No one can predict which team will win the 2034 Men’s World Cup Soccer Championship. However, based on the current situation, we know that the biggest losers are the millions of migrant workers who are severely mistreated during the construction of stadiums, transport, infrastructure and other facilities. The next 10 years for host country Saudi Arabia.
Emir and President of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani (left) and Gianni Infantino (SUI) FIFA … (+)
© 2022 Sipa AP Image via
On December 11, FIFA’s 211 member countries will vote in an “extraordinary session” to decide on the host city for the 2034 tournament. The outcome is already known, as Saudi Arabia is the only bidder and has received a high rating from FIFA in its bid evaluation.
FIFA has not disclosed how much it benefits from hosting its flagship tournament in a country with a dismal human rights record. Saudi Arabia’s 13.4 million migrant workers, Saudi nationals, athletes, fans and journalists most affected by the decision do not have the right to vote.
FIFA and its Saudi government partners recently boasted that Saudi Arabia’s rating score of 419.8 out of 500 was “the highest in FIFA World Cup history.” FIFA’s deeply flawed assessment process further downplayed systematic human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia, giving it a ridiculous “medium risk” rating.
FIFA gave the “highest score ever” to a country with no trade unions, no free press, and a repressive government that punishes all dissent.
“Saudi Arabia cannot be called a ‘medium-risk’ country given that it has become a pure police state,” said Lina Al-Hathloul, Director of Monitoring and Advocacy at ALQST for Human Rights. said. Saudi Arabia’s sister, Loujain, is imprisoned and tortured. For advocating for women’s right to drive.
This month, FIFA leaders also confirmed that FIFA has a “responsibility” to compensate the families of thousands of migrant workers killed in the construction of the final FIFA World Cup, to be held in Qatar in 2022. FIFA’s own independent report was also rejected.
Like Qatar, Saudi Arabia operates under an abusive labor sponsorship system known as kafala, in which migrant workers pay high recruitment fees and face employers taking away their passports and having their wages stolen. Many of them are unable to change jobs or leave the country freely. Trade unions, strikes, and protests are prohibited. Saudi authorities do not adequately protect migrant workers from dangerous conditions such as extreme heat.
Because of the unprecedented scale of Saudi Arabia’s World Cup plans, the potential for a labor rights disaster is greater than for the Qatar World Cup. The Saudi-backed document calls for the construction of 11 new and four renovated stadiums, 185,000 new hotel rooms, and improvements to airports, roads and railways in the brutal desert heat, similar to Qatar. We are committed to building. This infrastructure deficit is solely due to construction by migrant workers. Many of these World Cup projects will be accomplished with funding from Saudi Arabia’s state-run $925 billion Public Investment Fund and FIFA’s new major global partner, oil and gas giant Aramco.
Hundreds of billions of dollars in construction comes with significant human costs. In the six months from January to July 2024, 884 migrant workers from Bangladesh died in Saudi Arabia, according to a new Human Rights Watch report. 80% of these deaths were not investigated, were attributed to “natural causes” and were not eligible for compensation. Human Rights Watch sent a letter to FIFA President Gianni Infantino on November 4, 2024, documenting widespread labor abuses in Saudi Arabia’s megaproject that will form part of the World Cup infrastructure. FIFA has not responded.
Winning the hosting rights was an effort championed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who said the FIFA World Cup was part of Saudi’s national sportswash strategy to project a reformist image while concealing Saudi human rights abuses. It is clear that it is the center. . “If sportswashing increases GDP by 1%, we will continue sportswashing,” the de facto Saudi leader said in an interview with Fox News last year. “I don’t care.”
People walk past a banner depicting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman outside a shopping mall in Jeddah. … (+)
© 2019 AP Photo/Amr Nabil
But FIFA should care. Giving Saudi Arabia the right to host the World Cup violates FIFA’s own human rights regulations. In 2016, faced with a corruption crisis, FIFA established specific human rights standards for itself and its host countries, including protection from forced labor. These reforms were supposed to distance the tournament from the worst human rights abusers. FIFA also pledges “an ongoing due diligence process to identify, address, assess and communicate the risks of involvement in adverse human rights impacts” and “in order to uphold its international human rights responsibilities.” He promised to make every effort.
However, no migrant workers, victims of human rights crimes, torture survivors, imprisoned women’s rights defenders, or members of Saudi civil society were consulted in FIFA’s supposedly independent human rights assessment. . FIFA’s “Tender Evaluation Report” also makes no mention of the historic forced labor lawsuit filed by trade union BWI against the Saudi government with the International Labor Organization (ILO) in June this year. Similar complaints about Qatar in 2014 spurred labor reforms in the country, but it was too late to help the thousands of migrant workers who died.
In 2023, FIFA was forced to cancel a sponsorship it had sold to Visit Saudi, the Saudi national tourism company, following protests from female players. In October, more than 100 top female athletes published an open letter protesting FIFA’s expensive sponsorship deal with Saudi oil giant Aramco. Two US senators have already asked FIFA to choose another venue for the 2034 World Cup.
FIFA needs to cancel the vote and stand up for players and human rights over Saudi sportswash profiteering. All sponsors, companies, broadcasters and national teams associated with the Saudi World Cup will be tainted by widespread labor and other abuses unless major and urgent human rights reforms are implemented. FIFA’s decision to award the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia is an unforgivable betrayal of fundamental human rights that puts the lives of migrant workers at risk. That deserves a red card.
