FIFA must halt the process of choosing Saudi Arabia as host of the 2034 World Cup unless major human rights reforms are announced in the country before next month’s vote, Amnesty International and Sport & Rights say Alliance (SRA).
Next month, the FIFA Congress is expected to hold votes to approve the 2030 and 2034 World Cups, although each of them has just a single proposal. A combined candidacy from Morocco, Spain and Portugal is the only candidate for 2030, while Saudi Arabia is the only candidate for 2034.
Amnesty and the SRA said they assessed human rights strategies proposed by candidate countries and concluded, in a new report, that none of the candidates adequately outlined how they would meet the human rights standards required by FIFA.
They said the risks were much higher in Saudi Arabia and that hosting the tournament in the Gulf country would lead to “serious and widespread” human rights violations.
“There will be a real and predictable human cost to awarding the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia without obtaining credible guarantees of reform,” said Steve Cockburn, head of employment rights and sport at Amnesty, in a statement.
“Fans will suffer discrimination, immigrant workers will be exploited and many will die.”
“FIFA must halt the process until appropriate human rights protections are in place to avoid worsening an already dire situation.”
The body that manages world football said that the evaluation reports on the proposals for the 2030 and 2034 World Cups will be published before its extraordinary congress on December 11.
“FIFA is implementing full bidding processes for the 2030 and 2034 editions of the World Cup,” said a FIFA spokesperson.
“[Está] in line with previous processes for selecting hosts for the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada and the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil.”
