Why fans should be concerned about FIFA’s decision to give the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia, and what we can do about it.
The World Cup is the most important and watched event in the soccer world. People worldwide spend countless hours watching the tournament, obsessing over every goal, save, and kick. For a brief moment in time, these people are united despite their social or political differences in their love for the sport. It is unique in the fact that the passion that the players feel on the field is shared by every fan in the stadium and around the world. Unfortunately, FIFA has allowed this event to be used by governments who want to cover up the human rights abuses in their country and present a sugar-coated image of their regime to the world. This is called sports washing and it has been in the authoritarian leader’s playbook since the 1936 Summer Olympic Games that took place in Nazi Germany. Recently, FIFA announced that the 2034 World Cup will take place in Saudi Arabia, an announcement that Jack, from the YouTube channel DeadballTV, addresses in a video. After breaking down the pros and cons of FIFA’s decision, Jack argues that the selection of Saudi Arabia as a host is a disgrace for the sport; however, he fails to provide a solution for this issue. I believe that FIFA’s decision is dangerous for the future of the World Cup. As fans, it is our responsibility to hold FIFA responsible so that they avoid sports washing in the selection of hosts because they have the power to implement and enforce anti-sport washing regulations that will protect the sport from this shameful practice.
FIFA’s embrace of sport washing at the World Cup can be traced back to the selection of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, of Russia and Qatar respectively. Russian President Vladimir Putin used the 2018 World Cup to help legitimize and promote his regime while covering up human rights abuses. In the lead-up to the tournament, a reported 21 workers died while constructing the stadiums for the tournament, due to a lack of safety and health concerns for workers. North Korean workers were used to construct the stadium in St. Petersburg and international humanitarian organizations described their living conditions as slave-like, with 24-hour surveillance, no rights, and 90% of their pay taken from them. The 2022 World Cup in Qatar was a similar story. Thousands of workers were brought into the country and were exploited night and day to build eight stadiums in time for the tournament. The Guardian reported in 2022 that 6,500 workers died due to poor working conditions. An example of further human rights abuses includes the history of both Russia and Qatar of suppressing its LGBTQ+ communities. In 2017 Chechen leader, and an associate of Putin, Ramzan Kadyrov, led an anti-LGBTQ+ purge where his forces rounded up men who they thought were gay and tortured them. Kadyrov was then seen at the tournament taking pictures with star players to boost his image. In Qatar, homosexuality is a crime with a potential punishment of up to three years in prison. Before the start of the 2022 World Cup, Qatar forced FIFA to ban all actions and apparel that supported the LGBTQ+ community from the tournament. Both Russia and Qatar, by the nature of their human rights abuses, were unfit to host the World Cup and should have never been awarded the honor of hosting a worldwide event.
FIFA has a well-documented history of corruption, which is evident in its decision to give the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia. There were only two bids to host the 2034 World Cup tournament, which were Saudi Arabia and Australia. This was due to FIFA’s implementation of the host rotation rule. This rule eliminates an entire continent from hosting contention if a nation from the same continent had hosted either of the last two tournaments. This rule eliminated Europe, North America, South America, and Africa. In addition, FIFA made a controversial decision to give three games of the 2030 World Cup to South America to honor the hundredth anniversary of the tournament. This controversial action cleared any viable competition for Saudi Arabia. In 2017, FIFA also adopted the U.N. Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights, which enshrined protections for human rights within FIFA, but blatantly ignored these principles when considering potential hosts for the 2034 World Cup. In the selection process for the 2026 World Cup, the new FIFA policy required bidders to map all human rights risks and provide solutions to fixing them; however, they did not require Saudi Arabia to provide the same in-depth evaluation. Finally, Saudi Arabia submitted such an overwhelming financial proposal that the Australians withdrew their bid. In the selection of the 2034 World Cup, FIFA ignored all of its policies and practices in a corrupt effort to award the event to Saudi Arabia.
