JEDDAH: Bidding for the 2035 Rugby World Cup could be considered by Saudi Arabia, having barely hosted the game in 2034.
Saudi Sports Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki al-Faisal was not ruling it out when he met with reporters at Sunday’s floodlit Formula One Grand Prix in Jeddah.
“We are interested in rugby; we are interested in promoting the sport locally, so we formed a federation to see what we can do to develop the sport,” he said.
“I don’t think we are at the hosting level yet, but ‘35 is in 10 years, so maybe it will move in that direction, and we see a lot of interest in it, so why not?”
The Times newspaper reported last month that Saudi Arabia could join Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, who hosted the 2022 football World Cup, in a joint bid for 2035 or 2039.
It quoted Qais Al-Dalai, president of the Emirates Asia Rugby, as saying that it could happen.
He said, “A multi-host could be a success story and a new model for rugby. The UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Why not? The stadiums are ready and would be the most successful event in the history of rugby.”
The UAE is ranked 49th in the world, Qatar 87th, and Saudi Arabia is not in the top 113.
Australia will host the next men’s tournament in 2027, with the United States in 2031.
Al-Faisal said Saudi Arabia, which has also been awarded the 2029 Asian Winter Games, has 97 sports federations and cannot host everything.
“But why do we have 97 federations? Because we want to promote sports, even small sports that maybe very few people in Saudi Arabia participate in or are not that interested in, so at least someone can play this sport in the kingdom.”
He said that we used to have a very small number of young people playing golf, but now after LIV Golf and after the tournaments we have hosted in the kingdom, we are seeing a large number of participants.
Cricket was another sport that had potential due to the large number of foreign workers from other parts of Asia.
