By Victor Kanayo
Amnesty International and the Sport & Rights Alliance (SRA) has asked FIFA to halt the process to pick Saudi Arabia as hosts of the 2034 World Cup.
The global body said the Arab country could be allowed to proceed with the hosting plans if major human rights reforms are announced before the vote period Iin December, 2024.
Football’s world governing body awarded the 2030 World Cup to Morocco, Spain and Portugal in October last year while Saudi Arabia is the lone bidder for the 2034 edition.
According to ESPN, Amnesty and the SRA said they had evaluated the human rights strategies proposed by the bidding countries and concluded in a new report that neither bid adequately outlined how they would meet the human rights standards required by FIFA.
They said the risks were far greater in Saudi Arabia and hosting the tournament in the Gulf country would lead to “severe and widespread” human rights violations.
FIFA said the bid evaluation reports for the 2030 and 2034 World Cup would be published ahead of its extraordinary Congress on December 11.
The 2034 World Cup hosts are set to be officially appointed at the FIFA Congress and Saudi Arabia’s bid is almost certain to succeed due to the absence of any other expressions of interest before FIFA’s deadline late last year.
A major cause for concern has been whether LGBTQIA+ people will be discriminated against in the Kingdom, where people can be sentenced to death if it is proved that they have engaged in same-sex sexual acts.
Hammad Albalawi, head of Saudi Arabia’s World Cup bid unit, said in September that LGBTQ fans were welcome and their privacy would be respected, pointing to the millions of fans who had travelled to the country for sporting events in recent years.
Saudi Arabia’s bid book stated 15 stadiums would be built or refurbished for the World Cup, with construction set to be completed by 2032, while more than 185,000 additional hotel rooms would be built ahead of the tournament.
Saudi Arabia is spending billions to transform its global image from a country known for strict religious restrictions and human rights abuses into a tourism and entertainment hub.
However, it narrowly failed to win a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council last month.
