Saudi Arabia set to drop Neom Stadium from 2034 World Cup plans

Saudi Arabia looks set to scrap Neom Stadium, planned as a venue for the 2034 World Cup, as the wider Neom project is scaled back significantly, according to a recent Reuters report cited by DW.

The stadium, part of The Line, the planned 170-kilometer-long (111 miles) desert city, was described in the country's bid book as “350 meters (1,148 feet) above ground” with “stunning vistas, and a roof created from the city itself.” It was to host a quarterfinal and several other games.

F. Gregory Gause III of the Middle East Institute in Washington D.C. told DW there were already “plenty of signals” in December that Neom was being put on the back burner, “if not abandoned altogether.” He described the move as part of a general reassessment of priorities in a “more straitened” fiscal situation, in light of the oil market before the current war and the damage the war is doing.

Saudi Arabia has also pulled funding for LIV Golf and for events in snooker, tennis and rugby, and withdrew from plans to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games in Neom. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), said earlier this year that the fund was “reassessing its priorities” amid war in the region. Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, author of “Kingdom of Football: Saudi Arabia and the Remaking of World Soccer,” said Neom is now being repurposed as an industrial center on the Red Sea, which has assumed greater urgency since the Strait of Hormuz was effectively blocked.

Coates Ulrichsen drew parallels with Qatar 2022, where plans to build 12 stadiums resulted in only eight being used. The Arab Spring arrived shortly after the bid was accepted by FIFA and destabilized the region politically and economically. Saudi Arabia's World Cup organizing authority and Sports Ministry have not responded to DW on whether fewer than the planned 15 stadiums may be used for the 2034 tournament, which could feature 64 teams.

Gause said the World Cup remains a major priority because the Saudis will want to do at least as well as, if not outshine, Qatar's hosting. Relations between Saudi Arabia and Qatar have improved since an agreement in 2021, but the two remain regional rivals. Coates Ulrichsen said more matches could end up in Riyadh and Jeddah, at the expense of eastern venues such as Al Khobar or Al Ahsa, which are separated from Iran by the Persian Gulf. Saudi Arabia hosts the Asian Cup in January, which Coates Ulrichsen called an early test of whether a weeks-long major tournament is viable under current conditions.