FIFA must halt Saudi Arabia’s selection process to host the 2034 World Cup unless major human rights reforms are announced before next month’s vote, Amnesty International and the Sport & Rights Alliance (SRA).
The congress of the FIFA must vote next month to approve the World Cup 2030 and 2034although each only has one application. A combined bid from Morocco, Spain and Portugal is the sole bid for 2030, while Saudi Arabia is the sole bidder for 2034.
Amnesty and the ASF said they assessed the human rights strategies proposed by the candidate countries and concluded, in a new report, that neither application adequately described how they would respect the human rights standards required by the FIFA.
They said the risks were much greater in Saudi Arabia and that hosting the tournament in the Gulf country would lead to violations “serious and widespread” of human rights.
“Awarding the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia without obtaining credible guarantees of reform will have a real and predictable human cost”said Steve Cockburn, head of labor rights and sport at Amnesty International, in a statement.
“Fans will be discriminated against, migrant workers will be exploited and many will die. FIFA must halt the process until adequate human rights protections are in place to avoid worsening an already dire situation.”
The FIFA indicated that the evaluation reports of applications for World Cup 2030 and 2034 would be published before its extraordinary congress on December 11.
“FIFA implements extensive tendering procedures for the 2030 and 2034 editions of the FIFA World Cup”declared a spokesperson for the FIFA.
“(It) follows in line with previous processes for the selection of 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.”
Discrimination concerns
The hosts of the World Cup must be officially designated at the congress of the FIFA and Saudi Arabia’s application is almost certain to succeed due to the absence of any further expressions of interest before the deadline set by the FIFA at the end of last year.
The question of whether LGBTQ people will face discrimination in the Kingdom, where people can be sentenced to death if it is proven that they had sexual relations with people of the same sex, has sparked heated debate. concerns.
Hammad Albalawi, head of the unit responsible for Saudi Arabia’s bid for the World Cupsaid in September that LGBTQ fans were welcome and their privacy would be respected, recalling that millions of fans had traveled to the country to attend sporting events in recent years.
“Saudi Arabia is committed to cultivating a competitive environment free from discrimination and working to eradicate discrimination based on protected characteristics”Saudi Arabia declared in its candidature file for the World Cup.
“Together with our government partners, we will verify that our laws comply with our international commitments and implement necessary improvements.”
Migrant workers
Saudi Arabia’s bid file indicates that 15 stadiums will be built or renovated for the World Cupwith construction expected to be completed in 2032, and that more than 185,000 additional hotel rooms will be built before the tournament.
Mr Cockburn said Saudi Arabia would need large numbers of migrant workers to achieve its ambitions for World Cup in a country that has neither established a minimum wage for non-citizens nor introduced measures to prevent worker deaths.
The problem is similar to worker deaths in neighboring Qatar, which hosted the 2022 World Cup and built new stadiums with the help of immigrant workers.
The British newspaper Guardian reported that at least 6,500 migrant workers – many of whom worked on projects related to World Cup – had died in Qatar after that country won the right to host the event, but this figure was disputed by the Gulf country.
“We are committed to meeting our commitments on forced labor, child labor, non-discrimination and occupational safety and health. We will work to ensure that our partners respect these standards”Saudi Arabia declared in its application file.
The Amnesty report also said the crackdown on free speech was a cause for concern, with Mr Cockburn saying there was no serious commitment to reform.
“Saudi Arabia’s human rights strategy fails to address the harsh crackdown on freedom of expression and continued imprisonment of people who have been sentenced to decades of prison simply for speaking out.”Mr Cockburn said.
Saudi Arabia is spending billions to transform its image from a country known for strict religious restrictions and human rights abuses into a tourism and entertainment hub. However, she narrowly failed to secure a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council last month.
