Friday/Saturday 17 July 2026 Ghalib Al-Salami - Al-Qunfudhah: When Saudi Arabia won the right to host the 2034 World Cup, the celebration was deserved; the event is historic by all standards and confirms the status the Kingdom has achieved both sports-wise and internationally. But amid this bright scene, a more important question arises than the hosting itself: What next? History does not remember those who hosted tournaments as much as it remembers those who changed the face of the game. And hosting, no matter how successful, is merely a temporal station that ends with the final whistle, while the real legacy lies in what the tournament produces in terms of champions and sports systems capable of competing for years to come.

Arabs and Peoples of the Middle East

Today, Saudi football is experiencing an unprecedented boom; massive investments, world-class stadiums, fan attendance, and a league that has become the focus of the world's attention. But all these gains will lose part of their value if they are not reflected in the national team, as it is the face that summarizes the success of the entire sports project.

The question that every sports official should ask is not: How will we organize the best World Cup? But rather: How will the Saudi national team enter the 2034 World Cup? Will it be merely the host and the crowd? Or will it be a real contender for the advanced stages?

Building a team capable of competing with the world's giants does not start two or three years before the tournament; it starts today. It starts from neighborhood fields, from football schools, from developing youth categories competitions, from investing in the national coach, and from discovering talent in every city and village, not from temporary contracts and quick fixes. Moreover, success is not measured by the number of international stars playing in the league, but by the number of Saudi players who can stand confidently before those names and then represent the nation at the highest level in international forums. Competition is an opportunity, but it does not turn into achievement unless accompanied by long-term technical work.

Perhaps the biggest challenge facing Saudi football in the upcoming phase is achieving a balance between building a strong league and a strong national team. Many countries have had wealthy leagues, but they could not translate that into international achievements because they neglected building the local player, which is the cornerstone of any successful football project.

The 2034 World Cup is not a goal in itself, but a real test of the success of the Saudi sports project. If we come out of the tournament with a new generation of players, competent national coaches, more productive academies, and a more mature football culture, then we will have achieved the real victory, even before counting the results. But if we are preoccupied with stadiums, celebrations, and record-breaking organization, and neglect investment in people, then the tournament will become a beautiful memory… but fleeting.

In the end, history will write only one line, and we will have two options, no third: either the Kingdom hosted the World Cup successfully, or it used the World Cup to create a national team that remains in the world's memory for decades. Between the two options, the features of the future of Saudi football are drawn.

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