Fifa: That speaks for a World Cup in Saudi Arabia and that doesn’t

On December 11th, Saudi Arabia will officially be awarded the contract to host the 2034 World Cup at the congress of the world football association Fifa; there are no competitors. Despite clear criticism from human rights organizations, the application has the vast majority behind it in the FIFA cosmos.

But the debate about the country is complex – an approach to the arguments:

“Football belongs not only to the West, but also to the so-called Global South,” says Islamic and political scientist Sebastian Sons. Saudi Arabia is an “important football country” in Asia. The thousands of fans who supported their team at the 2022 World Cup in neighboring Qatar are proof of this. “It’s a big market, which means it also brings in money. Accordingly, it is a logical consequence that Saudi Arabia is applying for a World Cup,” said Sons.

FIFA gave Saudi Arabia’s application an exceptionally good grade. Even if many stadiums have not yet been built and massive investments are necessary. World football president Gianni Infantino had already turned to the Gulf market before the Qatar World Cup. There are “advantages for the football industry worldwide because new money is generated, because new markets are generated, and because it simply creates a different visibility for football in other regions of the world,” said Sons.

“Saudi Arabia is a country where human rights are very problematic,” Sons continued. Various organizations such as Amnesty International provide relevant evidence. The situation of migrant workers is a problem, as is the situation of homosexuals. The number of executions has also increased recently.

“There are definitely improvements, especially in the situation of women, but there will still be critical discussions about this, even in the next few years,” said Sons. A similar debate was also held before the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, including with and within the German national team.

In addition, Saudi Arabia, like Qatar, is accused of sportswashing, i.e. attempting to improve one’s own image with the help of positive sports. “Saudi Arabia is certainly a player that is investing very aggressively in sport,” says Sons.

Another problem with the World Cup is the way it is awarded to the country. The usual practice of allowing the tournament to “move” from continent to continent was to a certain extent circumvented by the award for North America-Mexico 2026 and Europe-Africa-South America 2030 – according to rumors, so that Arabia/Asia can get back to the tournament more quickly after Qatar 2022 row is.

On the other hand, the Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman is striving for reforms and modernization in his country. They are often not profound enough by Western standards, but they cannot be implemented within a few years anyway.