In the year The country, which is expected to host the World Cup in 2034, is the latest Gulf nation to record victories in international events.
Another host victory for the Gulf nation is set to take place in Riyadh after Qatar hosted the soccer tournament at the 2030 Expo. World Cup last year.
South Korea’s Busan and Italy’s Rome were competing to host the world’s fair, which attracts millions of visitors and billions of dollars in investment every five years.
The Saudi capital received 119 votes, Busan 29 and Rome 17, results from 182 members of the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) showed on Tuesday. Saudi Arabia Two-thirds of the vote is needed to win in the first round.
The Italian contestants countered their criticism of the result.
Giampiero Masolo, head of Italy’s Expo auction, told reporters that this high score for Saudi was unexpected. “It’s not about legacies anymore, it’s about transactions.”
“Yesterday was the football championship. Tomorrow will be the Olympics,” he added.
Saudi Arabia is the only It is set to host the 2034 World Cup and has also hosted the Olympics.
Football star Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays for Riyadh’s Al Nasser club in the capital, tried to convince BIE members in a video before the vote. The city proposed to hold the event from October 2030 to March 2031.
The victory belongs to the crown prince Ketema. Mohammed bin Salman Vision 2030 program aimed at weaning the country from oil dependence.
“We had a wonderful group of ministers traveling around the world, we engaged them in a very, very active way to understand what our counterparts expect, what they want and what we need to deliver,” said Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister.
Critics say the crown prince wants to use the expo to improve his country’s image after the 2018 killing of a prominent Saudi journalist. Jamal Khashoggi by a group of Saudi agents.
