An ASEAN World Cup in 2034?

In mid-February, Myanmar Football Federation chairman Zaw Zaw made headlines when he said that ASEAN was mulling potentially hosting the World Cup in 2034 following a meeting with FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

“We had a council meeting about when we’re going to host the World Cup in ASEAN,” Zaw Zaw told a crowd gathered for the opening of a new football academy in Yangon on February 17. “We were discussing 2034.”

The idea of the regional grouping jointly hosting the tournament, which is held once every four years, is not new. Indeed, back in 2011, ASEAN had agreed at the summit level to consider the proposal for ASEAN hosting the World Cup in 2030 and prepare a status report to assess the region’s ability to do so. The notion of an ASEAN World Cup has since continued to be a point of conversation, even though it has yet to translate into reality.

It is not difficult to understand why this is the case. Locking in an ASEAN World Cup for 2030 could bring some economic opportunities for ASEAN countries and also help build the very regional consciousness that an ASEAN Community aims to promote. But on the other hand, it was unclear whether the subregion was ready to manage the immense challenges that come with this, whether it be the massive infrastructure needs to support the tournament or the logistical issues that would inevitably become more complex with multiple host nations.

There were also questions about the competitiveness of ASEAN’s 2030 bid. There is nothing technically wrong with an ASEAN 2030 bid. FIFA rules prohibit a regional confederation from hosting a World Cup for two consecutive editions, but with the Asian region set to host the tournament in 2022 in Qatar, that leaves room for the World Cup to move elsewhere before returning to Asia in 2030. The trouble is that there are other contending bids too. The one that looks particularly attractive for 2030 is the joint Uruguay-Argentina bid, since Uruguay was where the first tournament was held and the 2030 World Cup will mark its centenary.

Besides, kicking the can down the road may also increase the likelihood that more Asian countries could make it into the World Cup before the tournament is held in the subregion. Teams in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have not featured too heavily in the World Cup historically, with the most participations coming from South Korea, Japan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia and one or two appearances by others like Australia and China. No modern Southeast Asian state has made it to the competition.

But FIFA’s decision last month to expand the number of countries in the tournament from 32 to 48 starting with the 2026 World Cup opens the door to potentially greater participation from Asian – and perhaps even ASEAN – states. That is important because it will be the first chance to showcase the region’s talent since it was hosted there in 2002, when Japan and South Korea co-hosted the competition and Seoul finished fourth, the best result ever for an Asian team.

Regardless, the idea of an ASEAN World Cup in the near future seems to be gaining steam. Apart from the growing enthusiasm within the region and its tens of millions of football fans, Infantino himself said in Yangon that he publicly supported the idea of a joint ASEAN World Cup bid, since it would be in line with his vision of both expanding football’s presence across the world while also ensuring that some of the capacity challenges commonly cited are addressed to ensure the tournament runs smoothly.

“For a country alone in the ASEAN region it’s difficult to host the World Cup, but for several countries as joint co-hosts, why not?” Infantino said.

Of course, that leaves some important questions unanswered, including how many countries would be able to co-host the tournament in Southeast Asia. While co-hosting the World Cup is not inconceivable, whether it be the past example of Japan and South Korea in 2002 or the future prospect of a United States, Canada, and Mexico joint bid for 2026, having the ten ASEAN countries run the tournament would seem a bit too much, while restricting it to a few would raise the uncomfortable question of who to exclude.

Nonetheless, for Southeast Asia’s football fans, it may be exciting enough to hear that the idea of an ASEAN World Cup is more and more becoming a question of when rather than if.