Human Rights Watch, a leading human rights activist organization, has accused FIFA of breaking its own regulations in allocating hosting duties for the 2030 and 2034 World Cup events.
After a surprise announcement that it had been approved as the sole candidate by the FIFA Council, Spain, Portugal, and Morocco effectively secured hosting rights for the centennial FIFA World Cup in 2030, requiring only the formalities of a successful bidding process and ratification by next year’s Congress.
The plan includes controversial one-time matches in the South American nations of Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay.
FIFA has also set a strict deadline of October 31 for countries to register their interest in hosting the 2034 World Cup, which will only be hosted in Asia or Oceania.
Saudi Arabia quickly confirmed its intention to bid and got support from the Asian Football Confederation, with an Australian-led effort seen as the only viable challenge but unlikely to garner enough support.
Human Rights Watch claimed the process violated Article Seven of FIFA’s Human Rights Policy, which states that “where the national context threatens FIFA’s ability to ensure respect for internationally recognized human rights, FIFA will constructively engage with the relevant authorities and other stakeholders and make every effort to uphold its international human rights responsibilities.”
The non-governmental organization also cited the Key Principles of the Reformed Bidding Process published for the 2026 edition, which was awarded to the United States, Mexico, and Canada, in which FIFA President Gianni Infantino and secretary general Fatma Samoura stated that the host must “formally commit to conducting their activities based on sustainable event management principles and to respecting international human rights and labor standards according to the United Nations.”
It said that a “unreasonably tight” timeframe for the 2034 World Cup had been established, and that it had “so far failed to apply these principles in the award of the 2030 and 2034 World Cups.”
Human Rights Watch also drew a comparison to the simultaneous awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar in 2010, which was largely regarded as contributing to the downfall of disgraced former FIFA President Sepp Blatter.
The former FIFA Executive Committee decided on the host nation, however this was changed to a Congressional vote for the 2026 edition.
Human Rights Watch’s director of global programs, Minky Worden, has urged FIFA to postpone the 2034 World Cup.
“FIFA is failing in its responsibility to the world of football to conduct World Cup bidding and selection procedures in an ethical, transparent, objective, and unbiased way,” Worden said in a statement.
“If there’s to be any integrity in what remains of this process, FIFA needs to immediately delay and open the bidding process for the 2034 World Cup, make public its labour, human rights, and environment policies, and then make sure protections are fully carried out.”
A potential World Cup in Saudi Arabia, she says, “exposes FIFA’s commitments to human rights as a sham.”
