Saudi Arabia’s Sports Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal says Saudi Arabia would love to host a future World Cup.
The Kingdom is already in the running to host the 2027 AFC Asian Cup. Alongside India, Saudi Arabia has submitted a bid to host the Asian football championship.
The decision over which nation will host the tournament will be made in February next year.
Saudi World Cup bid
In an interview with the BBC, however, Prince Abdulaziz confirmed Saudi Arabia is interested in hosting a future World Cup bid.
“Why not? Who wouldn’t want to host the World Cup?,” he said. “We host a lot of events in the region.
“Any country in the world would love to host the World Cup. It’s an amazing tournament and it’s good for every country to host such an event.
The 2026 World Cup will be hosted in North America, with Canada, Mexico and the US sharing duties. The soonest the Kingdom could host the tournament is 2030 and no official host nation has yet been named.
“We need to uplift some of our venues,” the Sports Minister told the BBC.
“We have a lot of stadiums that meet the requirement that we need, but hosting such an event is not just about the stadiums, it’s about the infrastructure, the people, about preparing everyone to such an event.”
Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and Prime Minister, met with Giovanni Infantino, President of the International Football Association (FIFA), on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the World Cup, in Qatar, on Sunday.
They discussed Saudi Arabia hosting the 2030 World Cup, jointly with Egypt and Greece.
Appetite for football in the Kingdom is at an all-time high after the Kingdom defeated Argentina in their opening game of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
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