Doha beat Riyadh to clinch the hosting rights of 2030 Asian Games

Hosting rights of Asian Games 2030 were awarded to Doha on Wednesday, while the 2034 edition of the event went to Riyadh after an OCA meeting which was live streamed.

Doha, the capital of Qatar pipped Saudi Arabia's capital city Riyadh for the 2030 Games in the vote at the Olympic Council of Asia's (OCA) general assembly.

The vote took place amid a bitter and long-running political tussle between the Gulf nations. Saudi Arabia is one of the four nations (UAE, Bahrain and Egypt) which has imposed a trade and travel boycott on Qatar since 2017.

OCA President Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah announced the winner.

"That means no winner, no loser," OCA president Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah of Kuwait said, thanking the Saudi and Qatari foreign ministers and conference host Oman for helping to broker the agreement. "Thank you,



Asia, for solidarity and coordination."

Notably, Doha has hosted the 2006 Asian Games but Saudi Arabia has never hosted an OCA multi sport event.

OCA president Sheikh Ahmad in an attempt to prevent a diplomatic dispute on Tuesday said that he was looking to avoid a vote by persuading one city to host the 2030 Games while the other to gear up for the 2034 edition.

Ng Ser Miang, the chairman of the OCA advisory committee and vice president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said that the proposed hosting solution was similar to the IOC decision to award the Olympics to Paris in 2024 and Los Angeles in 2028.

Also, according to Saudi state TV report, the 2034 hosts asked the OCA to halt electronic voting due to "the possibility of technical fraud. Later, members were seen casting their ballots physically in a box.