Saudi Arabia was officially named the hosts for the 2034 FIFA World Cup, opening the path for further sporting events in the Kingdom.
Yet questions remain about the specifics of the tournament in Asia and the 2030 edition, which will be co-hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco, with three games in South America.
Some of the questions that need answering in the years to come:
Where will the games be played?
Saudi Arabia have proposed 15 stadiums — eight still to be built — in five cities: Eight in the capital Riyadh, four in Jeddah, and one each in Abha, Al Khobar and Neom. Each stadium is planned to host at least 40,000 fans.
The opener of the tournament and the final are set for a 92,000-seater venue planned in Riyadh. In Neom, the stadium is planned 350 meters above street level and one near Riyadh is designed to be atop a 200-meter cliff with a retractable wall of LED screens.
Saudi Arabia wish to host all 104 games, even though there has been speculation that some games could be played in neighbouring or nearby countries.
When will the World Cup be played?
Much like the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the one in Saudi Arabia cannot be hosted in the traditional period of June-July, when temperatures in the country routinely exceed 40 degrees Celsius.
To deal with the heat, FIFA had moved the Qatar-hosted World Cup to November-December, though it resulted in plenty of shifting of the calendar for the European clubs and leagues whose seasons were interrupted.
That slot is further complicated in 2034 by the holy month of Ramadan through mid-December and Riyadh also hosting the multi-sport Asian Games.
That opens up the possibility of the tournament taking place in January 2034 even though that would be just before the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has suggested it won’t be opposed to back-to-back major events.
Saudi World Cup bid official Hammad Albalawi said the precise dates of the 2034 FIFA World Cup are up the global body.
“That’s a decision by FIFA. We stand ready to be part of this conversation. But ultimately it’s a FIFA decision together with the confederations,” Albalawi said in an interview to The Associated Press.
Will stadiums be segregated for men and women?
Giving more rights and freedom to women in a traditionally conservative society is fundamental to Saudi Arabia’s messaging around the modernisation program known as Vision 2030.
In 2017, Saudi Arabia allowed women fans to attend sports events, initially in major cities and in family zones separate from men-only sections. By 2034, female fans should not be restricted.
In 2022, Saudi Arabia launched a women’s professional football league with European players plying their trade as well. They face no restrictions on playing in shorts and with their hair uncovered.
Will alcohol be allowed?
Saudi Arabia and most of the Middle East countries prohibit alcohol consumption. But will exceptions be made for the World Cup?
Alcohol became a problem for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar because the expectation was created that beer sales would be allowed at stadiums even before Qatar won the right to host the event in 2010. A year later, FIFA extended a long-term deal to have Budweiser as the official World Cup beer through 2022.
Qatar backtracked on that promise three days before the opener, causing confusion and the sense of a promise broken.
Eventually, alcohol was served only at luxury suites at the stadiums. Visitors could also have a drink in some hotel bars.
Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has even stricter rules on alcohol — and there is no indication that will change.
Albalawi stressed Saudi Arabia has successfully hosted dozens of sporting events where alcohol wasn’t served.
“We’re creating a safe and secure family environment for fans to bring their families into our stadiums,” he said.
How will the worker rights be protected?
Saudi Arabia has promised to reform and enforce labour laws, and fully respect migrant workers. Those promises have been accepted by FIFA but face broad skepticism from rights groups and trade unions.
A formal complaint to that extent is being investigated by the UN-backed International Labor Organization.
Protecting the migrant workers needed to build stadiums and other tournament projects — a decade after it was a defining issue for Qatar — looms as a signature challenge for Saudi Arabia.
Would Israel be allowed if they qualified?
Saudi-Israeli relations had been improving when FIFA all but gave the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia in October last year. Three days later, Hamas attacked Israel and diplomacy got complicated.
Any country bidding to host a FIFA tournament accepts a basic principle that whichever team qualifies is welcome.
Yet, it did not stop Indonesia from denying to host Israel for the Under-20 World Cup. Indonesia does not have formal diplomatic relations with Israel, which had qualified through a European tournament nine months before the issue flared.
Subsequently, Indonesia were stripped of the right to host the tournament and it was moved to Argentina where the Israeli team reached the semifinals.
Although, if history is anything to go by, the odds of Israel qualifying are slim. They last played at the 1970 World Cup but have never advanced through qualifying.
On to the 2030 World Cup. Where will the final be played?
Expectedly, most of the attention at the FIFA Congress on Wednesday was on the Saudi Arabia decision, but the 2030 edition was also formally approved — the most spread out and longest ever.
It will have one game each in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, the original hosts in 1930, will be played from June 8-9. The tournament resumes four days later for the other 101 games spread across Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
Six countries, three continents, multiple languages and currencies. Fans travelling on planes, trains, automobiles and boats across about 14 kilometers (10 miles) of water between Spain and Morocco.
The final is due to be played on July 21, 2030 and a decision on where it will be played could cause some disagreements between the host countries.
Morocco want it played in the world’s biggest football venue — the planned 115,000-seater King Hassan II Stadium in Casablanca. Spain, meanwhile, have proposed to host the final in either of the remodeled home stadiums of club giants Real Madrid or Barcelona.
