The Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) has criticised the bidding process for the 2030 and 2034 men’s World Cups, which it says are “flawed and inconsistent with the principles of FIFA’s own reforms.”
In a formal letter to FIFA, the NFF is demanding “greater transparency, fairness, and stricter adherence to FIFA’s 2016 reforms” which relate to “good governance and transparent World Cup allocations”.
The 2030 World Cup will be held across six nations — Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay — while Saudi Arabia is the only candidate to host the 2034 tournament after Australia decided not to bid.
Due to the 2026 World Cup — co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico — being played in North America and the 2030 edition being staged across Europe, Africa and South America, FIFA’s rotation policy ensured that only bids from the Asian Football Confederation or the Oceania Football Confederation would be considered for 2034.
On Wednesday, Norway will be among FIFA’s 211 member nations to assemble in an extraordinary digital congress when the host nations will be formalised for the future tournaments.
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The NFF says it will formally criticise the bidding process and will vote against any vote by acclamation (a process which does not require a ballot) should one be held.
“Tomorrow’s vote is not about who gets the 2030 and 2034 World Cups, that has already been decided,” said NFF President Lise Klaveness in a statement on Tuesday.
“The congress is primarily about providing feedback on FIFA’s allocation process. The board’s assessment is that the process does not align with the principles of a sound and predictable governance system. By abstaining from acclamation, we are sending a deliberate signal that we cannot support FIFA’s approach.”
Klaveness added: “The board first considered whether the two bids for 2030 and 2034 should be voted on as a block by acclamation at the congress. It was unanimously agreed that we were against this. It follows logically that the NFF cannot endorse such a process through acclamation.”
The NFF statement concluded: “The NFF believes the process does not sufficiently uphold the principles of accountability, transparency, and objectivity outlined in FIFA’s 2016 reforms, as interpreted by the federation.”
FIFA stated in 2016 its reforms, which addressed areas including the separation of political and management functions, and term limits on executive offices, had been brought in with the aim of “rebuilding and restoring trust”.
The possibility of “increasing the risk of human rights violations” were also highlighted by Klaveness, who questioned whether “due diligence” had been carried out.
FIFA judged Saudi Arabia’s bid, in an evaluation report released last month, to have a “medium” human rights risk assessment while concluding that the 2034 World Cup would have “good potential” to be a “catalyst” for reform. Amnesty International described FIFA’s observations as “an astonishing whitewash” of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.
On Friday, the German Football Association (DFB) announced that it will be voting in favour of the 2030 and 2034 World Cups, and this followed similar announcements made by the Swedish and Danish federations.
FIFA has been approached by The Athletic for comment.
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(Joe Klamar/AFP via Getty Images)
