A coalition of 15 human rights organisations, trade unions, fan groups, and organisations representing migrant workers has issued an urgent warning over the escalating human rights risks linked to the 2034 FIFA Men’s World Cup, one year after FIFA awarded hosting rights to Saudi Arabia.

In letters sent earlier this month to FIFA President Gianni Infantino and heads of football associations (FAs) around the world, the organisations highlight concerns raised ahead of Saudi Arabia’s selection as host country in December 2024 that, twelve months later, remain unaddressed, while grave human rights violations and abuses in the Saudi kingdom persist. 

They therefore urge FIFA to take immediate, concrete action – developed through meaningful stakeholder consultation – to remove the taint of human rights abuses from the tournament, and to press the Saudi authorities to implement essential human rights and labour reforms. Neither FIFA nor the FAs have yet formally responded apart from the Swiss Football Association, which referred us to the reservations it expressed to FIFA before Saudi Arabia’s selection as host country last year.

FIFA was already failing to uphold its human rights responsibilities, and indeed its own human rights policies, when on 11 December 2024 it confirmed Saudi Arabia as the 2034 host country without meaningful consultation or binding guarantees on labour rights and broader human rights protections. It was clear that without urgent action and comprehensive reforms by the Saudi authorities, the whole 2034 World Cup project would be tarnished by repression, discrimination, and exploitation on a massive scale. 

A year on, the situation shows no improvement. The repression of Saudi citizens and residents remains a deeply entrenched reality. Serious human rights violations and abuses have persisted throughout 2025, with further alarming new trends emerging, demonstrating hat major risks to the safety, wellbeing, and basic rights of all involved in the World Cup are not being addressed.

Our letters cite reports published in 2025 highlighting serious and widespread abuses of migrant workers’ rights in Saudi Arabia amid a building boom fuelled by the tournament. These include deaths on construction sites across high-profile projects (see reports by FairSquare and Human Rights Watch), abuses on the Riyadh Metro project, wage theft cases including at Aramco and Mecca project sites, and abuse of East African domestic and care workers. All these examples indicate that, without significant labour reforms, the World Cup will be staged at severe human cost. Meanwhile, the abusive kafala system remains in operation, contrary to official claims that it has been abolished.

The letters also highlight other abuses documented during 2025, including forced evictions of residents to make way for Neom, one of five designated World Cup host venues; further harsh sentences in cases involving issues of conscience, including for human rights defender Mohammed al-Bejadi and British citizen Ahmed al-Doush; growing use of arbitrary travel bans; the soaring rate of executions (330 so far in 2025); and ongoing discrimination based on gender, religion and sexual orientation. Such abuses underline Saudi Arabia’s current unsuitability to host the tournament and expose the serious risks for citizens, residents, and visitors alike ahead of and during the tournament. 

Given these ongoing concerns, the organisations are renewing their call for Saudi Arabia’s continued right to host the tournament to be made strictly conditional on the implementation of detailed and measurable human rights reforms. Such safeguards are essential if FIFA is serious about protecting workers, preventing abuses, and advancing fundamental freedoms over the next decade. 

In our letters, we called on FIFA to take the following urgent preliminary steps:

• Ensure expert stakeholder and public engagement in the development and oversight of plans, preparations, and risk mitigation for the tournament. This essential and overarching component has so far been missing from the FIFA 2034 Men’s World Cup process. Given the severe restrictions on fundamental rights and freedoms inside Saudi Arabia, this should include regular consultation with external actors, including human rights NGOs and trade unions;
• Commission an independent annual review of compliance with human rights standards in preparations for the 2034 tournament (and other World Cups), publicly reporting to the FIFA Congress;
• Exert urgent pressure on Saudi Arabia’s authorities to carry out the vital measures, listed in the annex to the letters, necessary to satisfy FIFA’s requirements of a FIFA tournament host country. 

FIFA has also been asked to set out publicly, as a matter of urgency, how it proposes to implement these vital measures. Failure to act risks serious harm and places significant responsibility on FIFA and the national football associations that backed the bid. 

ALQST’s Monitoring and Advocacy Officer Nadyeen Abdulaziz comments: “A year after FIFA awarded Mohammed bin Salman’s Saudi Arabia hosting rights for the World Cup based on a heavily flawed bid, the repression continues, including with migrant workers dying on construction sites and basic freedoms being trampled. FIFA has a responsibility to act now and ensure meaningful human rights reforms. Without them, this World Cup risks becoming a spectacle built on appalling suffering.”