The human rights organization estimates that especially from Saudi Arabia, human rights reforms must be demanded before confirming the hosting of the 2034 World Cup soccer tournament.
18:45•Updated 18:45
The human rights organization Amnesty International urges the International Football Association Fifa to suspend the process of awarding the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is the only applicant for the Games, but Amnesty International believes that Fifa should delay awarding the Games until Saudi Arabia has announced its anticipated human rights reforms.
Fifa is scheduled to confirm the organizers of the 2030 and 2034 World Cups in December. The 2030 tournament is to be organized as a joint project between Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
On Monday, Amnesty International, together with the Sports and Rights Association SRA, also demanded that the applicants for the 2030 Games present an even more credible human rights strategy. The organizations feel that the World Cup applicants do not meet the human rights standards required by Fifa.
Fifa defined human rights criteria for the World Cup selection process for the first time before the application for the men’s 2026 World Cup. In the background was the uproar about the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 games, i.e. Russia and Qatar.
In its report, Amnesty International estimates that the applicants for the 2030 and 2034 games have not sufficiently clarified how they would fulfill these Fifa criteria. Especially in Saudi Arabia, the risks are so great that organizing the tournament there threatens to lead to serious rights violations.
– Without credible guarantees of reforms, the games awarded to Saudi Arabia will result in human losses. Fans face discrimination, residents are forcibly evicted, migrant workers are exploited and many die, director of labor rights and sports Steve Cockburn anticipates in Amnesty’s statement.