According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), there is little chance that the 2034 soccer World Cup, which is expected to take place in Saudi Arabia, will conflict with the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
FIFA admitted that the Saudi bid did not suggest a World Cup time frame, but they are interested in working out with stakeholders an optimal timing for the tournament in view of the country’s hot climate.
The 2034 World Cup is likely to be pushed to the winter season, given Saudi Arabia’s desert climate.
The IOC has no problems with a potential conflict with the Winter Games happening at Salt City on February 10-26, 2034.
The Olympic Games executive director, Christophe Dubi, stated in a press conference: “This is going to be for sports fans a real feast during a period of three or four months where you will have these two events.”
“I think the risk of having those two (events) in parallel is immensely limited. With these two in different countries and continents, from all standpoints, including a commercial one, we have virtually no risk… A lot of sports consumption on any platform or any channel, we don’t see at this stage any major issue. On the contrary it is a lot of sport in this time frame,” he added.
Egypt intends to bid to host the Summer Olympics in 2036 and 2040. According to the head of the African National Olympic Committees Association (ANOCA), Egypt’s developing sports facilities and infrastructure are essential to the country’s bid success.
The Olympic Games have never been held in Africa. The last time Cairo attempted to host the Olympics was in 2008, and it was unsuccessful.
Egypt preparing its sports facilities
Egypt is the most populated country in the Arab world. As part of its modernization efforts, Egypt has recently spent billions of dollars constructing buildings, stadiums, and sports complexes. The country has been building the Egypt International Olympic City complex in the east of Cairo since 2015. It is anticipated to house 21 other sports facilities in addition to the nation’s 93,900-seat national stadium.
A number of other nations, including Indonesia, India, Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, are also interested in placing a bid for the 2036 Olympics.
Los Angeles will host the 2028 Summer Games while Brisbane, Australia, is set to stage the 2032 Olympics.
It has been provisionally decided that France will host the 2030 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
The French Alps bid, which was submitted as the preferred option of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), was accepted as long as France offered financial assurances.
Because of the recent elections, the French government has been unable to give the IOC the state and regional guarantees that it needs. The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, has declared that he will not form a new administration until after this week’s opening of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Olympic law in the making
With this, President Macron declared: “I confirm the full commitment of the French nation, and assure you that I will ask the next prime minister to include not only this guarantee but also an Olympic law in the priorities of the new government.”
“Seven years ago we made the same commitment (for Paris 2024), and we delivered. We will do the same,” he added.
The areas of Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur and Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes will host all major Games events in 2030, as per the French bid. France will host the Winter Olympics for the fourth time. It last held the Winter Olympics in Albertville in 1992.
The 2034 Winter Games will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the United States.
It is a big surprise for football fans around the world. Yes, FIFA, the organizers of the World Cup has given its nod for the tournament in Qatar to start a day earlier than scheduled.
While this will definitely disturb the already set calendar which was bound to start on Monday Nov 21, the tournament will now start on Sunday, November 20.
The reason given by FIFA’s organizing body is that Qatar wanted to start a day earlier to be the host nation that has kept to the new tradition of kicking the tournament off against their opponent, Ecuador.
Based on the approved calendar before the sudden change, Qatar was to make its World Cup debut in the third game of the competition.
The tournament is being held in November, which is the winter period in Qatar and on that Sunday, Qatar will face Ecuador after the opening ceremony to a global audience at the 60,000-capacity Al Bayt Stadium, which is very unusual.
It is a late switch but it was agreed by a Fifa committee on Thursday night, says multiple media reports.
The AFP was the first to hint at the possible earlier start to the tournament. In an article on Thursday, the French news agency said the World Cup will be brought forward by a day to allow hosts Qatar to play the opening game.
A decision made only three months before the competition gets going is not only surprising. Like we said above, it will also cause a reshuffle of the matches.
While Qatar will make its WC debut on Sunday, the first match was to be played between Senegal vs Holland on Monday November 21.
It was to be followed by the second game between England vs Iran.
According to the Sun, Fifa President Gianni Infantino and the leaders of the six continental governing bodies voted unanimously to change the date.
The fact is the World Cup hosts have been the teams that played the opening games since 2006. This tradition repeats in 2022 with the change.
