The world's largest sporting event, the FIFA World Cup, will be held in Saudi Arabia in 2034, soccer's governing body announced Wednesday — a controversial selection that has already drawn criticism from human rights groups.
Saudi Arabia's was the only bid for the 2034 tournament, making its announcement on Wednesday a formality. And it is the biggest jewel yet of the long-running effort by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de-facto ruler, to rebrand the country and propel it onto the world stage.
But critics have decried the award of such a massive, lucrative event to a country whose leadership is accused of serious human rights violations — including the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 and the jailing of other critics inside the country. And others fear that migrant workers needed to build stadiums and other infrastructure will face similar abuses to those who built the last World Cup in Qatar.
In a joint statement, 21 human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Saudi-focused organization ALQST, said the selection of Saudi Arabia represented a "moment of great danger" for "residents, migrant workers and visiting fans alike."
"FIFA can never claim that it did not know the severity of the risks of hosting its flagship event in a country with such weak human rights protections," the groups wrote. "It is evident that without urgent action and comprehensive reforms, the 2034 World Cup will be tarnished by repression, discrimination and exploitation on a massive scale."
How Saudi Arabia was selected
Wednesday's announcement also included the 2030 event, which is set to be co-hosted by Portugal, Spain and Morocco. And to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first World Cup, which was held in Uruguay, the first three games of the tournament will be held in South America, with a match apiece hosted by Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay.
Under FIFA rules, a World Cup cannot be hosted on the same continent that hosted the previous one. In turn, FIFA's decision to combine what had originally been two different 2030 bids — one from Spain, Portugal and Morocco and the other from the South American countries — had the effect of disqualifying any bids for 2034 from Europe, Africa or South America.
That considerably narrowed the field of potential hosts. After Australia announced last year it would not submit a bid, that left Saudi Arabia as the only bid standing.
Saudi Arabia's bid proposed holding games across 15 stadiums and five host cities.
The FIFA World Cup is one of the largest events in the world. And it generates enormous revenue for FIFA itself, which expects to bring in $11 billion from the 2026 event, which will be held in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The tournament has grown over time, and now includes 48 teams and more than 100 total matches.
Human rights at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar
A major focus of the critics are the problems of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where human rights and environmental impacts were concerns from the moment the bid was selected.
Qatar relied on the labor of tens of thousands of migrant workers to build the stadiums and other infrastructure needed for the World Cup. Many faced injuries, unpaid wages and debt — and some died, although the number of deaths is disputed.
Afterward, a report commissioned by FIFA found that "severe human rights impacts" had taken place and that FIFA had potentially contributed to them.
Saudi Arabia, too, is expected to rely on the labor of migrant workers in order to complete construction by 2034.
"There is nothing to indicate that Saudi Arabia will be any better," said Abdullah Alaoudh, a senior director at the Middle East Democracy Center.
Qatari officials have said the country's labor practices improved as a result of the World Cup, and it and FIFA largely blamed employers for abuses faced by workers.
Saudi Arabia's bid outlined existing laws that officials say will protect workers from abuse. In addition, officials say they will adopt "a human rights-based approach" to third-party contracts and worker welfare standards.
In evaluating Saudi Arabia's bid, FIFA nodded to social reforms that Saudi Arabia has made in recent years, and it noted that the country has 10 years to address any additional risk of discrimination or abuse before the tournament begins.
Sports as a tool for change in Saudi Arabia
Under the crown prince, the kingdom has spent billions of dollars to build up tourism and sports, part of a wider effort to boost foreign investment and revamp the economy away from oil, though energy revenues remain at the heart of this transformation.
The crown prince has opened up sports to girls in public schools, allowed women's gyms to flourish, lifted restrictions on women attending matches in sports stadiums and removed gender segregation in public spaces and restaurants — all unthinkable just a decade ago, when the country was under the sway of ultraconservative religious clerics who argued that playing sports blurred gender lines and encouraged promiscuity.
A new Saudi vision, under the crown prince, argues that sports are a tool for a change, with soccer at its heart. Saudi Arabia has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to draw global stars like Cristiano Ronaldo to play in Saudi Arabia's domestic leagues.
Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund also underwrites golf's LIV tournament, a rival to the North America-based PGA. And the country has brought major boxing and tennis tournaments to its capital, Riyadh, along with motorsport events such as Formula One races and the Dakar Rally.
Human rights draw backlash to Saudi reforms
The 39-year-old crown prince's efforts have come alongside a crackdown on dissent and activism. People who have publicly called for change or criticized the crown prince have been jailed or banned from traveling abroad.
Prince Mohammed's crackdown on critics came into global focus after the 2018 operation that killed Saudi writer and critic Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Turkey by agents who worked for the crown prince. His remains were never found, and the crown prince maintains he had no knowledge of the operation.
The Saudi human rights group ALQST says at least 306 people have been executed so far this year in the kingdom, the highest known figure in the country's history.
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