Australia will not bid for the 2034 men’s soccer World Cup, clearing the way for sole rival Saudi Arabia to host the tournament.
Football Australia’s hopes of following this year’s groundbreaking Women’s World Cup, co-hosted with New Zealand, appeared dead in the water as soon as the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) backed the Saudi bid on October 5.
There had appeared a glimmer of hope when Indonesia’s football association flagged interest in a joint bid with Australia, potentially alongside Malaysia and Singapore, earlier this month.
But that faded when Indonesia instead backed Saudi Arabia days later.
Australia will instead attempt to secure hosting rights for the 2029 Club World Cup and the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup, the latter a tournament oil-rich Saudi Arabia has also bid on, and underlined its credentials.
“We have explored the opportunity to bid to host the FIFA World Cup and – having taken all factors into consideration – we have reached the conclusion not to do so for the 2034 competition,” FA said in a statement.
“Instead, we believe we are in a strong position to host the oldest women’s international competition in the world, the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026, and then welcome the greatest teams in world football for the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup.
“Achieving this – following the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023 and with the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games – would represent a truly golden decade for Australian football.
“For international tournament hosting, the Australian time zones provide significant opportunities for broadcasters, and we are within touching distance of billions of people in Asia and Oceania, which also helps to provide a strong commercial outlook for competitions,”
FA said that the golden decade would be “underpinned by the opportunity” for its men’s and women’s teams to compete at major tournaments – both World Cups, Asian Cups, Olympics and under-20 World Cups.
The last time Australia attempted to host a men’s World Cup, the $46 million bid to host the 2022 tournament received just one vote of support.
Tuesday’s statement notably did not mention Saudi Arabia, nor support the Gulf state’s bid.
When the AFC backed Saudi Arabia, FA chief executive James Johnson said the governing body was “exploring the possibility” of bidding for 2034 – something he had consistently flagged during the Women’s World Cup.
But following through clearly would have put Australia at odds with its own confederation, and likely FIFA.
Only Asia or Oceania could bid for 2034 after FIFA accepted only one candidate for 2030: a six-country bid spread across three confederations: Europe, Africa and South America.
The Spain-Portugal bid grew to add Morocco this year and now plans to have one game played in each of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay to mark the World Cup centenary.
The Llama
Roar Rookie
A good thing James Johnson is a very close associate of Infantino.
AR
Roar Rookie
"The AFL did its bit preventing the womens world cup from being in any of its stadiums..." Imagine that. The AFL didn't want to abandon its stadiums (and its season) for another sporting competition. Disgraceful.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
A bit of detective work could have easily done in Qatar, if two journos from a British tabloid caught out two of the executive committee members and Bin Hammam was handing out cash envelopes shortly afterwards in front of every Concacaf representative. The Australia media did an amazing job for Qatar as well, they even investigated the Australian bid. Saudi there major problem is they cant come out like Qatar and say yes we will do this or allow this at the world cup. All Australia has to do is try to establish a minimum set of standards for the world cup bid, and the Saudis are trapped. Saying not to bid is the catch cry of all the stooges of the Saudis in the Australian media.
Ed Flanders
Roar Rookie
Well, not true. FFA have pissed off Brainstrust. Apparently he wanted 30-40m of our taxpayer money to go down the drain. Of course we are the better hosts, but everyone (bar him) knew this as an unfair fight from the get go, and rightly kept away.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Its okay to dump 15b on the Olympics and 3-4b on the Commonwealth games when you win. What about the craziest idea have a regional bid costing twice as much because you dont want to inconvenience you know who. Its worse if you succeed in those cases amd the multiple failed bids though are a taboo subject. Its not okay to bid for a world cup. That illustrates the problem in this country.
Tufanooo
Roar Rookie
Funny is subjective, Chris. Of course, you are so angry with life you've long stopped being able to identify humour. Most conspiracists are the same though, so don't feel too bad. You aren't alone!