Note that the English Premier League has also agreed to take a break, a very unusual and unique situation in the history of football.
The EPL will be off from November 12/13 until Boxing Day, in December. This has been decided to allow the players from the EPL to rest before the league resumes.
FIFA World Cup 2026: Here’s where it’s going to be next
The FIFA World Cup 2026 will take place four years from now, and as this year’s competition ends, fans are already thinking four years ahead.
But who will be the defending global champions going into the FIFA Global Cup in 2026? Since the competition will occur in three different nations, they will go to North America. The FIFA World Cup 2026 will be held in the United States of America, Canada, and Mexico.
They defeated Morocco, one of this year’s semifinalists, to win the right to serve as hosts with their “United 2026 bid.” The competition will be held for the 23rd time. Three countries will host the competition for the first time. As FIFA tinkers with the system, the competition will grow from 32 teams to 48.
What stadiums and how many matches will the USA, Canada, and Mexico host at the FIFA World Cup in 2026?
In 2026, the USA will host 60 World Cup games, and 11 stadiums will be prepared to host the international competition.
MetLife Stadium – New York/New Jersey (82,000 capacity)
AT & T Stadium – Dallas (80,000)
Arrowhead Stadium – Kansas City (76,416)
NRG Stadium – Houston (72,220)
Mercedez-Benz Stadium – Atlanta (71,000)
SoFi Stadium – Los Angeles (70,240)
Lincoln Financial Field – Philadelphia (69,796)
Lumen Field – Seattle (69,000)
Levi’s Stadium – San Francisco Bay Area (68,500)
Gilette Stadium – Boston (65,878)
Hard Rock Stadium – Miami
Canada will host ten games, and Mexico will host ten.
Canada Stadiums:
BC Place – Vancouver (54,500)
BMO Field – Toronto (30,000)
Mexico Stadiums:
Estadio Azteca – Mexico City (87,523)
Estadio BBVA – Monterrey (53,500)
Estadio Akron – Guadalajara (49,850)
FIFA suggesting that World Cup finals should occur every three years now
AFTER the mixed feeling of success of the 2022 World Cup, along with Argentina’s win, FIFA is reconsidering a number of things. Many fans perceived the World Cup as a success story regardless of what was being propagated in the media against the host country, Qatar.
Now, FIFA is thinking of a new grand scheme to make more profits. According to the Guardian, FIFA officials are considering the idea of making the World Cup occur every three years instead of the current four years per World Cup. This is subject for review, but no doubt we might see it turn into a reality.
There were initial plans for a tournament happening every two years. Unfortunately, it was shelved, possibly due to the strain it might give to the players, and also when an event happens more frequently, it would take the “wow” factor out of it.
After the biennial tournament idea was shelved, a new triennial World Cup is being brought to the table. The approach of Gianni Infantino, who aspires to continue serving as FIFA’s president for another ten years, is revealed by the proposal, which is still hypothetical.
A biennial World Cup, which was first proposed last summer and abandoned in the new year, faced significant opposition because it would have completely altered the global fixtures calendar. However, African and Asian countries concur with Infantino’s desire to host his flagship tournament more regularly, and this wish may become a reality if additional parties are involved.
Club teams playing in Europe’s top divisions are one group that will likely be courted in the near future. Infantino revealed this week that a larger Club World Cup with 32 clubs would begin play in 2025. Previous iterations of this concept, which offered 24 clubs the possibility of splitting prize money totaling more than $2 billion, this idea unfortunately collapsed during the pandemic.
European clubs would undoubtedly be enticed to participate if Fifa were able to produce a club competition with comparable levels of compensation in 2025, which would diminish resistance to Fifa’s other proposed reforms presently being handled through Uefa.
It was initially announced by famous football journalist, Fabrizio Romano that the World Cup will be held every three years, and word got caught on after that. Fans are happy due to the fact that their favourite players will have the opportunity to play for the World Cup more than they would previously have been able to.
The record for most World Cups played by a footballer will definitely change within the next decade if this new strategy is in place. However, some are less excited between having the idea of a “club” World Cup and are questioning if it is going to be the same tournament or a completely new one.
There were enthusiastic fans of the African clubs stating that they would love to see their national clubs try to compete with the likes of European clubs. However, naysayers claimed that most African countries would not have the facilities to host such games.