FIFA’s decision to award the hosting rights of the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia is described as a disgrace to the international soccer community by Jack, from DeadballTV. Jack is an international soccer fan who makes YouTube videos about recent events in the international soccer community. When FIFA announced that it was awarding the hosting rights of the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia, Jack released a video where he broke down the pros and cons of this decision. Jack pointed out that one of the great aspects of the World Cup is that the world has the opportunity to gain a greater appreciation for the host’s culture. This is especially important in the case of Saudi Arabia. In the West, Saudi Arabian culture is often misunderstood and misrepresented and the World Cup could go a long way in changing that perception. Jack also argues that Saudi Arabia has the financial means to upgrade the necessary infrastructure to help the tournament run smoothly without removing existing government programs that serve the people. Conversely, Jack argues that two World Cups in the Middle East diminishes the opportunity for the world to explore different cultures. Jack describes the World Cup as an event that brings the world together in one community, as they put their full attention on a country for one entire month. He argues that FIFA robbed the world of the opportunity to come together as a soccer community in a new location for a World Cup, such as in Oceania, South East Asia, or Western Africa. Jack acknowledges that despite some positives from Saudi Arabia hosting the World Cup, the negatives far outweigh the positives.
Although I agree with many of Jack’s arguments, I believe that Saudi Arabia hosting the 2034 World Cup is a disgrace for the sport, due to the history of sport washing and human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia. Recently, to remake its public image, Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in sports such as Formula 1, the LIV/PGA golf tour, and now the World Cup. These investments may help the sporting world grow financially but at a dangerous cost to human rights. To build the 14 stadiums that are needed to host the World Cup, Forbes estimated that 13.4 million migrant workers will be needed. If Qatar was an example, these workers would have few rights, low wages, and since Saudi Arabia bans labor unions, they have no recourse to change these things. Other human rights issues that Saudi Arabia has and does engage in includes repression of peaceful protests, oppression of women’s rights, the ongoing conflict with Yemen, punishments for LGBTQ+ members that includes death, and the lack of a free press. These issues represent the worst side of humanity and should not be associated with the World Cup in any way. By hosting the World Cup in Saudi Arabia FIFA risks tainting the World Cup forever and changing what I believe it stands for: unity, diversity, and fairness.
To protect the World Cup from this danger, fans all over the world must make their voices heard and force FIFA to take immediate action to prevent sports washing in the future. As fans, we should feel a moral responsibility to protect the game that we all care about so much. An example of this effective strategy was the failure of the European Super League. The European Super League was a proposal to create a league with the top teams in Europe, which would essentially cut out the smaller teams from a majority of the profit generated in European soccer. Immediately after the announcement, a snap poll conducted found that 79% of British fans were opposed to the creation of a Super League. Supporter groups from each British team released statements that condemned the proposed league. These groups also began to protest outside of the stadiums before games. All around the world fans were letting their displeasure be known through the internet. This strategy proved effective, as 48 hours after the announcement of the European Super League, one British club, Chelsea, withdrew from the league after a thousand-plus fans protested before one of their games. This would lead to the eventual collapse of the Super League as one team after another withdrew, and a series of legal challenges began. I believe that a similar strategy could be used to prevent future sports washing. A research study done by Dublin City University argued that fan response could be an effective strategy in forcing FIFA to take action as long as their response is substantive and without jealousy for nations other than their own.
To prevent the negative effect of sports washing, FIFA must take cues from fans concerning its host selection rules and its enforcement of these rules. FIFA’s Human Rights Policy should be used as the first criteria when considering a potential host. If a potential host country does not meet the standard that FIFA set then they should not be allowed to even submit a bid for the World Cup. I also think it would be beneficial to lower the standards for a potential host in terms of the infrastructure needed. FIFA could do this by reverting to the popular 32-team format for the World Cup. This would require fewer stadiums, hotels, and other facilities to be built allowing for more potential hosts. Another step FIFA could take is to get rid of the host rotation rule. This rule states that if a nation in a continent hosted a World Cup another nation in the same continent could not host for another two tournaments. Although this rule had good intentions, it ended up being used by FIFA to eliminate all legitimate competition for Saudi Arabia to host the 2034 World Cup. If FIFA does not change its host election process, then sport washing and the World Cup will become synonymous and the tournament will be ruined for future fans of the sport.
