Saudi Arabia are set to be confirmed as hosts of the 2034 World Cup but the country’s selection poses many questions and fears for players and fans alike as much for logistical reasons as ethical ones.
Official confirmation won’t come until late 2024 when hosting rights will be announced at a Fifa congress, but as Saudi Arabia is the sole bidder the decision is a foregone conclusion.
i looks at the major challenges facing Saudi organisers of 2034, and why it is already shaping up to be one of the most controversial tournaments in footballing history.
‘Human rights commitments must be agreed’
Saudi Arabia has one of the worst human rights records in the world, ranked 159th out of 165 by the Fraser Institute’s Human Freedom Institute, fuelling concerns both about tacitly endorsing the state by holding a World Cup there and the personal freedoms of fans visiting for the tournament.
Lina al-Hathloul is one of those who knows all about the attitude of the Saudi regime towards human rights. Her sister Loujain led a campaign to give women the right to drive in Saudi Arabia, and was arrested in 2018 for “attempting to destabilise the kingdom”. That same year women were finally granted permission to drive cars.
Hathloul says her sister was brutally tortured in the first months of her detention, including waterboarding, electric shocks, forced eating, sexual harassment and threats of rape and murder.
“I started campaigning for her release, it was just impossible for me to stay silent,” Hathloul tells i.
“During that time I also met other relatives of people who are in prison and I just realised that it’s the whole, it’s not only about my sister. We really have to dismantle not only the laws but the layers of repression in Saudi Arabia.”
Loujain had been arrested before in 2014 for driving from the United Arab Emirates to Saudi Arabia. On that occasion she was held in what she called a “care home”.
“It is a prison for women who are minors but also a prison for women who are disobedient to their male guardians,” Hathloul explains.
“So even if you are, for example, abused, and you complain about it, your male guardian, who is your father or your husband, can complain, file a complaint for disobedience and then you are put in this care home.
“The male guardianship system is so repressive, that it can lead women who are abused to jail because there are no real shelters.”
Loujain started campaigning to found Saudi Arabia’s first independent shelter but they were never granted certification, and she was also a vocal critic of the male guardianship system, which combined with her fight for women’s right to drive, saw her arrested for the second time in a late-night raid.
She was finally released from prison after more than 1,000 days in detention back in 2021, but still lives under a travel ban imposed by the courts.
Loujain’s story is far from unique. The website of ALQST, a Saudi-based human rights organisation, lists hundreds of political prisoner who have, according to the NGO, “been detained for peacefully exercising these fundamental rights”.
Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch, says: “Given the enormous scale of the World Cup, there are far-reaching human rights risks to consider with all bids to host this tournament – as well as opportunities for change that should not be missed.”
But Amnesty International claims that the very process by which Saudi Arabia found itself in pole position to host the 2034 World Cup makes it impossible to hold the country to account.
Fifa does have a human rights policy that claims to “integrate human rights requirements into bidding processes for competitions”.
However, the announcement of the 2030 arrangements, which involve spreading the tournament across three continents, meant only Asia/Oceania federations were eligible to bid for the 2034 edition, with a short deadline offered and only Saudi Arabia seemingly prepared to be involved. Australia expressed interest but was unable to put together a bid in the tight timeline.
“Fifa must now make clear how it expects hosts to comply with its human rights policies,” said Steve Cockburn, Amnesty’s head of economic and social justice.
“It must also be prepared to halt the bidding process if serious human rights risks are not credibly addressed.
“The best chance for Fifa to obtain binding guarantees to protect workers’ rights, ensure freedom of expression and prevent discrimination linked to the World Cup is during the host selection process – not after the hosts have been confirmed and tournament preparation has begun.
“Human rights commitments must be agreed with potential hosts before final decisions on holding the tournaments are made.”
LGBT+ fans’ anger
Amnesty is not the only group to have raised concerns about the wider impact of the uncompetitive process. Homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia, with a maximum sentence of death, and according to the Human Dignity Trust, “LGBT+ people are regularly subjected to discrimination and violence”.
None of LGBT+ England supporters group Three Lions Pride travelled to last year’s World Cup in Qatar, where homosexuality is also illegal, over safety concerns – and expect the same kind of issues in Saudi Arabia.
“Given this whole process feels like it has to enable Saudi to host unopposed, we anticipate that Fifa will obfuscate and obstruct constructive conversations in the same way as they did for Qatar,” a spokesperson for Three Lions Pride tells i.
“They have once again shown the fragile nature of their commitments to human rights and a football for all.
“We are more coordinated, global and visible than when Qatar was awarded the World Cup – silence is not an option, and Fifa will hear fans.”
They added: “We had to miss a major tournament, the excitement and matches due to our legitimate safety concerns.
“As highlighted across the tournament, queer fans and those with rainbow items were targeted and oppressed during the tournament despite the attempts to restrict the reporting of such.”
Last year, sports minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal said that LGBT+ fans would be welcome at sporting events in Saudi Arabia while admitting that the country “isn’t perfect” on human rights but is “working towards a better future”.
However, those words sound hollow to those who heard similar promises in recent years.
“For all of the conversations and time we gave up ahead of Qatar, nothing changed,” a Three Lions Pride spokesperson said.
