Australia and Indonesia are busy plotting a plan to host a combined 2034 FIFA Soccer World Cup. Arrangements are under discussion to come to an agreement and finalize their bid.
Joint Bid
The possibility of a joint bid between Australia and Indonesia was a hot topic of discussion during the ASEAN Football Federation Council meeting in June in Laos. The Football Federation Australia and the Indonesia Football Association would like to bid in a joint Indonesia-Australian bid for the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
FFA Has an Ambitious Plan
The Football Federation Australia (FFA) was recently unsuccessful in bidding for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, losing against Qatar. This was a pretty expensive exercise for the people of Australia. The Aussie taxpayers had to deliver on $45 million for the bid, and in return, they only managed to get one vote in their favour. Now that failure is forgotten, and they are hard at work in finding a new solution to bid on the 2034 World Cup. Hosting a FIFA World Cup in the south-eastern part of Asia is an excellent opportunity to increase the popularity of the globally loved sport in a highly-populated area of the globe. Although the main discussion is currently only including Australia and Indonesia, it doesn’t completely exclude the possibility that another Asian country might also join in on the bid. This suggestion is already considered as a politically supported decision.
The Near Future
The 2026 World Cup was awarded to Canada, the United States and Mexico. The South American countries of Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile are moving towards bringing the 2030 world tournament to the south of America. The same idea is what inspires the bid from the south-east Asian countries for 2034.
A Mutually Beneficial Deal
The bid only needs to be finalized six years from now, yet the Indonesians have already indicated that such a combined proposal would bring along great benefits from this neighbourly partnership. The benefits of hosting a joint bid are also undeniable with the costs which it incurs. When the World Cup was expanded from 32 to 48 participants, the expenses towards hosting such a large scale event also increased dramatically. Sharing the costs between two or even more countries makes it much more of a financially viable option for all.
The main concern at the moment is the logistics of covering the distance between the two countries. Although it is similar to travelling between Mexico and Canada. Logistically it would have made more sense for FFA to join up with New Zealand. Since they don’t belong to the same confederation, the complexities of world politics are making this very unlikely. This might be an excellent opportunity to expand further and strengthen this globally loved sport in Australia. Currently, it seems that Africa is also planning on getting their bid in for 2034 through the powerhouse of Egypt.