According to the financial report of the 2021-2022 season released by UEFA, the total revenue of the fiscal year reached 4.05 billion euros, while the financial report of the Qatar World Cup cycle released by FIFA showed that the total revenue of FIFA was 7.568 billion dollars, of which only the 2022 Qatar World Cup had a total income of 5.769 billion dollars. The World Cup alone generates far more revenue than all of UEFA's competitions combined.

The huge income gap has made UEFA, which has high-quality tournament resources, and the South American Football Federation, which has long been unwilling to play a supporting role, choose to come together. As early as February 2020, UEFA and ConmeBOL signed a "Memorandum of understanding" to work together on a number of fronts. One of the most important is to restart the "European Cup", tentatively scheduled to be held every four years.

After the rematch, the first Super Final (Finalissima) tournament started on June 1, 2022 at Wembley Stadium in London, the new European Cup champion Italy and the American Cup champion Argentina staged a big showdown, starting from the next tournament, the European Cup will be expanded to four teams (European Cup winner and runner-up and American Cup winner and runner-up).

In addition, in 2022, the two continental federations will set up a joint representative office in London to prepare for more competition exchanges. The two agreed that from 2024, the European Nations League will be reformed, with the top six South American teams directly joining the UEFA League A competition, and the remaining four teams joining the UEFA League B competition.

They are also considering reviving the continental Club Cup between Europe and South America as a rival to FIFA's Club World Cup. In addition, the two sides will also launch new competitions such as the Youth Europa Cup, the five-a-side Europa Cup and the Women's Europa Cup.

Apparently unwilling to let the two "unite" FIFA can only compromise appropriately and promote the centennial World Cup spanning three continents and six powers by itself in 2030. Not only has the African Confederation, which it controls, inserted itself into this team, but even in the midst of rain and rain, it has also drawn a huge pie to its most loyal supporter, the Asian Football Confederation, that the 2034 World Cup belongs to Asia and/or Oceania.

According to the current announcement, the teams that will qualify for the 2030 World Cup include the hosts Spain, Portugal and Morocco, as well as the centennial hosts Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. However, South America, which originally had 6.5 participation places, took away 3 direct promotion places, I do not know how Chile, a former bidding partner, should respond, and whether the rest of the South American countries can be satisfied with this arrangement is still unknown.

In addition, the 2030 World Cup will be uniquely adjusted to provide additional and ample rest time for the teams participating in the Centenary celebrations in South America, with the six teams taking 11-12 days off before playing their second group match. But fans have to afford the huge cost of travelling across continents.

The bidding competition for the 2034 World Cup has also opened.

The big winner is Saudi Arabia. Who else?

After FIFA confirmed that the 2034 World Cup will be held in Asia and Oceania, the Saudi Football Association officially announced that Saudi Arabia intends to bid for the 2034 World Cup alone, which is also after Saudi Arabia announced in mid-June that it will withdraw from the 2030 World Cup bidding competition, Saudi Arabia once again opened the World Cup host competition.

For Saudi Arabia, football has become an important stage and tool for Saudi Arabia to show its own reform achievements. Neighbouring Qatar's success is even more enviable.

As mentioned above, the 2030 World Cup was originally the original intention of the Saudis, but the timing and teammates were not suitable, so that Saudi Arabia chose to retreat, FIFA obviously also ate enough sweetness in the Middle East, according to the existing 2034 World Cup can only be held in Asia and/or Oceania, Saudi Arabia in all aspects are far ahead of the favorable position.

Within the AFC, China could be Saudi Arabia's biggest rival for the 2034 World Cup. The reasons are not difficult to analyze, first of all, after the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams, China may be the only country that can provide 10+ international stadiums, without relying on seeking a co-hosting method.

Secondly, China has rich experience in the competition and reception capacity, and even local brands can meet the investment needs needed for the World Cup, which is a very important factor for FIFA. For Chinese football, becoming the host country also means that it will directly qualify for the finals. After all, according to the current situation want to participate in the World Cup, "bid" is perhaps the easiest way.

Other potential rivals are the Mediterranean Union, represented by Italy, Greece and Turkey, and the Oceania Union, which includes Australia and New Zealand. The top three have a sufficient number of FIFA standard stadiums and belong to the birthplace of the Olympic spirit, but the disadvantage is financial problems and organizational ability.

The latter two have just hosted the most successful women's World Cup in history, and their ability to host teams is not in doubt, but the huge audience of the men's World Cup and the travel costs caused by geographical factors are factors that they have to consider in this competition.

There are also alliances such as the Central Asian Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, where the number of stadiums and economic strength are not up to a certain standard, which cannot have much impact on Saudi Arabia.

Finally, FIFA officially launched the bidding process for the 2034 World Cup, but the deadline for submitting a letter of intent to bid is October 31, 2023, and in the short time left, several potential competitors, including China, have not officially announced their intention to bid, which leads to Saudi Arabia is afraid to become the next host country designated by FIFA.

And that brings us to the possibility. In the future, the World Cup may be held in the Middle East.

After all, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar allows fans to avoid long-distance travel between stadiums, all the stadiums in a city can be reached by taxi and bus subway, and the unprecedented achievement of watching three games in a day.

It remains to be seen whether FIFA will be motivated by interest to make more significant changes.