Viral video of Saudi Arabia’s 'sky stadium' for 2034 FIFA World Cup turns out to be fake

An AI-generated video claiming to depict one of Saudi Arabia’s stadiums for the 2034 FIFA World Cup went viral this week, misleading millions of social media users.

The futuristic clip — showing a glowing football arena perched atop a skyscraper — was widely shared online, with many believing it was part of the kingdom’s official World Cup plans.

However, Saudi officials confirmed the design has no connection to any real project. “This design is completely fake and bears no resemblance to anything Saudi Arabia is planning. It appears in no official sources,” a wire service reported, quoting a source familiar with the matter.

Although Saudi Arabia has announced plans for a stadium integrated into The Line, a massive real estate and infrastructure development within its futuristic NEOM project, the official designs look nothing like the viral video.

Several French media outlets that initially presented the clip as an official Saudi concept have since corrected or removed their reports.

The wire service's digital verification team traced the video to the Instagram account @hyporaultraworks, known for posting AI-generated visuals of imaginative stadiums and futuristic architecture. The video, captioned as “an aerial flyby of a skyscraper stadium design,” originated from this account.

The creator confirmed to the wire service that they produced the video, explaining that it was merely a creative experiment.

They clarified that the video had “nothing to do with any Saudi project” and was simply an exploration of how a vertical football stadium might look.