FIFA’s Silence Is Complicity: Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Abuses Whitewashed by the 2034 World Cup
Together for Justice strongly condemns FIFA’s ongoing complicity in Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations by maintaining its decision to award the 2034 World Cup to the Kingdom without transparency, competition, or regard for basic ethical standards. Despite overwhelming and consistent documentation of systemic abuses — including the repression of free expression, the torture of prisoners of conscience, and deadly exploitation of migrant workers — FIFA has chosen silence and profit over justice and accountability.
The decision, made in late 2024, has not only emboldened the Saudi regime but also sent a dangerous message to the international community: that mass violations of human rights can be overlooked if the price is right. FIFA’s refusal to conduct human rights due diligence or condition hosting rights on verifiable reforms is a blatant betrayal of its own human rights policy established in 2017.
Meanwhile, the Saudi regime has intensified its preparations for the tournament with large-scale infrastructure projects, placing thousands of migrant workers at grave risk. Investigations and testimonies have revealed horrifying details: men falling to their deaths from unsafe scaffolding, fatal injuries from faulty equipment, and even gruesome reports of workers being decapitated in workplace accidents. These tragedies are not accidents — they are the direct result of the Kingdom’s failure to enforce safety regulations and its employers’ unchecked impunity.
Saudi authorities continue to claim they have enacted reforms, but the reality on the ground tells another story. Labor laws are either ignored or exploited, and no credible enforcement mechanisms exist. These abuses occur in the shadow of Saudi Arabia’s international rebranding efforts, where entertainment and sport are used to mask repression and silence criticism — a strategy commonly known as sportswashing.
FIFA’s complicity extends beyond silence. By offering Saudi Arabia the most prestigious tournament in global sport, it has legitimized and rewarded authoritarianism. The organization has failed its duty to uphold the values it claims to represent, betraying not only the exploited workers but also the global public who believe in the power of sport to elevate humanity, not bury it under profit.
Together for Justice calls for:
- An independent international investigation into the treatment of migrant workers involved in World Cup preparations.
- The immediate implementation of binding human rights guarantees by Saudi Arabia, with international oversight.
- Suspension of the hosting rights if the Kingdom fails to meet basic standards of labor protection and human dignity.
Accountability from FIFA for its failure to uphold its human rights obligations and for enabling repression through negligence and opportunism.
FIFA’s decision is not just a failure of governance — it is a stain on the conscience of global sport. The world cannot afford to look away.
