Saudi Arabia World Cup reveals Fifa’s lack of moral compass - Editorial

The King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Saudi Arabia will host matches in the 2034 World Cup. Photo / Dezeen

Editorial

EDITORIAL

Fifa long ago stopped worrying about what people think of it.

This week’s announcement that world football’s governing body had handed to Saudi Arabia the hosting rights for the 2034 men’s football World Cup sparked outrage among human rights campaigners.

A Fifa report on the merits of Saudi Arabia as a World Cup venue gave a glowing assessment of the place, adjudging that it was a “medium risk” for human rights and “low-risk” for environmental concerns.

Human rights campaigners at Amnesty felt differently. In the weeks before the announcement they had shared concerns about a Saudi World Cup, warning Fifa that “fans will face discrimination, residents will be forcibly evicted, migrant workers will face exploitation, and many will die”.

The Saudi World Cup is set to take place in 15 stadiums, 11 of which don’t yet exist – with one to be built in a city that is still to be built. These construction projects will rely heavily on migrant workers, who labour under conditions that would be deemed unacceptable almost anywhere else in the world.

Human Rights Watch recorded 884 Bangladeshi migrant worker deaths in Saudi Arabia in the first six months of this year.

The ruling royal family has made moves towards liberalisation in some areas in recent years but women’s rights are still broadly restricted, press freedoms are limited in the desert state and political opposition brutally suppressed.

When Saudi woman Manahel al-Otaibi posted on social media calling for an end to rules that force women to get permission of a male relative to marry or travel she was sentenced to 11 years in prison for “terrorist offences” in a secret trial.

Football is not alone in dancing to the Saudi tune. Formula One began racing a Grand Prix in Jeddah in 2021 and New Zealand boxer Joseph Parker fights Daniel Dubois there in February.

But the legitimacy that Fifa’s showcase event brings to a country with a murky reputation is profound. The Saudis will maintain this is not a case of “sportwashing”, but the appeal of major sports events to legitimise a nation’s international profile is strong.

Aside from the moral questions about Saudi Arabia, its suitability as a venue for the tournament is questionable. Like the 2022 tournament played in Qatar, the Saudis want to run the event in the northern winter, bringing massive disruption to the top-flight leagues that are the lifeblood of the sport.

Saudi Arabia (like Qatar) has no rich history in the sport; there’s no pipeline of young Saudi talent flowing into the Premier League.

The 2034 event will be the second time in four tournaments that a Middle Eastern nation has played host, following Qatar in 2022. Meanwhile, to count off two tournaments hosted in South America – the home continent of many of the world’s best players and whose sides have won 10 World Cup titles – you’ll need to look back to 1978.

Fifa is happy to associate itself closely with the despotic Saudi regime, and to turn its back on the real legacy of the sport it governs.