On October 2, 2025, Saudi Arabia organized a high-level panel during the Munich Security Conference Leaders Meeting in the ancient city of al-Ula. The meeting, while couched in terms of trying to move forward peace between Israel and Palestine, gathered Saudi, French, and Palestinian representatives. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan was accompanied by his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot, while Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa participated via video conference. The conversation centred on ceasefire moves in Gaza, Palestinian statehood recognition, and humanitarian relief.
On its face, the panel sent a message of Saudi Arabia as peacemaker—a country working to end one of the globe’s longest and most violent conflicts. But that message, when submitted to scrutiny, is cataclysmically inaccurate. Inviting such panels provides Saudi Arabia with an opportunity to clean up its international image while, at the same time, diverting the focus away from its own widespread human rights abuses, autocratic governance, and involvement in regional disputes.
But the truth paints a far different picture—one that makes it crystal clear why Saudi Arabia should be excluded from hosting the world’s most iconic football tournament.
The Gaza Tragedy and Saudi’s Selective Morality
During the panel, officials emphasized the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed more than 66,200 Palestinians—most of them women and children—leaving the enclave uninhabitable, plagued by famine and disease. The panel’s recognition of Palestine’s suffering may sound commendable, but it is overshadowed by Saudi Arabia’s own record of selective morality.
Saudi Arabia boasts of being a supporter of Palestinian statehood, but simultaneously keeps clandestine relations and warming diplomatic ties with Israel. Rumors have emerged in recent years about Saudi-Israeli normalization negotiations, facilitated by U.S. intervention. Riyadh cannot play the role of an advocate of justice outside when it is repressing elementary freedoms within and engaging in ruinous regional policies.
This paradox reveals the real reason for Saudi Arabia’s foreign diplomacy: image management. Just as it hosts human rights negotiations, Saudi Arabia is set to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup, a global event it views as the jewel in the crown of its sportswashing policy.
Sportswashing and the FIFA World Cup 2034
Sportswashing is the process of using sport to divert attention from human rights violations and authoritarian rule. Saudi Arabia has already poured billions into Formula 1, boxing events, WWE shows, the LIV Golf tour, and club football buys such as Newcastle United. Now, with FIFA World Cup 2034 locked down, it has won its largest triumph so far in rebuffing its global image.
But the question that we need to pose is: Should FIFA permit a country with such a record to host the world’s biggest sporting event?
Saudi Arabia is near the bottom of the world in terms of political freedoms. Freedom House rates the Kingdom at 8/100 on freedom around the world—one of the lowest in the world.
Women’s rights are still constrained, with guardianship legislation continuing to restrict many areas of independence in spite of superficial reforms.
Dissent is brutally suppressed. Hundreds of activists, clerics, and journalists continue to languish in prison for peaceful dissent.
Saudi Arabia continues to conduct mass executions. In March 2022, the Kingdom put 81 men to death in one day, the largest mass execution in decades.
These facts cannot be divorced from the discussion of Saudi Arabia’s international hosting rights. No less than Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022, Saudi Arabia is an even graver case.
Hypocrisy in the Name of Peace
By organizing panels on Palestine and Gaza, Saudi Arabia positions itself as a moral authority during a moment of crisis. But no one can overlook its own bloody history in the region. For many years, Saudi Arabia led a catastrophic military campaign in Yemen, where more than 377,000 have been killed, many from starvation and treatable diseases brought on by the war.
The Kingdom’s aircraft bombed schools, hospitals, and civilian targets—war crimes chronicled by the United Nations. Riyadh now wishes to play a mediator of peace while its own policies led to yet another humanitarian disaster in the neighboring country.
This hypocrisy is brazen. If Saudi Arabia’s rulers were serious about peace, they would reform their own abuses, open up political liberties, and welcome accountability. But no, they invest billions in megaprojects like NEOM, in luxury festivals, and now in the FIFA World Cup—while activists rot in jail cells for calling for democracy.
Why Saudi FIFA World Cup Must Be Banned
The world needs to push back against sportswashing becoming normalized. Fans, players, and civil society can make a difference. Already, boycott campaigns are building strength to boycott the Saudi 2034 World Cup.
Human rights groups such as Amnesty International have criticized Saudi Arabia’s record and warned FIFA against complicity.
Surveys indicate increased awareness among football supporters. In Europe, a poll in 2024 indicated that 62% of supporters are against hosting the World Cup under authoritarian regimes.
Players themselves are raising their voices. Some have declined to play in Saudi-backed tournaments, on grounds of morality.
The campaign needs to escalate. As South Africa was excluded from international sport during apartheid, so too should Saudi Arabia be held to account through sporting isolation until it makes changes.
Say No to Saudi 2034
Saudi Arabia’s Gaza panel at the Munich Security Conference might have tried to present a diplomatic and peace-loving image, but it is all just a staged performance. The Kingdom cannot use humanitarian cover to hide behind while continuing to have one of the world’s most unforgiving authoritarian regimes and using sports to clean up its image.
The FIFA World Cup is not just a match; it is a representation of international solidarity, happiness, and pride. To entrust it to a regime that kills dissidents, suppresses women, inflames regional conflicts, and breaks freedoms is a betrayal of the spirit of football.
In the interest of human dignity, justice, and the integrity of the sport, the world needs to come together and demand: Excluded from hosting the FIFA World Cup 2034: Saudi Arabia.