Concept designs for fifteen proposed stadiums including eleven new stadiums in Saudi Arabia have been unveiled as part of the country’s bid to host the 2034 World Cup.

The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) has released the bid books from countries which are bidding to host the 2030 and 2034 World Cup tournaments.

In terms of the 2034 event – which Saudi Arabia is set to host under a controversial bidding process under which the country was the only bidder – the bid involves plans for a massive program of new stadium building.

All up, the event will be held over five host cities.

This includes Riyadh, Jeddah, Al Khobar, Abha, and NEOM – the last of which will be one of the Kingdom’s most significant future city projects globally.

The five host cities will feature fifteen stadiums including four existing venues and eleven new stadiums.

Meanwhile, a total of 132 training venues are proposed across fifteen cities.

Of the 11 new stadiums, the largest will be the King Salman Stadium.

To be constructed in the capital of Riyadh, the venue will accommodate over 92,000 spectators and will host the opening and final matches of the tournament.

The stadium has been designed to blend into its surrounding topography, with terrain and natural habitat forming part of its roof.

After the tournament, it will remain the country’s predominate sports stadium and will be home to the national soccer team.

(artist impression of the King Salman Stadium)

Beyond this, NEOM Stadium aims to be one of the most unique stadiums in the world.

The stadium will offer a pitch that is situated more than 350 meters about the ground and a roof which is literally created from the city itself.

It will form a signature landmark on The Line – a linear, three-dimensional smart city which is being designed to have no cars, no streets and no carbon emissions.

The release of the bid book comes as Saudi Arabia is undergoing a massive program of construction as part of the Saudi Arabian Government’s Vison 2030 program.

This vision aims to transform the Kingdom’s economy away from oil dependence and is focused upon tourism, entertainment and urban development.

The unveiling of the bid books comes as host nations prepare to host the 2030 and 2034 World Cups.

The 2030 is set to be hosted jointly  by Spain, Morocco and Portugal with Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay also commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the first World Cup in Uruguay.

By contrast, the 2034 World Cup is set to be hosted by entirely by Saudi Arabia – which was the only nation to submit a bid in time for FIFA’s deadline of October 2023.

This will be the first time that the 48-team tournament has been staged in a single city.

FIFA will now evaluate the bid books before making a final decision at its FIFA Congress to be held in December.

With no alternative bids for the 2034 event, however, the final decision is considered a formality.

(Qidda Coast Stadium)

Human Rights Controversy

In its bid book, Saudi Arabia says it intends to host an ‘unforgettable World Cup experience that will be reimagined for an ‘inspired and united global community’.

It says that Saudi Arabia enjoys a strategic location which links three continents and serves as a hub to bring together cultures and geographies.

However, selection of Saudi Arabia as the host has generated controversy.

The selection process itself has been somewhat bizarre.

In selecting the host for the 2034 event, FIF restricted eligibility to either Asia or Oceania and unexpectedly sped up the bidding timeline by at least three years.

Both of these measures had the impact of reducing potential competing bids.

FIFA also lowered the requirement for the number of existing stadiums with a minimum capacity of 40,000 from seven to four.

Meanwhile, the selection of Saudi Arabia has been criticised on account of the Kingdom’s record on human rights.

According to FIFA’s bigging regulations, all bid need to meet a wide range of  international human rights standards in order to be accepted. These include standards on labour rights, discrimination, forced evictions, freedom of expression, policing and other issues.

As part of its bid, Saudi Arabia published a human rights strategy, which outlined how it plans to address these matters.

However, human rights organisations have blasted the selection of Saudia Arabia as the host, warning that this may mean that the event is blighted to forced labour, repression and discrimination.

In a statement following the release of the bid book, Amnesty International says that the aforementioned human rights strategy failed to address critical concerns.

This includes an exploitative labour system, restrictions on freedom of expression, repression of human rights activists and laws which discriminate against women and LGBTI people.

“FIFA set clear human rights standards that any bidding country must meet, yet it is clear that Saudi Arabia’s bid for the 2034 World Cup currently falls far short,” said Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s Head of Labour Rights and Sport.

“The bid’s human rights plan simply ignores many of the enormous risks associated with hosting a mega sporting event in a country with such an atrocious human rights record.

“Saudi Arabia’s World Cup human rights plan says nothing about the brutal muzzling of human rights activists or criminalization of LGBTI people, nor does it outline whether or how it will put an end in practice to the abusive Kafala system that exploits migrant workers. It is astonishing that such blatant risks can be so flagrantly ignored.

“Without urgent action to improve Saudi Arabia’s human rights protections, it is highly likely that the 2034 World Cup will be blighted by forced labour, repression and discrimination – with a brutal human cost.

“FIFA must now work with the Saudi authorities to obtain legally binding agreements to address the human rights risks in full before any final decision is made in December, or be prepared to walk away. The Saudi authorities should also demonstrate a commitment to human rights by releasing activists who have been imprisoned solely for expressing their opinion.”

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