2023-11-02 12:00:02
The announcement, Tuesday, October 31, by the International Football Federation (FIFA) of a single candidacy, that of Saudi Arabia, to host the World Cup in 2034 raises multiple questions about the process of designating the host country of one of the most watched sporting events on the planet.
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The official decision is expected at the end of 2024, but the outcome seems so obvious that it is more of a fait accompli than the open and transparent competition that it should be. The Saudi kingdom finds itself the only candidate after Australia’s withdrawal; the latter obviously judged that the trick was played after Indonesia’s decision to support Saudi Arabia rather than teaming up with it, as had been envisaged.
For several years now, FIFA has been making decisions that make this process less and less clear and more and more predetermined. If Australia and Saudi Arabia appeared to be the only ones in the running, it is because FIFA chose, on October 4, to reserve the 2034 World Cup for Asia-Oceania (which includes the Middle East). ), the body having awarded the 2030 World Cup to a group of countries which between them cover three continents, upsetting the tradition of geographical rotation. Spain, Portugal and Morocco will share the organization of the competition, but three matches will be played in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay – under the pretext that this will allow Uruguay to celebrate the centenary of the World Cup, contested for the first time in this country in 1930. By this remarkable sleight of hand, the 2030 World Cup will take place in Europe, Africa and Latin America at the same time, which opened the way for Asia-Oceania to 2034.
« MBS », roi du « sportswashing »
From then on, Saudi Arabia found itself in pole position. Its leader, Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Salman, known as “MBS”, aims to make the kingdom one of the great centers of all-round international sporting competition: golf, boxing, formula 1, and, of course, football, a sport very popular in the country and the Arab world in general. The hosting of world sports championships and the recruitment by local clubs of international football stars such as Neymar, Ronaldo and Karim Benzema have become a major asset of the kingdom’s soft power, at the same time as a tool of economic diversification for the oil monarchy, to the point that “MBS” was described as the king of “sportswashing”, this way of building respectability through sport.
The autocrat, constant target of human rights NGOs, does not hide his ambitions: “If sportswashing allows me to increase my GDP by 1%, I will not deprive myself of it, he said recently on Fox News. I’m aiming for 1.5%, call it what you want, but I’ll get there. »
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After the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, FIFA President Gianni Infantino carefully cultivated his relationship with “MBS”. Beyond legitimate criticism of the nature of the Saudi regime, however, this new controversy requires Mr. Infantino and FIFA, a huge profit machine, to explain much better than they have done until now how Decisions are made which, in defiance of all environmental priorities, favor the construction of refrigerated stadiums, disrupt the calendars of national competitions and force teams and spectators to increase the number of trips from one continent to another.
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