The biggest exporters of oil on the planet, Saudi Arabia have announced plans to host the 2030. According to a Bloomberg report, it will be in a joint bid with Egypt and Greece.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's minister of tourism Ahmed Al Khateeb expressed the intention of the joint bid with these countries and the hope that the bid gets accepted.
“We are considering a bid with Greece and Egypt and we wish that it will be a winning bid,” Bloomberg quoted Al Khateeb as saying in an interview in Riyadh. “Definitely the three countries would invest heavily in infrastructure and would definitely be ready. And I know by then Saudi Arabia would have state of the art stadiums and fanzones built."
Saudi Arabia’s Sports Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal said in an interview with BBC on Sunday that the Kingdom is interested in hosting a World Cup as it will aid the Kingdom's pursuit to diversify from it's oil economy.
“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.
“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.”
Saudi Arabia will fancy their chances
Saudi Arabia have already won the bid to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games with the location of the games being a mountain resort in their $500 billion flagship NEOM project.
The Middle Eastern nation has been making serious efforts to improve their infrastructure with the aim of diversifying its economy. They want to make the Nation a tourist attraction as well as one of the key places for destination travel.
Crown Prince, Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz unveiled plans for a new airport, King Salman International Airport which will have six parallel runways and designed to accommodate up to 120 million travelers by 2030.
The 2026 World Cup will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico which means that the earliest they can host the World Cup is four years later in 2030 as a host has yet to be determined.
The Arab kingdom may compete with Spain, Portugal and Ukraine for the 2030 World Cup. The hosts of the first ever World Cup, Uruguay, along with Argentina, Chile and Paraguay also aim to host the 2030 World Cup. Morocco will also be making a bid for the 2030 World Cup. It will be their sixth bid.
