In a development that highlights the ongoing concerns over human rights issues ahead of the 2034 FIFA World Cup in Saudi Arabia, football’s global governing body has rejected appeals to allow independent monitoring of the working and living conditions of migrant laborers in the Gulf state as it undertakes a massive infrastructure development push to prepare for hosting the tournament.
FIFA Turns Down Request for External Oversight
The request for increased protections and oversight for migrant workers came from the African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa), a trade union collective representing some 18 million African workers, many of whom are part of the migrant labor force expected to take on the brunt of the extensive construction work required to deliver Saudi Arabia’s World Cup vision.
In a letter to FIFA, ITUC-Africa urged the organization to put in place several key measures, including ending the kafala labor sponsorship system that has enabled worker exploitation, and crucially, allowing independent monitors to assess the conditions for workers on the ground.
ITUC–Africa made the request to FIFA last month in response to what it described as Saudi Arabia’s “alarming record” on human rights.
However, in its response, FIFA stopped short of directly addressing the union’s specific appeals, arguing instead that the existing commitments and “workers’ welfare system” proposed by the Saudis in their original winning bid for the tournament were sufficient to ensure labor rights standards are upheld.
A “Workers’ Welfare System” – But Details Remain Vague
FIFA’s Secretary General Mattias Grafström pointed to Saudi Arabia’s bid proposal to establish a system to “monitor compliance with labor rights standards for tournament-related workers.” However, details on how this system would operate or allow for independent verification remain thin on the ground.
In the official Saudi bid document, the phrase “workers’ welfare system” does not appear, although the hosts do describe a “working group” formed of Saudi government departments to oversee a human rights strategy implementation.
The bid also promises to engage with international partners like the UN and ILO, but is vague on the nature and extent of this proposed cooperation. Grafström states that FIFA does plan to “engage constructively” with global labor rights groups leading up to 2034, but concrete plans have yet to materialize.
Massive Infrastructure Push Raises Stakes for Workers
An estimated 10 million migrant workers currently reside in Saudi Arabia, and they are anticipated to make up the bulk of the labor force needed to deliver the host nation’s ambitious World Cup infrastructure program, which includes:
- Building 11 brand-new football stadiums
- Expanding transportation networks
- Doubling hotel room capacity to 185,000
The sheer scale of the development plans, coupled with Saudi Arabia’s questionable track record on workers’ rights to date, has human rights advocates and labor organizations deeply concerned that migrant workers will face hazardous, exploitative conditions in the decade-long run-up to the tournament if strong protections and oversight are not guaranteed from the outset.
Will the World Cup Spotlight Drive Reform?
FIFA and the Saudi authorities maintain that hosting the 2034 World Cup will shine a global spotlight on the country and create impetus for positive social and labor reforms. In his letter, Grafström asserted:
The FIFA World Cup will shine a spotlight on Saudi Arabia for the years to come, which can provide an opportunity for actors within the country and beyond to promote positive change.
However, if the experiences of migrant workers in previous World Cup host countries with poor human rights records, like Russia and Qatar, are anything to go by, the world football spotlight does not guarantee protection from exploitation and abuse for those laboring behind the scenes to make the tournament possible.
As the pressure mounts on FIFA and Saudi Arabia to implement meaningful, transparent and independently verifiable measures to safeguard workers’ welfare, the world will be watching to see if they rise to the occasion – or if the road to the 2034 FIFA World Cup will be paved with the same rights violations that have marred other recent host bids. For the millions of migrant workers set to toil under the Gulf sun in the coming years to deliver Saudi’s football dream, the stakes could not be higher.
