FIFA has relaxed stadium requirements for the 2034 World Cup, it has been reported The Guardian. It appears that the football association has done this to accommodate Saudi Arabia, according to what is said in the corridors.
To organize the 2030 World Cup, a country must be able to offer fourteen stadiums, seven of which have already been built. For the global final tournament four years later, only four stadiums need to be built.
The 2034 World Cup will in any case be organized in Asia or Oceania, due to FIFA’s rotation policy. Saudi Arabia quickly announced that it wants to organize the final tournament and is using (major) players from the Saudi Pro League to get public opinion on board.
For example, Riyad Mahrez, Karim Benzema and Steven Gerrard – who is in charge of Al-Ettifaq – recently posted positive messages about the possible World Cup in Saudi Arabia on social media.
It is known that Neymar receives tons of money for every positive message he posts about the country on social media.
To organize a World Cup, the organizing country needs stadiums with at least 40,000 seats. A stadium with between 60,000 and 80,000 seats must be present for the (semi) final.
Saudi Arabia will organize the Asian Cup in 2027 and will have four stadiums with at least 40,000 seats: two in Riyadh (which are still being renovated), one in Jeddah and one in Dammam, construction of which started last month.