Saudi Arabia suddenly announced that it would withdraw from its bid for the 2030 World Cup

According to the Spanish media "Marca", on June 22, local time, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud suddenly announced that Saudi Arabia decided to withdraw from the bid for the 2030 World Cup.

Screenshot of the Marca newspaper report

According to reports, the Saudi foreign minister told the liaison between Greece and Egypt earlier on the 22nd that Saudi Arabia would withdraw from the bid for the 2030 World Cup. He said that after careful study, Saudi Arabia decided that the conditions of the joint bid of the three countries could not outperform the main competitors, so it decided to withdraw. Previously, Saudi Arabia wanted to jointly bid with Greece and Egypt to host the 2030 World Cup.

Saudi Arabia's decision has stunned many people, because just at the beginning of the year, Riyadh Victory of the Saudi Premier League signed football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo with an annual salary of 200 million euros. Cristiano Ronaldo will also wear the number 7 shirt for him until June 2025.

Cristiano Ronaldo poses with the Riyadh Victory shirt

In addition to Cristiano Ronaldo, in April this year, foreign media broke that Saudi Arabia will sign 50 world-class stars from Europe's five major leagues this summer. In addition to superstar Messi, who has already decided to travel to Major League Soccer, who is a tourism ambassador for Saudi Arabia, these stars include well-known stars such as Benzema, Traore, Gundogan, Firmino and Doucoure. At present, there are a total of 16 teams in the Saudi Premier League, and with the addition of international stars, Saudi football has also gained more attention. Saudi Arabia's crazy move to attract people at all costs is also jokingly called the official opening of the era of Saudi Arabia's "golden dollar football".

According to reports, by September 2024, FIFA will officially announce who will be the host of the 2030 World Cup. At present, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Paraguay in South America have officially applied to jointly host the 2030 World Cup, while Spain and Portugal in Europe have jointly bid for the 2030 World Cup with the African country Morocco.

Source: Global Times