Australia won’t bid for 2034 World Cup, clears way for Saudi،
The Australian Football Federation has announced it will not bid for the 2034 men’s World Cup, paving the way for Saudi Arabia to host the tournament.
FIFA had launched a call for applications from Asia and Oceania for the tournament, with the deadline set for October 31 for national associations to confirm their interest in hosting the tournament. Football Australia boss James Johnson had previously expressed interest in a 2034 bid, but the governing body said it would focus on bids for other international competitions.
“We explored the possibility of submitting a bid to host the FIFA World Cup and, after taking into account all factors, we came to the conclusion not to do so for the 2034 competition,” said Tuesday Football Australia in a statement.
Saudi Arabia announced it would submit its bid for 2034 just minutes after FIFA’s call for tenders for Asia and Oceania earlier this month.
The president of the Asian Football Confederation, the sport’s continental governing body to which Australia belongs, welcomed Saudi Arabia’s bid and said “the entire Asian football family” would be united in supporting it .
Football Australia’s hopes of following this year’s Women’s World Cup, co-hosted with New Zealand, appeared dead in the water as soon as the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) backed the Saudi bid.
A glimmer of hope appeared when the Indonesian football federation expressed interest in a joint bid with Australia earlier this month, but it faded when it backed Saudi Arabia a few days later.
Australia will instead attempt to secure the hosting rights for the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup and the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup, the latter of which is a tournament Saudi Arabia has also applied for.
“We believe we are in a strong position to host the world’s oldest women’s international competition, the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup, and then host the biggest teams in world football for the Club World Cup of FIFA 2029,” Football Australia said.
“Achieving this goal – following the Australia and New Zealand Women’s World Cup in 2023 and with the Brisbane Olympics in 2032 – would represent a truly golden decade for Australian football.”
Football Australia said this would be “supported by the opportunity for our men’s and women’s teams to compete in major tournaments” – World Cups, Asian Cups, Olympics and Under-20 World Cups.
The last time Australia attempted to host a men’s World Cup, the $46 million bid to host the 2022 tournament received just one vote of support.
Only Asia or Oceania could apply for 2034, FIFA having accepted only one candidate for 2030: an application from six countries spread across three confederations: Europe, Africa and South America .
The Spain-Portugal bid expanded to include Morocco this year and now plans to play a match in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Information from Reuters and AAP contributed to this report
