Qatar, Saudi Arabia compete to host 2030 Asian Games

FILE — Spectators leave the venue during a round of fireworks at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta on August 18, 2018. (Photo by Anthony WALLACE / AFP)

KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait — Regional rivals Qatar and Saudi Arabia will compete to host the 2030 Asian Games.

The capital cities of Doha and Riyadh are the two bidders to meet the entry deadline, the Olympic Council of Asia said Thursday.

The sporting rivalry extends from a political one that intensified in 2017 when Saudi Arabia and regional allies imposed an economic and transport boycott on Qatar, the host of football’s 2022 World Cup.

OCA members are set to pick the Asian Games host on Nov. 29 at a meeting in Sanya, China.

Doha staged the Asian Games in 2006, and Saudi Arabia has yet to host the multi-sport event.

“With these two bids for the 2030 Asian Games we now have stability and continuity in our sports movement for the next decade,” OCA president Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah said in a statement.

The next Asian Games editions are in 2022 in Hangzhou, China, and in 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.

Sheikh Ahmad continues to lead the Asian Olympic body while self-suspended as a member of the International Olympic Committee and leader of the global group of national Olympic officials, known as ANOC.

The Kuwaiti sheikh has been indicted in Geneva and is facing trial in a forgery case.