Saudi Arabia is in secret talks with Greece and Egypt to buy the 2030 World Cup

Saudi Arabia offered to Greece and Egypt fully pay the costs of sports infrastructure for participation in the application for holding 2030 FIFA World Cup.

According to politico.euCrown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud personally made an offer of stadiums to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a conversation reported for the first time.

Mohammed bin Salman allegedly told the Greek Prime Minister in private that his country would pay for all the World Cup stadiums in Greece in exchange for the country joining the 2030 World Cup bid. Saudi Arabia will invest solid money from its “plump” treasury to “fully cover the cost” of co-hosting the 2030 tournament with Greece and Egypt. In return, 75% of matches will be played in the Gulf nation, a senior official familiar with the talks told POLITICO.

The sensational offer, valued at billions of euros, was discussed privately between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in the summer of 2022, according to a senior official familiar with the matter.

A second senior official with knowledge of the private discussions of the bid told POLITICO that Saudi Arabia is prepared to “fully cover the costs” of hosting the tournament for Greece and Egypt, but that 75% of the 48-team tournament itself will be hosted by the Gulf state. It is unclear whether this proposal was accepted. But the three countries are now working on a joint proposal to host the 2030 tournament, which has sparked backlash against Greece.

Riyadh’s billion-dollar bid to Greece, first reported to POLITICO, will draw criticism at Saudi Arabia, which is effectively trying to use its astronomical wealth to buy the World Cup by creating a transcontinental coalition to cleverly exploit the voting system.

Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud

In an attempt to convince members of football’s world governing body, FIFA, of the merits of the Saudi-led bid, the proposed tournament will include matches played across three continents, ensuring geographic balance. A bid to host the World Cup in the Middle East alone is unlikely to succeed just eight years after Qatar hosted the tournament in 2022. The main rivals of the Saudis is the joint bid of Spain, Portugal and Ukraine from Europe, as well as the South American application from Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile.

The decision on who will host the 2030 World Cup is taken by open vote of the FIFA Congress, which is made up of more than 200 member associations from around the world. If African countries, attracted by Egypt’s presence and Saudi investment in Africa, back the bid, and Asian countries do the same, while Greece steals some of the European vote, the Saudi-led proposal stands a good chance of winning.

POLITICO has reached out to all three governments for comment. The governments of Greece and Saudi Arabia declined to comment, and the Egyptian government did not respond to requests. FIFA also declined to comment.

New world order

Hosting the World Cup will be the culmination of Saudi Arabia’s ambitious strategy to dominate major sporting events. Successes include securing the rights to host the world championships in boxing, European football, and Formula One motor racing, as well as creating their own rebellious golf tour. The Saudi Arabian Sovereign Investment Fund also bought a well-known English football club, and in 2027 the country will host the Asian Football Cup for the first time. But Saudi Arabia’s desire to host the World Cup goes beyond considerations of sporting prestige, according to a regional expert.

“Saudi Arabia is strategically trying to position itself as an Afro-Eurasian hub – the center of a new world order,” Simon Chadwick, a professor of sports and geopolitical economics at the Skema business school in Paris, said of the Saudi Arabian bid. – This positioning will allow Saudi Arabia to exercise significant power and influence over a wide geographical area, which it seeks to achieve by building relationships with key partners. Hosting a multi-polar World Cup with Egypt and Greece would be neither altruism nor generosity. Rather, it will be part of a larger plan that the Riyadh government is pursuing through a potential donation of stadiums.”

Saudi Arabia’s decision to host the tournament has angered human rights activists, who point to the country’s brutal treatment of the LGBTQ+ community and migrant workers.

“The repression in Saudi Arabia should not be rewarded by hosting the World Cup,” said Minky Warden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch. – As long as Saudi Arabia discriminates against LGBT people and punishes women for human rights work, and does not have protection for migrant workers who will build most of the new stadiums and facilities, the country cannot meet the human rights requirements that FIFA already has in place “.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar has also been overshadowed by criticism from the Gulf state for its treatment of migrant workers.

Bad memories

In Greece, paying for sports infrastructure is a sensitive topic, where it is seen as a monument to government profligacy. Back in 2004, Athens hosted the Olympic Games, for which Greece spent about 9 billion euros. However, much of the infrastructure was left abandoned after the Olympic flame went out. As the country entered a decade-long depression and was forced to resort to bailout programs to avoid bankruptcy, the Olympics became a source of anger for Greeks who wondered if the Games had pushed their country into further recession. Nearly two decades after the extravaganza of the Olympic Games, many of the 30 venues remain unused and some have been demolished. More on the topic in the publication Greece: 10 years after the Olympics.

Since coming to power in 2019, Greece’s conservative New Democracy government has sought to deepen ties with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states in response to arch-rival Turkey’s expansionist policies in the region. Mitsotakis repeatedly visited Riyadh, Greece delivered military equipment and soldiers to Saudi Arabia, and in July last year, Athens became the first capital EUwhich Mohammed bin Salman has visited since he personally approved, according to declassified US intelligence, the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Mohammed bin Salman, who has returned to the West’s “good lists” thanks to the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s war against Ukraine, signed a series of bilateral agreements in Athens last summer promising to make Greece an energy hub for the distribution of “green hydrogen”.

Saudi Arabia has traditionally maintained close diplomatic relations with Egypt. Mohammed bin Salman met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo last June, where he signed billions of euros in investment deals and discussed “bilateral regional cooperation.”

The decision to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup will be made in 2024, with the application process officially opening later this year.

Criticism within Greece

“Today’s Politico article raises serious questions about Mr. Mitsotakis’ personal contacts with Saudi heir apparent Mohammed bin Salman regarding a joint bid to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup.” SYRIZA-PS said in a statement. “After the scandal with”katargate“the question arises whether what is reported in the report is true. Whether Mr. Mitsotakis has indeed secretly decided to accept the terms of Saudi Arabia for a joint organization, where three-quarters of the games will be held in Saudi Arabia, and one quarter will be shared by two countries, Greece and Egypt, – emphasized in the document.- We need to know why Greece is giving away the powerful brand of a European country that is synonymous with freedom and democracy to this proposal with Saudi Arabia.”.

“We recall that the Government of SYRIZA promoted – with the signing of a joint declaration – the claim to host the World Cup together with the Balkan countries, in order, among other things, to strengthen peace, stability and cooperation in the region, and to emphasize its great and enduring importance for world sport “Today, what purpose, what values ​​does the bid to host the World Cup with Saudi Arabia serve?”the SYRIZA-PS statement concludes.

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