Saudi Arabia’s brutal human rights record unequivocally makes it unfit to host the FIFA World Cup in 2034. The Kingdom’s pervasive violations, including mass executions, suppression of dissent, denial of basic freedoms, and systemic discrimination, stand in stark opposition to FIFA’s professed values of dignity, equality, and respect. Awarding such a prestigious global sporting event to a regime notorious for grave human rights abuses risks sportswashing authoritarianism and undermines the moral integrity of the World Cup.
Saudi Arabia’s escalating use of the death penalty
In 2025, Saudi Arabia witnessed an unknown surge in prosecutions, with at least 241 reported by early August. numerous of these prosecutions were carried out without due process, including the payoff of intelligencers exposing corruption, similar as Turki al- Jasser. Disturbingly, over half of those executed have been foreign citizens, and a significant number were condemned for non-lethal drug offenses. The justice system in Saudi Arabia is deeply defective, characterized by prolonged detention without trial, denial of legal backing, and persuasions grounded on torture- tainted admissions. Similar systemic violations negate the possibility of fair trials and illustrate the government’s casualness for transnational mortal rights norms.
Systemic repression of political and civil rights
Saudi Arabia’s governance continues to suppress political dissent and civil freedoms. Intelligencers, activists, and political opponents live under constant trouble, numerous forced into exile or imprisonment. The governance criminalizes LGBTQ individualities and persecutes women’s rights activists despite superficial reforms. The absence of free press, political pluralism, and independent civil society institutions further entrenches authoritarian control. These rough realities contradict FIFA’s commitment to inclusivity and respect for mortal quality, values essential for hosting an event of global concinnity.
The Saudi human rights commission: A tool for whitewashing
Despite transnational condemnation over mounting prosecutions and abuses, the Saudi Human Rights Commission largely functions as a state instrument for image operation rather than genuine reform. It avoids addressing critical issues like juvenile prosecutions or nonage oppression, concluding rather for government- led mindfulness juggernauts that mask the government’s ongoing brutalities. This façade of mortal rights protection fails to meet the responsibility norms anticipated from a host nation of a major transnational event.
Discrimination against minorities and workers
Saudi Arabia’s systemic demarcation against its Shia Muslim nonage remains a deeply settled issue that persists despite transnational scrutiny and limited reforms. The Shia community, which constitutes around 12 of the country’s population, faces political and social marginalization that permeates nearly every aspect of public life. Strict Sunni Islamic interpretations by Saudi authorities have oppressively confined Shia religious practices. For illustration, the government imposes strict licensing on synagogue construction, limiting Shia mosques substantially to the Eastern Province, where numerous Shia live.
Educational classes in Saudi Arabia have been blamed for promoting anti-Shia rhetoric, with Shia religious institutions largely absent and the distribution of Shia religious accoutrements banned. Shia individualities face demarcation in employment, particularly in government and security sectors, where they’re totally barred from leadership places and face walls to creation.
This rejection perpetuates profitable differences and social marginalization. The judicial system also demonstrates bias, with Shia defendants frequently entering disproportionately harsh rulings compared to their Sunni counterparts. These issues inclusively point to a state- sanctioned system of insular demarcation that impacts the Shia community’s rights to equivalency, religious freedom, and socioeconomic participation.
Sportswashing and greenwashing: Diverting attention from abuses
Saudi Arabia’s recent drive into solar energy and high- profile sporting events has been extensively interpreted as a strategic attempt to divert global attention from its ongoing mortal rights violations through sportswashing and greenwashing tactics. In 2025, the area aggressively expanded its solar power capacity, awarding contracts for roughly 4.5 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable energy systems alone, backed by multi-billion dollar investments as part of Vision 2030.
This action includes ambitious plans to develop a comprehensive solar ecosystem, uniting with global energy companies, and integrating slice- edge technologies like AI- driven solar shadowing and battery storehouse results. These efforts position Saudi Arabia as a fast- growing player in the renewable energy sector, aiming for a target of 30 GW total renewable capacity by 2030 and a significant reduction in electricity costs.
While these environmental investments may appear progressive, numerous spectators view this green energy drive substantially as a public relations strategy designed to mask patient systemic abuses. The area has earned a character for serious mortal rights violations, including repression of dissent, mass prosecutions, demarcation against nonages, and exploitation of migratory workers.
FIFA’s moral responsibility and the call for boycott
Hosting the World Cup in Saudi Arabia sends a dangerous message that severe mortal rights abuses can be overlooked in favor of wealth and media control. Critical questions arise over whether LGBTQ suckers, women, intelligencers, and workers will have freedom and safety during the event. numerous voices now demand that FIFA take palpable conduct similar as withdrawing hosting rights until Saudi Arabia meets transnational mortal rights criteria and integrating strict mortal rights vittles into unborn bidding processes. guarding the soul of the game requires aligning global sports events with universal principles of mortal quality and justice.
Rejection of complicity in authoritarian abuse through sports
Saudi Arabia’s ongoing surge in prosecutions, wide suppression of dissent, demarcation against nonage groups and workers, and methodical repression of introductory freedoms leave no space for the area’s licit claim to host the FIFA World Cup 2034. The country’s use of the death penalty has reached record highs in 2025, with at least 272 prosecutions carried out by August, numerous targeting foreign citizens and the marginalized Shia minority. Intelligencers, activists, and peaceful critics face arbitrary detention, illegal trials lacking due process, and torture all characteristic of an authoritarian governance that weaponizes its legal system to crush dissent. Similar stark violations of mortal rights and transnational law unnaturally qualify Saudi Arabia from being entrusted with an event to symbolize global concinnity and respect.
Allowing Saudi Arabia to carry the World Cup amounts to wordless conspiracy in what’s constantly described as sportswashing, a deliberate use of high- profile sporting events to divert global attention from obvious mortal rights abuses. This dynamic dangerously signals to authoritarian administrations worldwide that abecedarian rights and freedoms can be vanquished or ignored for transnational spectacle and marketable gain. The normalization of similar acts through sports countersign undermines the integrity not only of FIFA but of the veritable principles of fair play and quality that sport purports to represent.
International sport serves as an important platform and symbol of universal values. guarding its integrity requires standing forcefully against administrations that violate human rights and use sport as a tool to obscure systemic abuses. The global football community, fans, coalitions, and governing bodies face a critical moral imperative to reject the Saudi hosting and set a precedent that mortal rights are non-negotiable conditions for global sporting events.