Saudi Arabia is set to host the men's 2034 World Cup after Australia decided against bidding to stage the tournament.
Football Australia confirmed its decision only hours before Fifa's deadline for declarations of interest on Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia is the only other nation to bid.
"We have reached the conclusion not to do so for the 2034 competition," read a statement from Football Australia.
Comments
I'm sure you'll have people in 2034 going to Saudi Arabia and claiming 'it's not that bad if you ignore the beheadings' as well.
Confused why China hasn't bid though, as the obvious candidate for an Asian host.
Australia really is the one region now that deserves a World Cup more than anywhere else
We've had... Western and Eastern Europe | North, Central (if you call Mexico that), and South America | Middle East | East Asian | North and South Africa
Maybe they would see chucking money at a global tournament with a lot of money going into the hands of foreigners something they just can't do.
Depressing list.
Other senior figures in football have raised the issue of how hosting the tournament in Saudi Arabia will involve all the same controversies as Qatar, from migrant labour to human rights, but on a much greater scale. Sources have pointed to how Human Rights Watch have already accused Fifa of going against their 2017 Human Rights Policy, something that was supposed to represent a major change after all the criticism for the 2018-2022 process.
There is particular frustration at how the reforms after the 2010-15 period were supposed to bring complete transparency regarding World Cup hosting, with the process moved to one vote for each of the 211 member associations. Instead, for both 2030 and 2034, the member associations will have no real choice on bids and only get to vote to ratify decisions already taken elsewhere.
There is meanwhile a belief that Saudi Arabia could yet bring in other countries to share some of the games, since it will be a 48-team tournament, and the idea of involving Egypt, Greece and other countries around the geographical region has already been raised.
They already have the infrastructure to hold such an event too, whereas I'm not sure Australia is big enough (25m) to hold a 48 team World Cup. Indeed few countries these days can do so unless they are massive or have money to burn on "prestige".
In that time USA have hosted 2 despite having little interest and Mexico will have had 3.
That is disappointing given the infrastructure, fan base and history we have. I doubt there will be one here in my lifetime.
But of a shame the Antarctic has missed out again.
Logistically makes more sense than any of the other World Cups scheduled in the coming years. Much prefer tournaments being held in one country from a match-going perspective.
We are well set up to host
Enjoy your trip though assume you wont be taking the missis👍 😂