Football must change now after Saudi Arabia 2034 exposes ‘failure’ at the very top

After Australia confirmed they would not bid for the 2034 World Cup to leave Saudi Arabia as the sole candidate, a number of “concerned” football officials said they would wait to publicly speak until the bid process became clearer. Then, a few hours later, Fifa president Gianni Infantino appeared to confirm it all on his Instagram account.

“The next two editions of the Fifa World Cup are set to be hosted in Africa (Morocco) and Europe (Portugal and Spain) – with three celebratory matches played in South America (Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) – in 2030 and in Asia (Saudi Arabia) in 2034.”

It was seen as an interesting way to announce what is one of football’s major decisions. So much for going to the member associations for ratification, for a confirmation that was scheduled to come in the fourth quarter of 2024… A decision that very few in football seem to actually want has involved very little discussion at all, at least in public. Like the 2030 World Cup that paved the way for it, it has almost been imposed on the game.

That is despite the reality that Saudi Arabia 2034 will involve most of the same discussions as Qatar, but on a completely different scale.

The bidding terms were already altered so the kingdom only needed to have four of the 14 required 40,000-seater stadiums, but that means 10 new arenas have to be built. That will involve the same migrant labour system that was such a core criticism of Qatar, but without yet any of the reforms. Saudi Arabia meanwhile has a far more criticised human rights record than its smaller neighbour with far graver issues like capital punishment now coming to the fore. That is because the kingdom is way behind Qatar in terms of progressive reforms, which will foster a much more difficult conversation about women’s rights and who actually feels comfortable attending the World Cup.

But corruption? The accusations of bribery that shrouded how the 2022 World Cup was won? There’s no need to get into any of that because it’s all been so smooth, which of course brings us to the modern Fifa, as well as the very governance of football in the 21st century.

While Sepp Blatter was actively against Qatar getting the World Cup in 2022, it is pretty clear that Infantino looked on this favourably.

It has come as part of strengthening the relationship with the kingdom and Mohammed bin Salman, amid an alignment of ambitions. The crown prince has sought to make the sport a core of his Vision 2030 reform, in part for its immense global popularity, in part for his country’s genuinely vivacious football culture.

Infantino is meanwhile seeking to evolve Fifa and the greatest part of that is harnessing the immense power of the club game. A World Cup is only every four years, after all. The club game is all the time and everywhere.

“How many people outside of Italy are supporting the Italian national team,” Infantino pondered in October 2019. “Not many, but when you look at how many people are supporting Real Madrid or Barcelona in Spain, this goes much beyond the Spanish borders. These are hundreds of millions of people all around the world…”

Eyeing the huge revenues of the Champions League, Infantino has wanted his own version, which is why the Club World Cup is to be expanded to 32 teams from 2025. To make that as glamorous as Uefa’s showpiece event, though, the Fifa president knows he needs the big European names. So he needs funding to make it attractive, especially when previous talk has been about offers of £80m for competing.

Saudi Arabia is one of a few states from the global south that have been doing more business with Fifa. A sponsorship deal with Visit Saudi for the Women’s World Cup – ironically held in Australia and New Zealand – already caused a player revolt. Saudi money meanwhile formed part of a Softbank fund that was supposed to finance the previous version of this tournament.

From all this, a path has been smoothed for Saudi Arabia to get what it really wants, which is the World Cup. The stadium rules were changed. Rivals were taken out of the running. The Saudis had previously been in the running for 2030, which already had Morocco-Spain-Portugal offering a persuasive commercial argument and Argentina-Paraguay-Uruguay offering a persuasive romantic argument due to the centenary of the first World Cup in Montevideo.

From what was potentially the most split voting process of all, a much cleaner solution was raised.

The South American countries would get three games to recognise the centenary, and the rest of that World Cup would be held in Morocco-Spain-Portugal. Given Fifa’s continental rotation rules and how 2026 is to be staged in Canada-Mexico-USA, that left only Asian and Oceania countries eligible for 2034. Asia quickly fell in behind Saudi Arabia and it should be noted that Infantino has long built a strong alliance with the Asian confederation. They vote for him as a bloc, in presidential elections that don’t actually have competitors.

Rather than the transparency that was supposed to define World Cup democracy after the scandals of 2018-22, football was effectively presented with one choice, all the major moves having taken place in meetings behind closed doors.

The point to all of this is not to already have the discussion surrounding Saudi Arabia or other World Cups. It is about, as various sources put it, “the failure of football governance”.

It certainly doesn’t feel like true democracy and this is regarding decisions that change the face of the entire game.

So, amid all of the discussion about Saudi Arabia, the wonder is why there is not more debate about football’s presidential structure just not working for the sport.

Xural.com