FIFA on Wednesday officially confirmed Saudi Arabia as host of the 2034 men's World Cup.
The Saudi bid was the only candidate and was acclaimed by the applause of more than 200 FIFA member federations. They took part remotely in an online meeting hosted in Zurich on Wednesday by the global football body's president Gianni Infantino.
The decision was combined with approving the only candidate to host the 2030 World Cup. Spain, Portugal and Morocco will co-host in a six-nation project, with Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay each getting one of the 104 games.
The South American connection will mark the centenary of Uruguay hosting the first World Cup in 1930.
The approval to host the quadrennial event is the biggest prize yet for massive spending on global sports driven by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The decision completes a mostly opaque 15-month bid process which FIFA president Gianni Infantino helped steer toward Saudi Arabia without a rival candidate, without taking questions, and which human rights groups warn will put the lives of migrant workers at risk.
FIFA and Saudi officials say hosting the 2034 tournament can accelerate change, including more freedoms and rights for women.
A fast-track path to victory was cleared last year by FIFA accepting a three-continent hosting plan for the 2030 World Cup led by Spain, Portugal and Morocco. That bid also will win Wednesday in a combined approval for the 2030 and 2034 tournament hosts by applause from more than 200 FIFA member federations in an online meeting hosted from Zurich by Infantino.
It will kick off a decade of scrutiny on Saudi labor laws and treatment of workers mostly from South Asia needed to help build and upgrade 15 stadiums, plus hotels and transport networks ahead of the 104-game tournament.
One of the stadiums is planned to be 350 meters (yards) above the ground in Neom a futuristic city that does not yet exist and another named for the crown prince is designed to be atop a 200-meter cliff near Riyadh.
During the bid campaign, FIFA has accepted limited scrutiny of Saudi Arabia's human rights record that was widely criticized this year at the United Nations.
Saudi and international rights groups and activists warned FIFA it has not learned the lessons of Qatar's much-criticized preparations to host the 2022 World Cup.
The kingdom plans to spend tens of billion of dollars on projects related to the World Cup as part of the crown prince's sweeping Vision 2030 project that aims to modernize Saudi society and economy. At its core is spending on sports by the $900 billion sovereign wealth operation, the Public Investment Fund, which he oversees. Critics have called it sportswashing of the kingdom's reputation.
The prince, known as MBS, has built close working ties to Infantino since 2017 aligning with the organizer of sport's most-watched event rather than directly confronting the established system as it did with the disruptive LIV Golf project.