Saudi Arabia becomes sole bidder for 2034 World Cup after Australia drops out

Football Australia has announced it will not be hosting the 2034 World Cup, hours before FIFA's deadline for bids passed — paving the way for Saudi Arabia to do so. 

"We have explored the opportunity to bid to host the FIFA World Cup and – having taken all factors into consideration – we have reached the conclusion not to do so for the 2034 competition," a statement from the country's sports governing body read.

Instead, Football Australia will focus on hosting the AFC Women's Asian Cup 2026 as well as the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup. 

"For international tournament hosting, the Australian time zones provide significant opportunities for broadcasters, and we are within touching distance of billions of people in Asia and Oceania, which also helps to provide a strong commercial outlook for competitions," Football Australia said.

FIFA had previously announced that the tournament would take place in either Asia or Oceania and Tuesday was the last day for countries to submit a bid. Australia's decision to pull out leaves Saudi Arabia as the only declared candidate.

The Gulf country has made its interest in hosting the 2034 tournament well-known, getting support from members of the Asian Football Confederation, including Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Lebanon, India and Japan, reported The Associated Press earlier this month.

"Japan has a plan to host the FIFA World Cup by 2050 but now it's time for Asia to get united and make a single bid [for 2034]," Japanese federation official Tsuneyasu Miyamoto said, praising Saudi Arabia for a "long football history, massive passion and a wonderful vision for 2034."

Despite such strong support, Saudi Arabia will likely be viewed as a controversial host, with human rights organizations preemptively decrying the move. 

Human Rights Watch published a post on its website last week, decrying the possible — now likely — 2034 host. 

"The possibility that FIFA could award Saudi Arabia the 2034 World Cup despite its appalling human rights record and closed door to any monitoring exposes Fifa's commitments to human rights as a sham," said Minky Worden, director of global initiatives.

On Tuesday, Amnesty International pushed for "human rights commitments" with any potential hosts before a final decision is made.

"FIFA must now make clear how it expects hosts to comply with its human rights policies," Steve Cockburn, the charity's head of economic and social justice, said. "It must also be prepared to halt the bidding process if serious human rights risks are not credibly addressed.

"The best chance for FIFA to obtain binding guarantees to protect workers' rights, ensure freedom of expression and prevent discrimination linked to the World Cup is during the host selection process — not after the hosts have been confirmed and tournament preparation has begun."

The country draws frequent criticism for its prolific use of the death penalty, executing 147 people last year, according to an AFP tally. Eighty-one people were put to death on a single day for offenses related to "terrorism," sparking an international outcry.

The 2018 killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the Saudi government, hurt the country's reputation.

Michael Roppolo

Michael Roppolo is a CBS News reporter. He covers a wide variety of topics, including science and technology, crime and justice, and disability rights.

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