By David Mark for ABC
FIFA president Gianni Infantino is broadcast on a screen during a ceremony in Riyadh on December 11, 2024, as the FIFA Congress votes for the hosting rights for the 2034 World Cup. Photo: AFP
Analysis: FIFA's decision to award the 2034 men's World Cup to the sole bidder Saudi Arabia has already been widely condemned on human rights grounds, but those protests will fall on deaf ears.
FIFA has shown by awarding the World Cup to Qatar in 2022 that it can ride out the loudest of voices and do whatever it wants.
This is an organisation led by an all-powerful president, Gianni Infantino, with a famously thick skin.
This is a man who stated: "Today I am gay," during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar - a country where homosexuality is banned.
The successful bid was a fait accompli after FIFA directed that only countries from Asia or Oceania could bid for the 2034 World Cup and set a 25-day deadline for countries to express an interest.
Football Australia, which had flirted with a bid, saw the writing on the wall and folded after powerful members of the Asian Confederation threw their support behind Saudi Arabia.
Infantino hasn't done a press conference since green-lighting Saudi's guaranteed bid.
The concerns raised about Saudi Arabia's bid cover labour laws and conditions in the Kingdom, as well as the country's treatment of women, the LGBQTI+ community and political dissidents.
Like Qatar did before in 2022, Saudi Arabia will rely on the labour of tens of thousands of migrant workers - largely from South Asia - to build the infrastructure for the cup.
But unlike Qatar, the tournament in Saudi Arabia will be an altogether bigger scale, with 11 new stadiums to be built over the next 10 years for a 48-team competition.
The country still employs the Kafala system of sponsored workers, which has led to accusations of workers being exploited, underpaid and vulnerable to unsafe work and living conditions.
"The significant human rights risks linked to this tournament are well-documented," said the chief executive of Professional Footballers Australia, Beau Busch.
"By securing hosting rights to the global game's most prestigious event, Saudi Arabia and FIFA must ensure the rights of everyone affected by the 2034 Men's World Cup are upheld and safeguarded.
"However, FIFA's ongoing governance failures and lack of accountability to its own human rights commitments leave no assurance that harm can or will be prevented.
"It is critical for the international football community step up to hold FIFA accountable."
Just two weeks ago, Amnesty International described Saudi Arabia's World Cup bid as an "astonishing whitewash of the country's atrocious human rights record".
Amnesty's head of Labour Rights and Sport, Steve Cockburn, slammed FIFA's evaluation of Saudi Arabia's bid saying: "There are no meaningful commitments that will prevent workers from being exploited, residents from being evicted or activists from being arrested."
FIFA said the human rights risk of Saudi Arabia hosting the World Cup was "medium".
"It is believed that there is good potential for the tournament to serve as a catalyst for some of the ongoing and future reforms, and contribute to positive human rights outcomes for people in Saudi Arabia," FIFA's bid evaluation document said.
President of the FIA Mohammed Ben Sulayem chats with Red Bull driver Max Verstappen during the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, in March 2024. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Saudi Arabia is already a major player on the international sporting stage, hosting an F1 Grand Prix, the Women's Tennis Association Finals, bankrolling LIV Golf and buying Newcastle United through its massive sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF).
International football stars including Karim Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar are now playing in Saudi Arabian club football - attracted by enormous financial deals.
Human Rights Watch says Saudi Arabia's investment in sport is an attempt to deflect from its human rights record - a process that has become known as "sport washing".
And while many western countries, including Australia, have been guilty of human rights breaches, there is an argument that Saudi Arabia is on a different scale.
Laws exist in Saudi Arabia which human rights groups argue enshrine male guardianship of women.
Homosexuality is illegal. Dissidents are locked up.
Of course, there is a chance that having the global spotlight on Saudi Arabia like never before will help bring about reform.
It is just as likely that many people won't particularly care, after all watching the best players in the world kick a football is pretty good theatre.
-ABC
