INDONESIA WANTS TO CO-HOST

Reuters 

Indonesia is in discussions with Australia about a possible joint bid to host the 2034 World Cup along with Malaysia and Singapore, the president of the country's football federation (PSSI) said on Wednesday (Oct 11).

World football's governing body FIFA invited member associations from Asia and Oceania to bid for the rights to the 2034 edition last week. FIFA has set a deadline of Oct 31 for other interested parties to make their intentions known.

When asked for comment on a possible joint bid, Football Australia referred Reuters to a statement last week that said it was "exploring the possibility of bidding for the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup and/or the FIFA World Cup 2034".

"We are discussing (a bid) with Australia," PSSI President Erick Thohir was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald.

"When I visited Malaysia and Singapore both countries expressed interest to join Indonesia and Australia."

However, the president of the Football Association of Malaysia, Hamidin Amin, on Wednesday denied this, reported the New Straits Times.

"We (Malaysia) have never had any conversation on hosting the 2034 World Cup with anyone."

 "And we also have no intention to bid to host the World Cup any time soon," he said.

Saudi Arabia has also announced its intention to bid for the hosting rights and Mr Hamidin said the association supports the country's bid for the 2034 edition, the New Straits Times reported.

"We are backing Saudi Arabia's bid with a majority of the AFC nations," the New Straits Times reported.

The PSSI has not responded to a Reuters request for comment.

FIFA announced that Spain, Morocco and Portugal would host the 2030 World Cup, with Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina staging the opening games. 

"Morocco, Portugal and Spain, as tournament hosts, and Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay, as hosts of the centenary celebration, will qualify automatically from the slot allocation quota of their respective confederations," FIFA said.

With Qatar having hosted the 2022 edition, Akmal Marhali of Indonesian watchdog Save Our Soccer told the Herald it might be too soon for the World Cup to return to the Middle East.

"We are quite strong," he said. "I think FIFA will see that the Middle East area has been the host with Qatar last year. Japan and Korea have been hosts too. I am sure FIFA will try other countries.

"The potential to win if we join with Australia, Malaysia and Singapore is bigger too."

CNA has contacted the Football Association of Singapore for comment. 

- CNA