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
AFL cant pay for the one Nauru dirt oval to have a park bench for seating, and rely on Australian aid money or sponsors to do anything overseas. The AFL did its bit preventing the womens world cup from being in any of its stadiums and that didnt halt the momentum one bit. The Indonesians just did a stunt for some Saudi money and it worked despite them mentioning that they hadn't talked to anyone from Australia since March. If Australia was ever serious about a bid they would have been in constant contact with everyone. Australia media have a lot of explaining to do. The decision to bid for a womens world cup was done by Steven Lowy. They ran a media campaign against Steven Lowy for 2 years non stop. Then Steven Lowy was ousted and this new regime was put in place which the media has never criticised. How is it possible that they even remotely explored launching a bid when both the Australian and New Zealand governments reveal they were waiting for the football federations to talk to them. It should have been obvious there was no real attempt to bid. I was calling for this current regime to be sacked months ago because it was obvious they were not going to bid. The media I get the impression they are in on the whole thing.
NickA
Roar Rookie
Yes, I was looking at the AFC this morning and wondering how it would be split up. Not sure what would be the pros and cons, but if FIFA are going to treat the AFC as essentially 'the middle east' - as it has done for the past 10 years (in the Men's game at least - they can't do it with the women given the treatment of women in that part of the world) - we may as well split. I wonder if the 'arab' North African countries could be tempted to leave CAF if there was a new West Asia, which could ruin CAF financially. NZ would be in an interesting position. They would be guaranteed a WC spot under the new format, if they stayed in Oceania. But (similar to Aus moving to AFC), they'd have access to much better competition which would be good in the long term. (i don't love FTBL's opinion articles, but here is one on the topic) All in all, I'd much prefer a split. I genuinely can't stand West Asian football and would be happy to see the back of them until the actual World Cup.
jamesb
Roar Guru
Asian confederation is too big and there should be a split. Middle East, Central and South Asia should form West Asia. East, South East and Oceania coming in should be East Asia/Oceania. Asian Champions league is split anyway, where eventually a team from the west meets a team from the east in the final.
jupiter53
Roar Pro
Good call. It would have been complete political stupidity to put in a bid, everything has been organised by FIFA for Saudi Arabia to get the 2034 WC. FIFA’s alleged commitment to human rights is a travesty, money trumps everything in Zurich However FFA has to work with the world as it is, not as we wish it would be. At least FFA has not pissed everybody off by going ahead with another doomed bid.
chris1
Roar Rookie
If you 2 tro lls are going to ham it up at least be funny.
Tufanooo
Roar Rookie
Saudi Arabia can control the weather...
Garry
Roar Rookie
winter WC's are to become the norm apparently. No sign of FIFA"S corruption ending - to me 48 teams is a joke even if 16 are only there for a token couple of games. Then theres the 3 continent nonsense.. Next up the Saudis want a bienniel WC- denied for now but what the Saudis want the Saudies eventually get :crying:
Garry
Roar Rookie
winter WC's are to become the norm apparently. No sign of FIFA"S corruption ending - to me 48 teams is a joke even if 16 are only there for a token couple of games. Then theres the 3 continent nonsense.. Next up the Saudis want a bienniel WC- denied for now but what the Saudis want then Saudies eventually get :crying:
AGO74
Roar Rookie
With that degree of common sense, you are clearly not suitable for football administration.
Garry
Roar Rookie
ASEAN/East/Oceania is my hope
Garry
Roar Rookie
plus Tim Cahill and Beckham
Garry
Roar Rookie
it seems Nov WC's will be the norm anyway :silly: FIFA is still corrupt and billions of oil money does the trick.. 48 teams is too many althou atm it only a token game or two for 16 then theres 3 continents widely aplart running a WC. Next thing is biennial WCs the Saudis want..eventually what Saudis want Saudis get
Tufanooo
Roar Rookie
Oh 100% Everyone knows that the AFL will stop at nothing. They've paid off Indonesia to support KSA's bid, they did a deal with Qantas to ensure no flights between Japan and Australia in 2034 and I think we'll find that Aramco will be sponsoring the AFL in season 2024 as gratitude for the support. Mission accomplished. But the mainstream media and the government, both in the pockets of the NRL and the AFL, will never tell you that!
Ed Flanders
Roar Rookie
The AFL and the MSM got to Indonesia I tells ya!