Sporting Chance
Sportswashing , Issue 1637 HAVING finished its evaluation, Fifa will award the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia, the sole bidder, on 11 December.

The evaluation involved assessing the country’s bid documents (including its proposed “human rights strategy”) and commissioning an independent examination of human rights and labour issues – something Fifa promised after widespread criticism of its choice of Qatar in 2022.

Setting the bar
Nobody expected the Saudis to describe their own abusive labour practices. But hiring international law firm Clifford Chance to carry out the independent assessment surely implied a bar had been set, especially given the firm’s proud commitment to “the highest ethical standards [of] integrity, responsibility and inclusivity”.

Er, maybe not. The report was produced in just six weeks in a “joint venture” between Clifford Chance and a Saudi law firm. It considered only aspects of human rights that Fifa and the Saudi Arabian Football Federation had agreed on, included only positive evidence, and spoke to no stakeholder other than the Saudi authorities.

It didn’t mention, for example, the active complaint filed on 5 June against Saudi Arabia at the International Labour Organization concerning unpaid wages to tens of thousands of workers, confiscated identity documents, crippling debt bondage and abusive working and living conditions.

It also ignored abundant evidence of a visa sponsorship system indistinguishable from modern slavery, flourishing in a country whose 13.4m migrant workers (41 percent of the entire population) have no labour representation, independent human rights presence or independent media to protect them.

Dynamic market
So not such a high bar after all. Still, at least Clifford Chance can trumpet its involvement in what its joint venture website calls the “dynamic and fast-growing market in Saudi Arabia”.

No one should have expected anything more rigorous, however. Fifa’s “FWC2026” human rights commitment only calls itself “guidance” aimed at helping the hosts “tailor” human rights “action plans” that are merely “informed” by international human rights standards.

Clifford Chance says it was given a page limit for the report – which is one way to limit any awkwardly robust analysis of the sheikdom’s human rights record.

High Line
Among the boldest projects for the 2034 world cup is the proposed Neom Stadium, which is set to sit 350 metres above ground atop the Line, a 170km linear city. Serious logistical questions remain about how such a venue would operate, particularly how to transport 46,000 fans up and down from the stadium.

However it is achieved, you can bet there won’t be many impoverished Saudis labouring in the sun to build it. Qatar’s World Cup cost thousands of migrant workers their lives – yet Fifa is apparently closing its eyes, again, to the poor and vulnerable migrant workers on which its Saudi tournament will be built.