June 27 – Jeddah in Saudi Arabia will be the host city for the 2023 Club World Cup FIFA confirmed on Monday. But at the same time, is seems unlikely the Arab Kingdom will continue with its bid for the 2030 World Cup.
FIFA confirmed that Jeddah and not the Saudi capital Riyadh will stage the 2023 tournament, the first FIFA finals since the 1997 Confederations Cup to be staged in the country.
The choice of Jeddah is logical as it allows Saudi Pro League champions Al Ittihad, who have recently signed Karim Benzema from Real Madrid and N’Golo Kanté from Chelsea, to play at home.
Jeddah are one of four flagship clubs in he Saudi Pro League that have come under the control of Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF).
FIFA inspected the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium and the Prince Abdullah Al Faisal Stadium before awarding the hosting rights to Jeddah. Those venues hold about 62,000 and 27,000 spectators, respectively.
In the first round, the hosts will open the tournament against the Oceania champions Auckland City. León of Mexico, Al-Ahly of Egypt, Urawa Red Diamonds of Japan and Manchester City, the European champions, will also feature. The Copa Libertadores winner will represent South America.
In February, FIFA awarded the tournament to Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have grown an appetite for histing major tournaments and will host the 2027 Asian Cup, the continent’s flagship championship, and have also bid for the women’s equivalent a year earlier. Ultimately Saudi Arabia wants to become the second Middle Eastern country to host the World Cup after Qatar staged the 2022 finals.
However, the Saudis are increasingly likely to have to wait until 2034 though they have mooted a potential joint bid for 2030 with Egypt and Greece.
The feeling within the confederations and major nations is that a second World Cup in winter 2030 and the disruption it causes the global football calendar would be too soon after 2022 in Qatar.
FIFA have announced that they have postponed the bidding process for the 2030 finals as well as pushed back the host decision from Q3 to Q4 in 2024.
That suggests that FIFA may be seeking to broker so form of a deal between the South American bidding quartet of Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Paraguay, who argue the World Cup must return to its spiritual home for centenary celebrations, and the hopeful trio of Spain, Portugal and Morocco, the latter two voicing UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin’s call that the World Cup must be staged in Europe again after a 12-year absence.
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