decade, as the country has already scaled back (and yet to finish) its new $1.5 trillion megacity, Neom.

Like its neighbor Qatar, Saudi Arabia employs many migrant workers. In fact, Human Rights Watch says Saudi Arabia is using 13.4 million migrant workers as the engine for its massive construction boom, representing 43% of the country’s population.

Offering temporary or seasonal jobs to people from other countries isn’t necessarily a problem. The problem is that there is an undeniable amount of evidence that points to these people being mistreated, including a worker from Nepal who told Human Rights Watch that he paid a $1,115 recruitment fee (at a 42 percent interest rate) for a job that required 13 hour days and paid $346 monthly (if he was even paid on time).

The truth is that even if we wanted to look past the bidding process and potential human rights concerns, the 2034 World Cup still has many unknowns.

Take timing, for instance. The FIFA Men’s World Cup is traditionally played in June or July, but Riyadh and Jeddah can reach temperatures of 100 degrees Fahrenheit during those months, so there is already speculation that Saudi Arabia will have to move the tournament to November, December, or January, like Qatar in 2022.

Saudi Arabia’s new stadiums may also become “white elephants” that are rarely used after the World Cup, if at all. Depending on the country, this happens sometimes with large international events like the Olympics and World Cup. However, Saudi Arabia is in a unique position, as they will spend billions to construct 11 brand-new stadiums, despite the Saudi Pro League averaging fewer than 8,000 fans per game this season.

And that’s without even mentioning the obvious question marks around the consumption of alcohol, which is currently prohibited throughout the country.

Some of these questions will be answered over the next few years. Saudi Arabia really has until 2027 to get its plan in order. But regardless of what the actual tournament looks like, it’s clear Saudi Arabia wouldn’t be hosting this event without FIFA’s help.

Crown Prince MBS has shamelessly used the country’s balance sheet to curry favor with the organization’s top executives. The World Cup represents a massive step in his larger Vision 2030 plan. Now, FIFA is just hoping they can follow through, finishing venues on time and hosting the tournament without any major problems.

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