Saudi Arabia to ABANDON their £2BILLION one-of-a-kind World Cup stadium plan to host football at 350 metres above ground level amid spiralling costs
FIFA are expected to announce Saudi Arabia as the host nation for the 2034 World Cup very soon but the organisers are already running into serious issues – with the construction of one of their biggest venues set to be scrapped.
Plans for one of the hosts’ most ambitious venues, a futuristic elevated football stadium 350m above sea level, are to be abandoned, despite £2billion having been spent on it already.
The NEOM stadium was sold as a one-of-a-kind sporting arena as a part of the 100-mile-long steel and glass structure known as The Line, a mirrored linear smart city meant to house nine million people, the original focal point of Saudi Arabia’s NEOM mega project.
NEOM themselves own a Saudi Pro League Side, NEOM FC, that employ ex-Premier League stars such as Alexandre Lacazette, Said Benrahma and Malang Sarr.
NEOM was introduced nearly a decade ago as a key part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030. The 2034 World Cup is seen as a marquee event for the country and under Vision 2030 Saudi Arabian investment in football over the last four years, via the wealth fund PIF, has been immense. Eye-watering sums have been spent on in bringing in top players and coaches as well as building footballing infrastructure in preparation for the 2034 World Cup, with 15 stadiums in total being built or renovated.
Saudi Arabia have found success in some of their footballing investment but the NEOM stadium will be one to forget
Plans for a stadium in Neom saw a pitch 350m above ground and integrated into The Line
Plans for The Line, a 200 kilometre long row of skyscrapers, look set to be scaled back
The tournament will be the first time a single nation hosts FIFA’s new 48-team format and Riyadh have been working to transform 15 venues across five cities alongside dozens of training facilities.
MEED, a Dubai-based construction industry market intelligence platform, lists developments on the NEOM stadium as ‘on hold’ and the stadium has no listed completion date in their data. The remaining stadiums in the wider project are listed in various stages of development, with competition expected by 2033 at the latest.
But with plans for one of the most expensive and key venues seemingly shelved, questions will be raised over whether Saudi Arabia will be prepared come 2034.
Saudi Arabia also looks to be under increasing pressure from developments in the Iran war and has had to deal with heavy disruptions to critical infrastructure as well as energy shipments.
These issues will only add to Saudi Arabia’s ever-growing costs and continue to hinder the Kingdom’s efforts to prepare the nation for hosting the world’s biggest sporting event in just under eight years time.
