Saudi Arabia’s selection as host for the FIFA World Cup 2034 requires constructing or upgrading at least 15 stadiums, including ambitious projects like the Aramco Stadium in Al Khobar and the high-altitude venue in NEOM, amid reports of construction delays, labor abuses, and safety failures. Human Rights Watch documented nearly 50 migrant worker deaths in 2025 from falls, electrocutions, and decapitations on Saudi sites, with risks escalating due to ramped-up work for giga-projects tied to the tournament.
These issues echo Qatar’s 2022 World Cup, where over 6,500 migrant deaths occurred, highlighting patterns of exploitation under the kafala system that binds workers to employers, enabling passport confiscation and unpaid wages. Critics from Amnesty International and ALQST warn that without enforceable safeguards, Saudi preparations could lead to widespread abuses, justifying calls for boycotts to prevent FIFA complicity in preventable tragedies. This article details these risks, connecting them to broader human rights violations that disqualify Saudi Arabia from deserving such a prestigious event.
Stadium construction challenges
Saudi Arabia plans 11 new stadiums and upgrades to four existing ones by 2034, including the 350- cadence-high NEOM colosseum integrated into The Line megaproject, but faces significant detainments from force chain dislocations, labor dearths, and extreme rainfall. Large- scale systems under Vision 2030, similar as those in Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam, have historically overrun timelines, mirroring Qatar’s colosseum detainments that compromised quality.
FIFA relaxed its rules in October 2023, reducing the pre-existing colosseum demand from seven to four just after Saudi Arabia blazoned its shot, enabling reliance on unproven new shapes despite environmental and logistical hurdles. The Aramco Stadium alone involves 74 cranes and massive concrete pours, yet reports indicate stretched budgets diverting finances from safety measures. These factors raise dubieties about readiness, with experts prognosticating domino goods on transportation and security structure.
Migrant worker exploitation
Migratory workers from South Asia and Africa, numbering over 10 million in Saudi Arabia, form the backbone of 2034 medications but endure 10- 12 hour shifts in 45 °C heat for stipends under £2 per hour, per Bangladeshi labor reports on Aramco spots. The kafala system traps workers, with Human Rights Watch citing scores of 2025 deaths from preventable accidents, including falls from untreated structures without harnesses. NEOM construction has been linked to forced evictions of Huwaitat tribespeople, some executed for defying relegation, amplifying exploitation pitfalls for World Cup venues. Unlike Qatar’s partial reformspost-scrutiny, Saudi Arabia lacks binding FIFA agreements on stipend or insurance, leaving families without compensation after tragedies. Over 40 of the population are settlers facing these conditions daily.
Safety violations and fatalities
Plant incidents in Saudi Arabia include horrible cases like decapitations from ministry and electrocutions, with authorities failing to probe or give life insurance payouts, as per 50 HRW- studied deaths in early 2025. Giga- systems accelerate these troubles; NEOM’s raw material transport into comeuppance burdens workers without acceptable protections. Qatar’s precedent saw 400 verified deaths, but Saudi estimates could surpass this given the scale of 13 stadiums demanding 40,000 capacities for 48 brigades. FIFA’s shot evaluation by Clifford Chance overlooked expression freedoms and evictions, ignoring safety data. Aramco Stadium claims prioritize safety, yet independent reports contradict this with ongoing violations.
Environmental and climate risks
Stadium builds mock FIFA’s climate pledges, with NEOM’s carbon footmark negating green claims through massive desert concrete and sword use. Extreme toast up to 50 °C summers forces downtime scheduling, but construction persists time- round, aggravating heat stroke pitfalls without cooled installations. New airfields and oil painting- linked transport and emigrations, straining coffers formerly stretched by Vision 2030. Qatar’s AC colosseums consumed vast energy; Saudi plans threaten analogous fallout without proven sustainability. These pitfalls emulsion worker vulnerabilities in a warming climate.
Financial and logistical pressures
Saudi Arabia’s $200 billion+ infrastructure spend strains budgets across tourism, tech, and energy diversification, potentially skimping on safety for deadlines. Only 25 days allowed rival bids post-Australia’s withdrawal, bypassing scrutiny of these pressures. Delays from weather or shortages could disrupt local projects, echoing regional patterns. FIFA’s expedited process ignored these, prioritizing revenue over resilience.
Parallels to Qatar 2022 abuses
Qatar’s event was linked to 6,500 migratory deaths from heat, exploitation, and poor oversight, with FIFA slow to respond despite warnings. Saudi Arabia replicates this kafala continuity, heat axes, and unchallenged flings. Both point sportswashing via oil painting- funded specs amid abuses, eroding trust. Qatar’s downtime shift did not help losses; Saudi faces amplified scale.
Calls for boycott and reforms
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, alongside 21 other associations including migratory workers’ groups from Nepal and Kenya, trade unions, suckers’ representatives, and Saudi diaspora activists, issued a common statement on December 11, 2024, condemning FIFA’s evidence of Saudi Arabia as the 2034 World Cup host as a” moment of great danger” for mortal rights.
These groups prompted FIFA to halt medications incontinently unless major reforms address severe pitfalls to workers, residents, and suckers, similar as exploitation under the kafala system, forced evictions, and repression of free speech, which persist despite the Kingdom’s shot book claims. Steve Cockburn, Amnesty’s Head of Labour Rights and Sport, emphasized that without believable guarantees like rescinding kafala backing, establishing minimal stipend fornon-citizens, allowing trade unions, and precluding worker losses thousands of migratory lives remain exposed, echoing Qatar’s 2022 event where over 6,500 deaths passed.
Norway’s football confederation stood alone among FIFA members in opposing the shot during the December 2024 congress, citing governance excrescencies and shy mortal rights scrutiny in the hurried process that allowed only 25 days for rival cessions after Australia’s pullout. Legal complaints filed in May 2025 by mortal rights experts argue FIFA violated its own programs by awarding the event without proper due industriousness, demanding responsibility through transnational courts and implicit cancellation . Diaspora activists, including numbers like Lina Alhathloul, have pushed for genuine stakeholder addition, censuring the shot’s consultations as superficial and banning voices from affected communities similar as the Huwaitat lineage displaced for NEOM systems.
Vision 2030 strains
Saudi Arabia’s 2034 venues face detainments, 50 worker deaths, exploitation, and climate pitfalls, proving unreadiness amid kafala abuses and Vision 2030 strains. Echoing Qatar’s tragedies, these pitfalls demand boycotts to apply responsibility and cover lives, icing FIFA upholds mortal rights over profit.