The news that the 2034 FIFA World Cup will be held in Saudi Arabia has unleashed an international outcry amongst football fans, human rights campaigns, and global civil society. Behind the mind-boggling stadium photos and promises of global-standard infrastructure lurks an exceedingly sinister reality: Saudi Arabia’s World Cup proposal is not playing up the game of beauty — it’s one of cleaning its reputation on the global stage. Recent coverage of Saudi Arabia’s political and diplomatic actions shows why it is not suitable to provide the kingdom football’s most desired event.
Saudi Arabia’s $1 Trillion Deals and International Investments Are a Diversion from Human Rights Abuses
Saudi Arabia is jaw-dropping world leaders with massive investment commitments, AI alliances, weapons sales, and pompous ceremonies to distract away from its dismal human rights record, a recent Reuters news story reported. Striking out in front of more high-level diplomatic initiatives, such as its recent shift towards America, the kingdom is launching over $1 trillion in business deals and partnerships, including defense agreements and artificial intelligence plans to mega-projects aimed at making Saudi Arabia a high-tech economic giant.
Sportswashing — a term applied to describe how repressive regimes utilize international sporting events to clean up their international image, silence opposition, and cover up atrocities. Hosting the 2034 World Cup is not a stand-alone event but one aspect of this continuous attempt at washing their reputation. Even while expensive state visits and economic partnerships are utilized to rebrand Saudi Arabia for political elites, the World Cup will captivate global spectators and overlook the kingdom’s internal repression and outwardly exported atrocity.
Saudi Arabia Publicly Criticizes Gaza Genocide but Secretly Pursues Arms Sales and Defense Treaties
The same Reuters news report identifies the means through which Saudi foreign policy wagers against its words as a responsible and stabilizing regional power. Saudi officials have recently suspended talks on normalization with Israel amid mass outrage at the Gaza war, which killed over 52,000 Palestinians and displaced 1.9 million people through Israeli airstrikes. Saudi Arabia seems to condemn genocide and call for a ceasefire on the surface before picking up normalization talks again.
But still, it’s done in secret, and Saudi Arabia is still negotiating security treaties, weapon deals, and defense guarantees from the United States and indirectly from Israel. And all of this duplicity is an act of treason on Saudi hypocrisy: officially condemning humanitarian crimes in Gaza and at the same time standing militarily and economically with the same players who created the same crisis.
Such duplicity should disqualify it from hosting an event that claims to promote international unity, fair play, and peace. Granting Saudi Arabia the prestige of the World Cup legitimizes its regime — despite clear evidence of its role in fueling regional instability and undermining human rights.
Saudi’s FIFA Bid Is About Geopolitical Leverage, Not Global Sportsmanship
The Reuters coverage is clear in framing that Saudi Arabia’s World Cup bid has more to do with geopolitics and less to do with football. The kingdom is right now engaged in serious arms deal, nuclear cooperation, and oil diplomacy negotiations — all with America but also in rivalry with China. Such moves have the intention of putting Saudi Arabia on the map as a regional superpower, rather than building a unity of the world through sport.
Examples in the report include:
- Spurring defense sector alliances with the U.S. in the form of security guarantees and potential nuclear agreements;
- And all this while wooing Chinese investment and technological partnership in its Vision 2030 economic vision.
- A more mature military capabilities and local influence through gigantic weapons acquisition and economic alliances.
These coalitions are in no manner connected to football’s popular, participatory tradition. They are, instead, a creation of a regime concerned with asserting power and stifling resistance to its exercise, domestically and internationally.
FIFA can be an accomplice to this manipulation. In awarding Saudi Arabia the 2034 World Cup, FIFA is bestowing an authoritarian regime with a wonderful propaganda present one that will take people’s minds off its human rights abuses and cement its grip on power. Instead of rewarding good sportsmanship, FIFA will be lending its endorsement to a country where freedom of expression is punished, protest is suppressed, and justice is withheld.
Human Rights Abuses Prove That Saudi Arabia Is Not Fit to Host the World Cup
The truth of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record — well-documented and corroborated by the Reuters report — is horrific:
- 196 individuals put to death in 2022 alone, including political opposition figures.
- Women’s rights activists like Loujain al-Hathloul were imprisoned and tortured for nothing more than demonstrating the right to drive.
- The assassination of reporter Jamal Khashoggi at the behest of Saudi officials, and no high-ranking official held accountable.
- These crimes are not far or remote. They are outcomes of a system that prioritizes regime survival more than mere human dignity. Having the World Cup will not alter that system — it will embolden it.
- We, the world citizenry, players, and fans, must hold firm and not let football become a cover-up for oppression.
We Must Boycott the Saudi Arabia 2034 World Cup
The Saudi Arabian 2034 World Cup is not a typical sporting event. It is an authentic public relations exercise by a troubled authoritarian government to wash its dirty linen. Reuters’ report focuses on Saudi Arabia’s sportswashing attempt, complicity in human rights violations, and bare-faced geopolitical gamesmanship — making it utterly inappropriate to host the event.
FIFA has a moment to reverse. And if not, then we – the world of international football – have something to say as well. Through protest, steadfastness, and eventually boycotting the 2034 World Cup, we are heard loudly and clearly:
- Football should never be used to wash dirty money.
- Human rights are not up for sale.
- No Saudi Arabian World Cup.