Sending the World Cup to Saudi Arabia was the most seismic sporting announcement in a decade, but at Fifa HQ it was designed to seem like just an ordinary Wednesday. Behind firmly-closed doors, Gianni Infantino kicked off his 3pm work-from-home-style Zoom meeting presenting not to the great and good of football,

Saudi Arabia has been officially confirmed by FIFA as host of the 2034 World Cup in men’s soccer. The Saudi bid was the only candidate and was acclaimed by the applause of more than 200 FIFA member federations.

Within days, Saudi had the key backing of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), scuppering any faint prospect of Australia teaming up with Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. That gave Saudi a free run at 2034, and the Australians duly bowed out of what can barely be called a race.