Saudi Arabia knows how to play politics with FIFA. Just look at how they were able to lobby the AFC to have the Round 4 match held in their country, which gives them a significant advantage. Although the decision was protested by other teams because the match was supposed to be held at a neutral venue, the AFC still selected Saudi Arabia and Qatar to host the fourth round and ignored the protests from other teams. Because of this, I am even more confident that Saudi Arabia will qualify for the World Cup.
Arabs are always good at using their influence which is working for them even their human rights record is not good but still they are getting good support from western countries and USA for having big events and as they want to do in many other things related to sports.
In last 2 decades, Gulf is completely changing as sports and culture events hub for world due to their money and approach which are they using after having good influence in world sports in Asian sports no country can challenge them even their system and structure is not helping their own youths to develop their skills in sports. Saudi Arab and Qatar are having good advantage in coming fourth round which is now going to be played into these countries due to their influence which is supporting them in AFC.