Sports and Saudi Arabia are practically becoming synonymous with everything, from WWE, horse racing, and football to golf, boxing, and Formula 1, taking over the Kingdom. Coming in hot, they have now officially made a bid to host the FIFA World Cup 2034, probably their biggest sporting venture yet.
The campaign slogan will be “Growing Together,” as a way to showcase the special bond between the Kingdom and the collection of countries it hosts during every sporting tournament or competition. So far, it hosted over 100 international events in more than 40 sports, and now it plans to host 48 teams in the 2034 edition of the tournament.
The Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) are the ones promoting the bid and have spoken up about Saudi’s new leap into sports, “bidding to host a FIFA World Cup is only made possible by the rapid transformation the country is enjoying. We’ve made unprecedented progress in both the men’s and women’s game, and our bid is an open invitation to the world to join us on this exciting journey.”
In preparation for the upcoming global event, the Kingdom already took major steps to showcase why it deserves the spot, including building the Prince Mohammad bin Salman Stadium. It has been designed by leading architectural firm Populous and will be the world’s first fully integrated venue with a retractable roof, pitch, and LED wall.
Given the Kingdom’s expertise in hosting major sporting events with venues capable of seating thousands, it’ll be exciting to see such an event taking place in the Kingdom. If it happens, it’ll be yet another celebration of the capacity of Gulf countries to take on the world of sports.