This is how Gianni Infantino will bring the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia

FIFA president Gianni Infantino's wish is about to come true: a World Cup in Saudi Arabia. How Valais achieves this goal.

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In fact, yesterday was just an executive announcement: the FIFA Congress approved the venues for the 2030 and 2034 World Cups without any objections. While the next edition of the tournament will be held in six countries across three continents, including Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina, by 2034 Saudi Arabia will be the only country to make peace.

But unlike the 2014 World Cup awards in Russia and Qatar that shocked the world, yesterday's announcement is no longer a surprise. After all, FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced the now confirmed host city a year ago on October 31, 2023.

In this Instagram post, Infantino essentially announced the World Cup awards.Bild: screenshot instagram

Perhaps the most important decision in global football was announced not on FIFA's official channel, but on Infantino's personal Instagram account. In the words of Star Wars villain Emperor Palpatine: “I am Senate FIFA. »

Image: giphy

a clever plan

At this time, the 25-day application period for interested candidates in 2030 and 2034 has just ended, with only one applicant per match. Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina actually want to submit their candidacy for the 2030 World Cup on the 100th anniversary of Uruguay's first World Cup. But Infantino and FIFA convinced the three countries to join Portugal, Spain and Morocco in their bids to host the anniversary games in their own countries.

This paves the way for Saudi Arabia to qualify for the 2034 World Cup. FIFA rules stipulate that after hosting the World Cup, a continental association is no longer eligible to host two World Cups. This means that North America, Europe, South America and Africa will all be excluded, with tournaments taking place in the United States, Canada and Mexico in 2026, and Super Candidacy in 2030. Oceania and Asia still exist.

Australia had also planned to participate, but was caught off guard when the application process unexpectedly opened with a 25-day deadline and withdrew. Saudi Arabia, for its part, immediately submitted a detailed application – a rogue who thought the desert nation had been notified in advance.

Big friends: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and FIFA President Gianni Infantino.Image: trapezoid

It has always been Infantino's dream to have Saudi Arabia host the World Cup. Oil money beckons. The Valais native initially advocated for the Saudis to join their not-always-popular neighbors Qatar in the 2022 World Cup. He then tried to persuade Italy, Greece and Egypt to form a coalition with the desert country until 2030. But this idea also failed.

Ignore rules and protest

In order to realize Infantino's dream, the 54-year-old from Valais rebuilt the world football federation to his own liking. After taking office as a reformer in 2016, he quickly ousted then-Secretary-General Fatma Samoura from power. As well as the powerful FIFA Council, he has staff on the FIFA Ethics Committee who are friendly to him. The committee was set up following the chaos surrounding Sepp Blatter and Russia and Qatar winning the World Cup.

Of course, one or two rules must be ignored, or at least changed slightly. In fact, since 2010, two World Cup events have not been allowed to be awarded on the same day in order to prevent an agreement between candidate countries. Nonetheless, this was done at yesterday's Extraordinary FIFA Congress.

There was no separate decision, not even a real vote. FIFA member states “approved” both candidate countries at the same time amidst applause, so there is no possibility of accepting 2030 and rejecting 2034.

Here too, the motivation is clear: if a vote were held, any negative votes against Saudi Arabia would become obvious. Infantino's friends responded with enthusiastic applause. Protest actions such as a letter from the Swiss football association SFV to FIFA were cleverly ignored.

Just as FIFA turned a deaf ear to the critical voices of human rights groups. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, for example, have strongly criticized the situation in Saudi Arabia. In addition to the lack of human rights for female members of the LGBTQ+ community, the latest major construction project in the Arabian Peninsula has killed more than 20,000 people.

Despite this, Saudi Arabia's World Cup candidacy was rated 4.2 out of 5 by FIFA – its highest-ever rating. In terms of human rights, the World Football Federation believes that there are only “moderate risks” to the success of this World Cup.

Infantino does what he wants

To be precise: Infantino made the world the way he liked it. According to Blick, he outsourced FIFA's legal department from Zurich to Miami and had his daughter's schooling paid for by his employer – despite his annual salary of more than 4 million Swiss francs.

In addition to the Saudi World Cup, Infantino's other major achievement is the Club World Cup with 32 teams participating next year. The Valais native is so obsessed with the event that his name is even mentioned on the new trophy. Beyond that, it's engraved there:

But there was a big problem in the Club World Cup. FIFA could not find any TV channels willing to pay for the rights – until DAZN recently made an offer. The British streaming provider offered the world association $1 million to broadcast the games. Here's the surprise: Saudi state fund PIF will soon join DAZN as a part owner holding about $1 billion in funds.

FIFA's statutes stipulate that Infantino must resign as president in 2031 – three years earlier than that seine The World Cup is held in Saudi Arabia. It will be interesting to see if he finds a loophole there.