The Divided Reaction To The 2034 Saudi World Cup, Explained

Yesterday, big news dropped about the globe’s largest sporting event: Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup. Of course, the internet couldn’t take this announcement of the premiere soccer tournament quietly — instead, we’ve seen a hugely divided reaction to the 2034 Saudi World Cup announcement.

In this piece, we’re going to look at some of the reactions, and then have a little think about what makes the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia such a hot button topic.

The Online Reaction To The Announcement Of the Saudi World Cup

Split. That’s the only way to accurately describe the internet’s reaction to the news that the 2034 World Cup being held in Saudi Arabia.

Some figures, like ex-footballer Rio Ferdinand, were glowing in their assessment of the announcement:

Other posters were far less positive, seeing the soccer tournament being awarded to Saudi Arabia as evidence of systemic corruption:

Some figures sat in-between these reactions. For example, Piers Morgan, the British television personality, talks about already being tired of journalists “whining” about the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia, despite him believing they’ll end up going and enjoying the tournament anyhow:

These three posts display just a slice of the internet’s reaction to the announcement of Saudi Arabia hosting the 2034 World Cup, which begs a question: why is everyone so divided? And how has the internet impacted this reaction?

Why Is The Reaction To The 2034 Saudi World Cup So Divisive?

There are three broad schools of thought that are most common in reaction to the soccer World Cup being won by Saudi Arabia.

The first is summed up by Amnesty International in a press release.

Steve Cockburn, the organization’s Head of Labour Rights and Sport, said that the country hosting the tournament is “an astonishing whitewash of the country’s atrocious human rights record.”

He points to the lack of “meaningful commitments that will prevent workers from being exploited, residents from being evicted or activists from being arrested.”

The BBC also put together a list of controversies about the Saudi government, including the fact that the country executed more than 300 people in 2024, behind only Iran and China, as well as the fact that homosexuality is illegal in the state.

Counter to this are people who talk about football being the global game, meaning it should be open to different societies and cultures to host tournaments.

Hammad Albalawi, the head of the Saudi Arabia World Cup 2034 bid team, said that “football is a common language” and the country is excited to welcome “as many fans as possible from every corner of the world.”

The argument here is that, as soccer is the most popular sport on earth, that it shouldn’t just be westernized countries that host the World Cup.

The other side of this is the amount of money the country will spend on the tournament. Ex-player Steven Gerrard, who congratulated Saudi Arabia, saying that the country “will deliver and make sure that it’s special,” and is expected to spend tens of billions on the project.

Somewhere between these extremes, there’s a third common opinion that claims to highlight the hypocrisy at the heart of many reactions,

If you browse online, you’re unlikely to see much balance between these points. Instead, it appears that people have made their opinion and are sticking to it — and this is one of the negative aspects of social media.

A study posted in Scientific Reports found that the online world tends to reward extreme opinions with an increased number of likes. What that creates is an environment where people are encouraged to have radical views because they are reinforced by the positive feeling of engagement.

Polarization, if you will.

The fact of the matter is the arguments for and against the 2034 Saudi World Cup all have logical and compelling parts. The issue is that you’re rarely going to see someone discussing the tournament in this way on the internet, because the platforms thrive on getting people to react in extreme ways.

So why won’t you see balanced debate about the 2034 Saudi World Cup? And why is everyone so divided? Because that’s the way social media works.