{"id":37527,"date":"2026-06-19T14:33:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T12:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=37527"},"modified":"2026-06-19T14:33:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T12:33:46","slug":"saudi-arabia-sports-minister-vows-affordable-safe-world-cup-in-2034","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/saudi-arabia-sports-minister-vows-affordable-safe-world-cup-in-2034\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi Arabia Sports Minister vows affordable, safe World Cup in 2034"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Saudi Arabia\u2019s Sports Minister says the kingdom will work with FIFA to ensure ticket affordability and fan safety for the 2034 World Cup, amid regional instability and lessons from this year\u2019s finals in North America where costs have been a concern.<\/span><\/div>\n<div id=\"ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Match ticket prices, especially on the resale market, have been a bone of contention not only among fans but also with United States (US) lawmakers who had called on FIFA to lower ticket costs, which have seen an astronomic rise since the 2022 tournament in Qatar.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki AlFaisal said that while FIFA own the tickets and set prices, Saudi Arabia would cooperate with world soccer\u2019s governing body to improve accessibility while also granting visas to more countries.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThis is something that we\u2019re going to work with FIFA on. Nobody wants to see a tournament such as the World Cup where people are struggling to come,\u201d AlFaisal told <i>Reuters.<\/i><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cWe have more than 60 (countries whose citizens can get) e-visas on arrival and hopefully more to come. That actually started with a sporting event in the kingdom in 2018 when we hosted Formula E. Before that we didn\u2019t have any tourist visa.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cWe\u2019ve hosted more than 150 international events. All fans that have come have enjoyed (them), have found ease of access. So that\u2019s definitely one of the things that we really focus on to make sure that everyone has accessibility.\u201d<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Saudi Arabia is set to host soccer\u2019s 2027 Asian Cup, a key test of venues ahead of the kingdom\u2019s hosting of the 2034 World Cup. But the US-Iran war and wider regional tensions risk complicating plans to welcome the world.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>However, the minister emphasised that safety remained paramount for the kingdom while sporting events have not stopped amid the conflict, highlighting attendances in Saudi Pro League matches where the title race went down to the wire.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice to help Al Nassr clinch the SPL title on the final day of the season.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>The 2034 World Cup will mark the first time a single nation hosts the expanded 48-team format and AlFaisal said that presented unique challenges.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\u2014Reuters\u2014<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21798,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-37527","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Saudi Arabia is set to host soccer\u2019s 2027 Asian Cup.","published_date":"","news_description":"Saudi Arabia is set to host soccer\u2019s 2027 Asian Cup.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37528,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37527\/revisions\/37528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=37527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}