“Is there an appetite to engage on these issues and actually listen, learn and talk about not just the broad picture but the detail, the semantics and the difficulties this tournament will create for England fans?
“Lighting up the Wembley arch is not going to cut the mustard. We are 20 years on since the England cricket team forfeited a match, and their tournament progression, to make a stand in solidarity with Zimbabwean people. Yet the England [football] team won’t wear a [rainbow] armband that may carry a sporting sanction for a player.
“What they could do in the meantime is look at the laws of the game to protect human rights symbology, such as the peace or rainbow flag, so that sporting sanctions cannot be applied.”
Under current Fifa rules, players could receive an instant yellow card for wearing rainbow armbands.
10 new stadiums need to be built
Recent tweaks to Fifa’s hosting requirements, which saw the existing threshold for number of stadiums lowered, have smoothed Saudi Arabia’s path to playing host.
Previous bidding protocol for the 2030 and 2034 World Cups required potential hosts to submit a minimum of 14 proposed stadiums, seven of which needed to have been built already.
Under the old rules, which stated stadiums had to have a minimum capacity of 40,000 – with some capable of catering to 80,000 – current Saudi footballing infrastructure would have fallen short.
Now, a timely tweak to the rulebook has lowered the threshold to only four existing stadiums, which can also include ones in the process of being constructed.
“The requirement for four existing stadiums for the 2034 edition factors in the significantly longer lead-in time to the tournament and guards against infrastructure being more out of date, making allowance for having the best quality possible,” a Fifa spokesperson said.
In response, new stadiums will be built in Riyadh, Qiddiya, Jeddah and Dammam, while other pre-existing stadiums are set to be modernised in time for 2034.
Much in the same way Qatar approached infrastructural challenges for the 2022 edition, Saudi Arabia seems set to simply build its way to being a capable host.
The ongoing construction of $500bn (£400bn) smart-city Neom near the Kingdom’s Red Sea coast, scheduled to be completed in 2039, is a testament to the regime’s appetite for vast building projects – but more than a decade behind schedule, it also speaks to the pitfalls of such ambition.
The construction of Qatar’s stadiums for the Middle East’s first ever World Cup required the recruitment of thousands of migrant workers.
The Guardian reported that a total of 6,500 had died in the lead-up to the 2022 tournament – this figure has been disputed by organisers who insist it relates to deaths from all causes, some of which were unrelated to the project – but Qatar World Cup chief Hassan Al-Thawadi has admitted that between 400 and 500 died as a result of work connected to the tournament.
Despite expressions of concern from international bodies, including the UN Human Rights Council, Saudi Arabia has steadily expanded its hosting portfolio in recent years and will hold this year’s Club World Cup and the 2027 Asian Cup, as well as the 2029 Asian Winter Games.
Will fans be allowed to drink alcohol?
The drive to host international events might also lead to discussions on whether the Kingdom’s strict alcohol ban would be softened for their duration, although it seems unlikely given the current noises coming out of the government.
Last year, Qatar’s organisers initially made concessions to allow fans to drink in stadiums and at fan zones, but that was subsequently reversed in a last-minute U-turn reinstating the countrywide ban on public alcohol consumption. That meant fans in the stadiums were only able to drink the non-alcoholic “Budweiser Zero”.
All the indications in Saudi Arabia are that there will not even be a pretence at allowing tourists to drink alcohol. The Saudi sports minister has described the idea of serving alcohol at games as Islamophobic because “the World Cup is for everyone”.
Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal added: “If you are against that, and you don’t feel like you’re going to enjoy your time coming, and you can’t respect that rule, then don’t come. It’s as simple as that.”
Extreme heat makes tournament ‘risky’
It seems unfathomable that Saudi Arabia, a desert country where the average summer temperature is about 45 degrees, but readings of up to 54C are not unusual.
Instead, it is expected that – just as Fifa did for Qatar – the World Cup will be shifted to a winter slot. But even then, fixtures staged in the afternoon tasked players with adjusting to temperatures averaging 34 degrees, while those that kicked off after 10pm experienced humidity above 60 per cent.
Players struggled to adjust and fans will encounter similar problems. Vulnerable groups including children and older adults, or those travelling from cooler regions, unused to extreme heat, will be particularly at risk.
The Saudi Pro League has already had to grapple with extreme heat, as the season runs from August to May, months when temperatures are at their most fierce. Cristiano Ronaldo and Jordan Henderson have both struggled with adjusting to searing temperatures since moving to the league.
Last month’s Qatar Grand Prix again put climate conditions at the forefront of discussion, as drivers endured temperatures in excess of 40 degrees. Alpine driver Esteban Ocon reportedly vomited in his helmet.
In extreme temperatures, athletes risk suffering from heat-stress disorders including heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat strokes.
“The stress of competing in extreme heat is already affecting more athletes around the world – climate change is making outdoor sports riskier,” said Dr Andrew Pershing, director of climate science at Climate Central.
In these conditions the body’s main cooling mechanism, sweating, can fall short in preventing overheating, leaving players with symptoms including nausea, exhaustion and dehydration.
In Qatar, stadiums used huge tanks of cold water to create cooling systems – effectively replicating air-conditioning units – to ensure comfort for spectators, players and match officials. Misting fans may also be deployed for cooling warm-up and in-game break areas.
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