China denies submitting official bid for World Cup 2034 – but it seems it’s only a matter of deciding what year
Rule changes at Fifa’s congress this week could see country bid for 2030 instead
The Chinese Football Association denied submitting an official bid for a “specific” World Cup, after a report swept social media in the country on Monday afternoon – but its statement suggested a bid for either the 2030 or 2034 edition of the tournament could still be in the pipeline at Fifa’s annual congress this week.
Ma Dexing, a respected China football reporter, wrote that an official bid for World Cup 2034 would be submitted this week. Under current rules, that is the earliest China can host, but there is a proposal to amend that rule on the agenda at Fifa’s meeting in Bahrain.
The CFA said on Weibo he had been “hasty” – without denying that a bid for either World Cup 2030 or ’34 was in the offing.
“Once again news of a World Cup bid hits our screens and some media friends have been a bit hasty,” the CFA post said.
“The editor [of the Weibo account] also hopes to see the World Cup at home as soon as possible,” it continued, “but strictly speaking, and to clarify to everyone, we have not made a bid for a specific World Cup and the online story ‘China Football Association to confirm their bid to host the 2034 World Cup’ is not true.”
China’s Zhang Jian, vice-president and general secretary of the CFA, was on Monday elevated to the Fifa council, the body that “sets the vision for Fifa and global football”.