- Saudi Arabia were announced as the 2034 World Cup host nation last December
- Prince Abdulaziz has responded to proposals for an expanded competition
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Saudi Arabia have revealed their position on hosting a 64-team World Cup, amid proposals to expand the number of teams in the competition in 2034.
Back in December, the Gulf state were announced as the host nation of the 2034 World Cup at an online FIFA Congress after not a single alternative candidate came forward.
The bid was open to any country from the Asia and Oceania regions that felt it could afford to stage a competition involving 104 matches, with Saudi the only real contender.
The North American World Cup in 2026 will be the first to feature 48 teams, expanding from the 32-team format used from 1998 to 2022.
Amid calls to further increase the number of teams in the competition, Saudi Arabia’s sports minister – Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki bin Faisal – insisted the kingdom would be ‘more than happy’ to deliver on such a request.
‘I mean we’re ready, and or we will be ready, inshallah,’ Prince Abdulaziz said Sunday’s Formula One race in Jeddah.
Saudi Arabia’s sports minister said they are ‘more than happy’ to host a 64-team World Cup
The Gulf state were announced as the host nation of the 2034 World Cup in an unrivalled bid
The North American World Cup in 2026 will be the first to feature 48 teams, expanding from 32
‘If that’s a decision that FIFA takes and thinks that that’s a good decision for everyone, then we’re more than happy to deliver on it.’
Talks of a 64-team expansion began in South America with Alejandro Dominguez – president of CONMEBOL.
He argued that the 2030 World Cup, which celebrates the 100-year anniversary since the first tournament was held in Uruguay, should be a special-edition tournament.
The Spain-Portugal-Morocco bid for the 2030 edition was confirmed with the trifecta of nations also winning their contest in December without a single rival.
The bid had initially been up against a rival South American bid, but an arrangement was made for South America to instead stage the opening three matches of the centenary 2030 finals with Spain, Portugal and Morocco hosting the rest.
This effectively handed Saudi Arabia the following finals with FIFA rules dictating that countries from Europe, Africa and South America could not apply and that any interested nation had just one month to submit their bid.
A 64-team World Cup would likely feature 16 groups with four teams each, and the top two teams from each group advancing to a 32-team knockout phase.
Such a competition would see 129 matches played (including the third-place playoff match) – doubling the number from the 2022 tournament in Qatar.
Talks of a 64-team World Cup began in South America for the 100-year anniversary of the competition in 2030
With Saudi’s 2034 bid, FIFA finds itself in the same spot of bother it did ahead of the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022, with temperatures between May and September in their latest choice routinely topping 40C.
This makes it likely that the competition will have to be moved to a slot outside of the traditional summer window.
Between October and April average temperatures drop to between 20C and 30C.
A January World Cup appears to be the most convincing option in order to avoid Christmas, New Year and Ramadan, the latter of which is scheduled to take place between November 11 and December 10 in 2034.
