The decision to award Saudi Arabia the right to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup is no longer a sporting matter, nor a technical organisational achievement. It has become an open moral test—one that places global football institutions in front of an unforgiving mirror. One year after the hosting was formally confirmed, the language of soft promises and reformist rhetoric is rapidly dissolving, replaced by a far harsher reality: the world’s biggest sporting event is at serious risk of becoming a political laundering tool, used to mask a deepening record of repression rather than confront it.
A new warning issued by a global coalition of human rights organisations, labour unions, and football supporters leaves little room for ambiguity. What is unfolding is not a temporary reform setback, nor an isolated failure. It is a systematic trajectory that fundamentally contradicts the values FIFA claims to uphold.
FIFA’s Failure: When a Tournament Is Awarded Without Conditions or Accountability
At the heart of the warning lies not only criticism of Saudi Arabia, but a direct indictment of FIFA itself. In December 2024, the governing body confirmed Saudi Arabia as host despite clear, repeated warnings and despite the absence of binding commitments or independent monitoring mechanisms. Letters addressed to FIFA president Gianni Infantino and national football associations describe the decision plainly: a moral and legal failure.
This failure was not procedural. It was political.
FIFA chose to endorse Saudi Arabia’s official narrative of “reform” and “opening” without meaningful verification, without on-the-ground assessment, and without serious consultation with migrant workers, civil society organisations, or even football supporters. Hosting rights were granted as a blank cheque. One year later, it has become evident that this cheque is being used to accelerate megaprojects—not to reduce repression.
The coalition warns that continued silence makes FIFA complicit in whitewashing abuses. Instead of acting as leverage for reform, the World Cup is being deployed as a political shield—deflecting international scrutiny and allowing Saudi authorities greater room to dismiss criticism under the pretext of “preparing for the tournament.”
A Concrete Boom with a Human Cost: Migrant Workers on the Front Line
The most alarming aspect of the warning concerns migrant workers, the backbone of stadium construction and infrastructure expansion. Documented reports throughout 2025 point to deaths at construction sites linked to major projects, wage theft, and severe labour violations, including those previously exposed at projects such as the Riyadh Metro. Patterns of abuse against domestic workers—particularly women from East Africa—continue largely unchecked.
Saudi authorities have repeatedly claimed to have dismantled the kafala sponsorship system. The coalition’s findings, however, confirm that the system remains firmly in place in practice, rebranded through loopholes and administrative controls. Workers are still effectively tied to their employers, unable to change jobs or leave the country without consent, creating ideal conditions for exploitation and forced labour.
In this context, talk of a “values-driven World Cup” becomes grotesquely ironic. The tournament is being built on the backs of people who lack even the most basic right to protest their conditions. The warning does not resort to diplomatic language here; it describes the potential human cost of the tournament as severe and foreseeable.
Hosting a global football event under these conditions is not a celebration of sport. It is a replication of an exploitative model that has already stained previous tournaments—except this time, the lessons have been deliberately ignored.
NEOM and Domestic Repression: A Tournament Used to Reengineer Society
The abuses linked to the World Cup extend beyond construction sites into geography, land, and population control. Human rights organisations have documented forced evictions connected to the NEOM project, one of the sites proposed for hosting World Cup matches. These displacements were carried out without adequate safeguards or fair compensation, exposing how the tournament is being used as justification to redraw landscapes through coercion.
At the same time, 2025 witnessed a dangerous escalation in domestic repression. Harsh sentences in cases related to freedom of expression and conscience, widespread use of arbitrary travel bans, and a sharp surge in executions—reaching approximately 330 cases in a single year—have shattered any remaining claims of “reformist stability.” This figure alone dismantles the narrative the Saudi regime continues to market abroad.
Discrimination based on gender, religion, and sexual orientation remains entrenched, raising fundamental questions about the safety and rights of fans, players, and visitors during the tournament. The coalition explicitly links these issues, arguing that the World Cup does not arrive despite this reality, but is being actively exploited within it.
The tournament becomes a political umbrella—one that accelerates megaprojects, suppresses dissent, and neutralises international criticism under the familiar excuse of “not disrupting the football celebration.”
A World Cup Without Guarantees: When Football Becomes a Tool of Whitewashing
The international warning does not demand the impossible. It calls for what should have been self-evident from the outset: hosting conditions tied to clear, measurable reforms; independent expert oversight; public annual reviews; and real pressure to improve workers’ rights and fundamental freedoms.
Ignoring these demands does not merely endanger Saudi Arabia’s reputation—it strikes at the moral core of global football itself.
The 2034 World Cup now stands at a decisive crossroads. It can either become a rare opportunity to enforce genuine human rights standards, or it can slide into history as the largest sportswashing operation ever staged. Silence is no longer neutral. Delay is no longer defensible.
Every day without serious intervention brings the tournament closer to being remembered not as a celebration of the game, but as proof—once again—that deals and interests prevailed over human dignity.
