By Mark Baber
July 4 – The Indonesian Government through the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) will be the consortium leader in discussing the possibility of the ASEAN submission as the joint host of the World Cup in 2034, according to comments made by Vice Chairman of the PSSI Joko Driyono.
According to Joko the joint hosting of 2034 will be discussed in the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Council meeting on September 23 in Nusa Dua, Bali.
“The meeting begins on September 22 where there will be a competition committee meeting, the next day there will be an AFF council meeting including the 2034 World Cup hosting and at night there is an AFF award,” said Joko.
The matters to be discussed include the number of ASEAN countries who will bid to be joint host and financial arrangements and what should be done in relation to automatic places in the final tournament for hosting countries.
According to Joko, the discussion will be closely related to ASEAN’s readiness to organise the tournament, particularly as the 2034 edition will be contested by 48 nations. “That’s why the acceleration of quality improvement of soccer facilities and infrastructure will also be discussed,” said Joko.
Given the rotation pattern and that the 2022 World Cup will be held in Qatar, according to Joko, “the 2034 World Cup will be held back in Asia.”
Joko’s comments build on earlier revelations by the chairman of the Myanmar Football Federation (MFF), Zaw Zaw, who revealed in February that the ASEAN bloc had held talks over bidding for the World Cup.
A joint ASEAN bid for the 2030 World Cup had previously been floated as far back as 2013 by Singapore who had suggested all 10 members of ASEAN including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam could host at least one game.
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