Saudi Arabia’s most recent attempt to bring Japanese firms into its special economic zones, which it announced at the Saudi-Japan Investment Forum in Osaka, is not just business news. Beneath the surface, this forum, where more than 1,500 participants from both countries were present, was presented as a bilateral economic cooperation celebration. But under the shiny veneer of “Vision 2030” reforms is a troubling fact: Saudi Arabia is employing global alliances, investment conferences, and international sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup 2034 as instruments of sportwashing and image laundering.
As an individual seriously concerned about human rights and the integrity of international sport, I believe the world needs to take a closer inspection at Saudi Arabia’s dual strategy. While it encourages economic integration with such great powers as Japan, it also struggles hard to normalize its international standing by securing the privilege to host one of the globe’s largest sporting events: the 2034 FIFA World Cup. It is not merely a matter of football; it is a matter of using sports and overseas investment to legitimize an authoritarian state.
The Osaka Investment Forum: A Curtain for Broader Ambitions
Minister of Investment Khalid Al-Falih made the announcement at the Saudi-Japan Investment Forum that Saudi Arabia has “fully restructured its economy” under Vision 2030. He called on Japanese companies to increase their engagement in Saudi infrastructure, giga-tourism, and finance. Japan, Saudi Arabia’s third-largest trade partner, is already sourcing 40% of its crude oil from the Kingdom. The appeal for “deeper strategic integration” was not merely economic; it was an appeal that Saudi Arabia wishes to be credible and accepted by admired democracies such as Japan.
But this forum was not just about cash. It was also concerned with political appearances. In involving a country like Japan—famous for its innovation, ruling, and international image—Saudi Arabia acquires a symbolic seal of legitimacy. This symbolic worth is all the more important as the Kingdom has come under increasing attack for its human rights track record, autocratic rule, and climate paradoxes.
The timing of this overture, pre-FIFA World Cup 2034 preparations, is not accidental. Each handshake of investment, each economic integration agreement, plugs into Saudi Arabia’s master story of being a modern, internationally integrated state. But the situation at home speaks otherwise.
Vision 2030: Reform or Rebranding?
The Saudi government boasts Vision 2030 has been able to diversify its economy and change the Kingdom into an innovation and tourism hub. But is one to ask: are the reforms real, or are they meant to sidetrack the international community from the systematized oppression of freedoms inside the nation?
Saudi Arabia continues:
- Crushing opposition, jailing activists, scholars, and journalists.
- Denies women equal rights, even with highly publicized reforms that are nothing more than token measures.
- Maintains capital punishment and public executions, practices universally decried by the international community.
- Censors media and expression, allowing no opposition voices to challenge the regime.
In this context, the FIFA World Cup 2034 is more than about football. It becomes a focal point of Saudi Arabia’s overall image management strategy, an extension of the same sportswashing campaign we witness in economic arenas such as Osaka.
The World Cup as a Tool of Sportwashing
Sportwashing involves the utilisation of significant sport events to divert attention from or cover up a regime’s atrocities. Saudi Arabia’s investments in sporting activities—from Formula 1 motor races to golf championships, and now the FIFA World Cup—are following the same template.
The Kingdom has already been criticized for projecting itself as progressive through big events while continuing to uphold authoritarian tendencies. Staging the FIFA World Cup in 2034 would offer the ultimate backdrop for this. Billions of television viewers across the globe would witness chic stadiums, glittering tourism commercials, and glossy tales of “new Saudi Arabia.” The reality of oppression, censorship, and injustice would be relegated to the background.
Why the Saudi Arabia Hosted FIFA World Cup 2034 Must Be Resisted
Abuses of Human Rights
The record of Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses in 2025 speaks for itself. From the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi to continual repression of activists, the Kingdom cannot be relied upon to treat the rights of players, supporters, and workers engaged in the World Cup with respect.
Exploitation of Workers
Qatar’s 2022 World Cup revealed the exploitation of migrant workers, whose living conditions were inhumane. In Saudi Arabia, there are 13.4 million migrant workers who are treated unfairly with inadequate labor protection measures. They stand in danger of repeating the same abuses—on an even greater scale.
Suppression of Free Expression
Patriotic fans, reporters, and activists attending the event will not have freedom of assembly or speech. Protests will be repressed, and the media will be heavily controlled.
Environmental Contradictions
While hosting environmental forums overseas, Saudi Arabia is still one of the global leaders in oil exports, with such mega-developments as NEOM being ecologically questionable. The ecological hypocrisy of taking a World Cup to be used to advertise “green initiatives” should not be overlooked.
Geopolitical Manipulation
Just as Osaka, where Saudi Arabia used Japanese collaboration to gain legitimacy, the World Cup would enable the regime to control world opinion. It would make authoritarian rule familiar through a popular sport.
Lessons from the Osaka Forum
The Saudi-Japan Investment Forum illustrates the way Saudi Arabia skillfully mixes economics and diplomacy. Japanese business is being encouraged to develop tourism projects, invest in special economic zones, and invest in finance—all under the umbrella of “mutual growth.” In fact, however, Japan stands to get sucked into the Saudi sportwashing machine.
By economically cooperating with the Kingdom without pushing it hard on its human rights record, Japan and other nations give credibility to Saudi propaganda. Such credibility will be paraded at the FIFA World Cup 2034 to imply that the world is behind Saudi Arabia’s change.
The reality is that such investment conferences and sporting events have one goal in mind: not change, but diversion.
A Call for Accountability
The global community, and FIFA in particular, cannot be party to Saudi Arabia’s international image cleaning. Granting the World Cup to a nation that repeatedly disregards basic rights is a perilous message: that value and justice are secondary to power and money.
Japan, amongst other nations that boast democratic values, needs to think keenly about the consequences of economic integration with Saudi Arabia. Companies should not be willing accomplices in a regime’s global make-over.
Football supporters, human rights groups, and democratic governments need to stand united and say: No to Saudi Arabia hosting the FIFA World Cup 2034.