Southeast Asia’s football World Cup 2034 bid: this time for Asean, or just a pipe dream?
News of the bloc’s bid for the 2034 World Cup has been met with incredulity by some
But while costs and infrastructure will be tough to tackle, the idea might not be such a long shot
Published: 12:30pm, 29 Jun, 2019
That’s right, the World Cup may well be on its way to the region, after Thailand Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha announced that the Asean countries (the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Brunei) would submit a joint bid for the 2034 tournament.

Initially, the news was welcomed by Asean Football Federation (AFF) president Khiev Sameth, but, according to Singapore’s The Straits Times , Asian Football Confederation general secretary Windsor John was less convinced. He said he “did not know about the joint bid” and still did not know if “it is serious or not”.

Meanwhile, Thai news website Matichon’s reader survey also brought less than convincing results, with 70 per cent of respondents disagreeing with the idea of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations hosting the 2034 event, citing more urgent issues.

Southeast Asia may have a huge appetite for soccer, but some experts said the region needed more stadiums, motorways, airports, train stations and some good old Asean solidarity before it could even consider hosting a World Cup.

Under guidelines from Fifa, soccer’s global governing body, the opening match and final have to be played in an 80,000-seat stadium, while the semi-finals and earlier games have to be in stadiums that can house 60,000 and 40,000 people, respectively.

Currently, there are 20 Asean stadiums with a capacity of at least 40,000, but only two – Bukit Jalil and Shah Alam in Malaysia – are capable of holding at least 80,000 fans. There are no stadiums in Brunei, Laos and the Philippines that meet World Cup guidelines.
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/ ... an-or-just