2034 Men’s World Cup

[forameus]

We could be looking forward to a tournament taking place with essentially bottomless pockets, where every mad-shit idea could get realised when it comes to the tournament.  The infrastructure can be absolutely shit hot, and it very well could be the most well-organised and seamless tournament there has ever been.

But no.  Instead, Saudi will likely build their stadiums with cut-price labour at best, and slave labour at worst.  They will end up putting on a technically great tournament, as Qatar did, but you can't separate all that from all the other horrible stuff very easily.  Even if you leave aside all the humanitarian or human rights stuff, even the basic award is tainted, with FIFA clearly pissing all over the usual rules to make absolutely sure that Saudi Arabia got the bid.  What a waste of an opportunity.

EDIT: And should also add, a sad amount of credit goes to Australia in all this. They could have fought it, sunk billions of dollars into a bid, but they've realised what a lot of other countries probably wouldn't have.  This is all fucked, and they stood absolutely no chance.  May as well just wave the white flag and save your money.

Edited November 1, 2023 by forameus

[HibeeJibee]

Will their bid still be voted on... or will it just be OK'd by default, as only 1 bid?

If there is a vote, it'll be interesting to see whether western FAs - including SFA - vote in favour, against, or abstain.

[Granny Danger]

5 hours ago, Sherrif John Bunnell said:

I doubt Budweiser will be renewing their World Cup sponsorship for this one.

Beheadings R Us poised to step in.

[Guest]

A non human rights question. Does their third biggest city miss out on hosting or do they let non-muslims in when there's wads of cash involved?

[tamthebam]

2 hours ago, Autistisches Nilpferd said:

A non human rights question. Does their third biggest city miss out on hosting or do they let non-muslims in when there's wads of cash involved?

If they host Morocco v Egypt or similar then sorted. 

If they host Israel v North Korea then that might be a problem. 

Talking of things Islamic it would be interesting if the sworn enemy of the Saudis, Iran, qualified.

 

[DG.Roma]

11 hours ago, Musketeer Gripweed said:

And the only reason a handful of games in 2030 were going to South America was to clear the way for KSA. FIFA need cleared out. Infantino is a disgraceful, horrible character. Definitely in the right job.

2030 should be South America and only South America for the Centenary. They've got three countries involved, no excuse. Europe for 2034, then Australia or Asia for 2038.

There's really no argument or desire to fast track Saudi onto 2034. I can't imagine any fans outside of the Middle East want it there. No authorities that use the standard calendar would want another winter tournament. The only reason it's going there is the obvious one.

[eez-eh]

Today I feel like bathing in wads of Saudi cash.

[topcat(The most tip top)]

On 31/10/2023 at 21:41, the snudge said:

The euros hold more prestige and are far more interesting anyway. 

Ideally UEFA invite the top 4  South American Teams as guests to a separate tournament in 2034 and everybody sends their reserves to Saudi Arabia




 

[topcat(The most tip top)]

15 hours ago, Autistisches Nilpferd said:

A non human rights question. Does their third biggest city miss out on hosting or do they let non-muslims in when there's wads of cash involved?

I checked this out and the Stadium in Mecca is about 15 miles out of town near the airport

It's technically in Mecca the same way that Aberdeen's proposed Kingsford stadium was going to be in Aberdeen


 

[HibeeJibee]

FIFA also 'bent' their own eligibility rules: bidders were required to have 7 existing 40k+ stadiums.

They've reduced this to 4 and accepted 'works in progress' as counting.

Saudi have... why 4... being 2 in Riyadh (of which 1 is currently being expanded from 22k) + 1 in Jeddah + 1 in Damnan (newbuild begun 2 months ago).

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

Under the FIFA rotation rules, does this mean that North America has to host again in 2038?

[Savage Henry]

22 minutes ago, HibeeJibee said:

FIFA also 'bent' their own eligibility rules: bidders were required to have 7 existing 40k+ stadiums.

They've reduced this to 4 and accepted 'works in progress' as counting.

Saudi have... why 4... being 2 in Riyadh (of which 1 is currently being expanded from 22k) + 1 in Jeddah + 1 in Damnan (newbuild begun 2 months ago).

The Dammam stadium is like Hampden only cheaper.  It’ll need one hell of an upgrade. 

[Melanius Mullarkey]

4 minutes ago, Savage Henry said:

The Dammam stadium is like Hampden only cheaper.  It’ll need one hell of an upgrade. 

Christ that looks terrible.

Almost as bad as Almondvale. 

[eez-eh]

23 minutes ago, Sherrif John Bunnell said:

Under the FIFA rotation rules, does this mean that North America has to host again in 2038?

Not if the Fiji and Samoa joint bid has anything to say about it.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

1 minute ago, eez-eh said:

Not if the Fiji and Samoa joint bid has anything to say about it.

Imagine that.

Still better than Hampden mind you.

[Sherrif John Bunnell]

I can't believe it took 65 minutes for the bank transfer to make it's way from Riyadh to Zurich.

 

 

[HibeeJibee]

New Zealand has plenty fine stadiums:






















as do places like Papua New Guinea:






Solomon Islands:




Fiji:






Samoa:




but clearly no chance they'd prevail against USA and their $ draw.

[craigkillie]

15 hours ago, DG.Roma said:

2030 should be South America and only South America for the Centenary. They've got three countries involved, no excuse. Europe for 2034, then Australia or Asia for 2038.

There's really no argument or desire to fast track Saudi onto 2034. I can't imagine any fans outside of the Middle East want it there. No authorities that use the standard calendar would want another winter tournament. The only reason it's going there is the obvious one.

This "standard calendar" is only standard in the context of Europe, and even here not every country uses it. I don't think we should be stopping countries from hosting the World Cup just because their climate (or even their culture) is prohibitive to a summer tournament - if Saudi Arabia was a democratic, peaceful and progressive nation who wanted to hold it in December, then I don't see why that shouldn't be considered as an option. The issue is about the country itself.

[Musketeer Gripweed]

I would say the issue is more about the corrupt nature on the governing body who have awarded it to the country. They are not even hiding it now. At least Platini and Blatter were held to account eventually. Infantino is taking the pish now.

[forameus]

I don't really think the calendar issue is too bad, particularly if you stick to it early enough without all the humming and hawing there was around what they were going to do in Qatar.  As Craig says, plenty of other calendars have to deal with the "traditional" timing, so if they're determined to hold it somewhere where player welfare would be aided by holding it in December (preferably not with the other issues) then there shouldn't really be a block on that.  Maybe this time they can realise that there are just too many games, and by the time we get to 2034 the calendar is such that we don't get three seasons of complete chaos surrounding it.

And it is amusing in a sad way how there was all this clamour (rightly, to be fair) around Blatter and co taking the absolute pish.  Infantino comes in after the "clean-up", and has so far been, at best, just as bad, and if not significantly worse than that.  At least when Chuck Blazer was motoring from buffet to buffet on his mobility scooters it seemed to just be plain self-interest on staying on the gravy train. It's all gotten quite insidious now.