‘He sold himself to the devil’ – Messi, 2030, and a very uncomfortable deal with

Argentina versus Saudi Arabia at the World Cup in Qatar. A battle for early supremacy in Group C, yes, but also the prelude to a battle off the field that will take place in the coming years.

The 2026 World Cup will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico but bidding for the 2030 edition opened in June this year with the eventual winner to be selected at the 74th FIFA congress in 2024.

The only confirmed bid so far is a joint initiative by Spain, Portugal and Ukraine, which was announced earlier this year. However, two rival proposals are due to be formally launched.

One will be a South American co-production comprised of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile. The other will be a combined effort by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Greece. The use of multiple countries within bids is explained by the fact the World Cup finals will become a 48-team competition from 2026.

“A South American bid for 2030 is very strong,” its co-ordinator Fernando Marin told The Athletic. “The region is a generator of talent that expresses itself all over the world. Additionally, on the 100th anniversary of the first World Cup in Uruguay in 1930, it would be a fitting location.”

In 1930, hosts Uruguay won the tournament, beating Argentina 4-2 in the final.

The South American joint bid was first publicised in 2017, when then Barcelona team-mates Luis Suarez (Uruguay) and Lionel Messi (Argentina) teamed up to promote their countries. Before a match between the two nations, Suarez wore a Uruguay kit with the No 20 on his jersey and Messi wore Argentina’s with the No 30.

Suarez and Messi promote the 2030 joint bid (Photo: Pablo Porciuncula Brune/AFP via Getty Images)

Marin told news agency AFP the following year: “Messi will join us in this initiative, and Suarez certainly. We told him (Messi) about our aims, and he feels it’s doable. He showed great desire to help us. He will surely be the flag-bearer for the World Cup.”

This May, however, a fresh development arose when Messi, arguably the greatest and most famous footballer on the planet, signed a lucrative agreement to promote the state of Saudi Arabia.

The first thing to say is that the agreement is to promote tourism in that country, rather than a 2030 World Cup bid itself.

However, the national objective of Saudi Arabia is tied around “Vision 2030”. This is described by government literature as “a unique transformative economic and social reform blueprint that is opening Saudi Arabia up to the world”.

A World Cup bid for 2030, therefore, seems heavily linked to the overall vision and promoting tourism does much to aid that cause. Other examples include the state’s sovereign wealth fund PIF deciding to acquire the English Premier League club Newcastle United, as well as backing the LIV Golf breakaway tour, plus a 10-year, $650million deal to host Formula One races and stage the 2019 heavyweight boxing clash between Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz.

Dennis Horak, the Canadian ambassador to Saudi between 2015 and 2018, explains to The Athletic: “The whole opening of the entertainment and sports sphere is a big part of Vision 2030. With the LIV Golf (funded by Saudi Arabia) and now with these sorts of high-level sponsorships such as Messi, they’re trying to take it to another level and make it more global. Saudi’s reputation globally needs a sprucing up and it is about trying to rebrand the country.”

The length and terms of Messi’s agreement has not been publicised.

The Daily Telegraph previously reported Cristiano Ronaldo rejected an offer worth more than £5million per year to promote Saudi tourism and sources close to the negotiations, who wished not to be named to protect business relationships, confirmed Ronaldo had turned down an approach.

However, multiple sources familiar with the workings of ambassadorial roles in the Gulf region, who wished not to be named to prevent repercussions, suggested to The Athletic that Messi’s deal may be worth as much as five times more than the annual fee apparently offered to Ronaldo.

This becomes more credible when we consider the kinds of figures Saudi agencies have poured into the LIV Golf tour, for example, where Tiger Woods turned down a figure reported to be worth $700m-$800m to join the breakaway movement.

Representatives for Messi said they could not clarify the figures involved owing to the terms of confidentiality in the agreement, while the Saudi government did not respond to emails from The Athletic.

The Saudis first promoted the Argentinian as their tourism ambassador for the country during a trip to Jeddah, a resort city by the Red Sea, in May.

“This is not his first visit to the kingdom and it will not be the last,” said Ahmed al-Khateeb, the Saudi minister of tourism, in a tweet that showed Messi’s welcome at King Abdulaziz International Airport.

I am pleased to welcome Lionel Messi to Saudi Arabia We are excited for you to explore the treasures of the Red Sea, the Jeddah Season…