FIFA should halt the process to select Saudi Arabia as the host of the 2034 men’s World Cup unless major human rights reforms are announced before a vote of FIFA members next month, campaigners have said.
Amnesty International and the Sport & Rights Alliance are also calling on FIFA to make the awarding of the 2030 World Cup to Morocco, Portugal and Spain conditional on the development of a far more credible human rights strategy than has so far been made available by these countries.
In a new 27-page report, Amnesty and the Sport & Rights Alliance have evaluated the human rights strategies proposed by Morocco, Portugal and Spain for the 2030 tournament, and by Saudi Arabia for the 2034 event.
The report concludes that neither bid adequately outlines how the would-be host nation would meet the human rights standards required by FIFA in its bidding regulations, nor did these bids show evidence of having meaningfully consulted with human rights organisations.
The risks associated with Saudi Arabia hosting the 2023 World Cup are so high, said Amnesty and the Sport & Rights Alliance, that hosting the tournament in this country is likely to lead to severe and widespread rights violations.
Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s head of labour rights and sport, said: “There will be a real and predictable human cost to awarding the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia without obtaining credible guarantees of reform.
“Fans will face discrimination, residents will be forcibly evicted, migrant workers will face exploitation, and many will die.
“Saudi Arabia will require a vast number of migrant workers to deliver its World Cup ambitions, yet there are no commitments to reform the country’s exploitative ‘kafala’ sponsorship system, establish a minimum wage for non-citizens, permit them to join trade unions or introduce new measures to prevent worker deaths.
“Saudi Arabia’s human rights strategy does not address the government’s severe repression of free speech and the continued imprisonment of individuals who have been sentenced to decades in prison merely for their expression, suggesting that there is no serious commitment to reform.
“FIFA must halt the process until proper human rights protections are in place to avoid worsening an already dire situation.
“FIFA must also demand far more credible strategies and binding commitments to prevent human rights violations in relation to the 2030 World Cup. Morocco, Portugal and Spain have still not adequately explained how players and fans will be protected from discriminatory abuse, what measures will be taken to prevent the excessive use of police force, or how residents’ housing rights will be safeguarded.”
Andrea Florence, Sports & Rights Alliance director, said: “FIFA has long claimed that it includes human rights standards when selecting its World Cup hosts and when delivering its flagship tournaments.
“Unless FIFA is honest about the scale and severity of the risks ahead, and acts to prevent them, it will be clear that its commitment to human rights is a sham.
“FIFA was the first global sports body to introduce human rights criteria in its selection process for a mega-sporting event, so it would be shocking to see the organisation now completely jettison these principles in favour of its bottom line.”
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