Saudi Arabia unveils stadium plans for 2034 football World Cup it’s set to host

Saudi Arabia plans to have 15 football stadiums ready for the men’s FIFA World Cup 2034, as the country prepares to be officially announced as the host in the coming months.

It’s announced five cities for games. Beyond Riyadh, the capital, the others will be Jeddah, Al Khobar, Abha, and Neom, an entirely new urban area in the north-west of the country. All stadiums — some built from scratch and others upgraded — will have over 40,000 seats, as per the FIFA requirements.

They’ll have the “latest technologies that will give great experience to all the fans,” Yasser Al Misehal, president of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, said in an interview.

Riyadh, also set to hold the 2030 World Expo, will host the opening and final matches at King Salman Stadium, which will be able to accommodate over 92,000 spectators once constructed.

Saudi Arabia was until just a few years ago an unlikely host for a global event on the scale of the World Cup. The Kingdom was largely closed off to foreign holidaymakers until around five years ago, when Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman accelerated plans to diversify the economy from oil.

Sports, tourism and entertainment are key pillars of his Vision 2030 plan to transform the country. Its put huge sums into its local football league, which is now the home of players including Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and ex-French international Karim Benzema.

MBS has also spearheaded efforts to invest trillions of dollars in everything from electric vehicles to microchips and mining. While the government has had to scale back or delay some of these plans, the World Cup would be considered a priority project.

Saudi Arabia is expected to be confirmed as the 2034 host at a FIFA executive meeting in December. It would be the second World Cup in the Gulf, after neighboring Qatar hosted in 2022. While that tournament was held in November and December — Qatar’s winter — to beat the heat, Saudi Arabia says it will be prepared to hold the tournament during any months.

Major cities such as Riyadh and Jeddah regularly experience temperatures of 40C (104F) in July and August.

“We will have discussions with the FIFA and other confederations about the timing and we are ready to host it at anytime,” said Al Misehal.

The Kingdom said it plans to have more than 230,000 rooms available across the five host cities for fans and the teams.

Saudi Arabia was also chosen to host the 2027 Asian Football Cup, and the 2029 Asian Winter Games at a mountain resort in Neom.