The football world stage is not merely a celebration of human physicality — it is a powerful symbol of unity, respect, and dignity. Though the news today may be all in praise of the Kingdom’s initiative to support education for children in Yemen by contributing towards it through its aid agency KSrelief, we should not overlook the larger picture.
This new pledge, good as it looks on the surface, can become a smokescreen for a ten-year war that Saudi Arabia has been a big contributor to — one that targeted the very same communities it is now attempting to assist.
Let’s go over the facts and see why acts of humanity cannot be separated from a state’s long-term behavior, especially in the matter of awarding the prestige of being the host of the world’s greatest sporting event.
The Recent News: Education Aid for Yemen
On 19th July 2025, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) signed a cooperation agreement to give education to children with conflict in Yemen’s Lahij governorate. According to the Saudi Press Agency, the project will directly assist 6,833 individuals and indirectly 16,000. The memorandum of understanding includes school bags, hygiene kits, psychological counseling, child protection, and training for volunteer teachers.
Although such programs are desirable and needed — especially for post-conflict reconstruction and girls’ education — the question underneath remains: who was in the conflict in the first place?
Saudi involvement in Yemen since 2015 is widely regarded as one of the main causes of the human tragedy. The aerial bombing, blockades, and proxy wars led to mass displacement, school closures, famines, and the killing of thousands of civilians, many of them children.
A Humanitarian Cover-Up?
This education initiative is part of a broader trend we’ve seen repeatedly: powerful regimes engaging in reputation laundering by showcasing humanitarian efforts while burying the damage they helped cause.
Saudi Arabia’s involvement in Yemen is directly responsible for the destruction of schools, hospitals, and water systems. There are at least 2 million Yemeni children who are out of school now, reports UNICEF. Schools have been destroyed, and education has come down to a war zone. Is it enough today to provide school bags and hygiene kits?
It is an ethical concern. Is it acceptable that a country that sunk money into a war that destroyed an entire generation’s education system can now be praised for minuscule aid initiatives? And most importantly, is it right that it gets rewarded with the prestige of hosting the FIFA World Cup, a tournament founded on international solidarity and fairness?
Sportswashing Through Football
Saudi Arabia’s bid to host the FIFA World Cup 2034 is not about football. It is a clever step in an extensive sportswashing initiative — using international sports to rehabilitate its image while dodging accountability for human rights abuses.
From acquiring European football clubs and hosting boxing and Formula 1 events to now going for the ultimate prize — the World Cup — Saudi Arabia is aggressively using sport to rebirth itself as modern, progressive, and generous. But it is a very stage-managed fiction.
FIFA Should Remain True to Its Principles
FIFA itself claims to be an institution devoted to respect for human rights and to being inclusive. Its statutes emphasize the need to “safeguard the dignity and integrity of persons” and “promote friendly relations among peoples.”
Awarding the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia is a betrayal of those principles.
Consider the precedent: Qatar was in 2022 criticized for its treatment of migrant workers and LGBT+ affairs. Reforms did happen under pressure, but the tournament was left with a sour taste, showing how global publicity can be used by illiberal regimes to whitewash an ugly reputation.
Saudi Arabia is worse — both for what it has committed at home and for how it has acted internationally. The saddest example is Yemen. For 6,833 children, aid for education cannot undo the years of air bombing and sieges that kept millions of starving students and children from school.
The Cost of Forgetting
It’s easy to applaud positive headlines. A nation backing kids. Upgrading classrooms. Schooling girls. These are headlines intended to urbanize the globe’s perception, shift the narrative, and dilute responsibility. But for every school bag handed out in 2025, there is a classroom that was torched in 2016. For every hygiene kit, there is a mom who has been barred from clean water access due to the Saudi-imposed blockade. Behind each joyful picture of officials signing treaties is a graveyard of silence — a silence FIFA risks being complicit in if it reverses its position.
What True Justice Looks Like
If Saudi Arabia seriously wants to make amends, it should:
- Admit its role in the Yemen war and make a long-term reconstruction allowance.
- Open itself up to international scrutiny regarding civilian casualties and war crimes.
- Expand and protect human rights domestically, particularly for women, minorities, and dissidents.
- End politicizing sports and bring its sporting industry under the umbrella of accountability and transparency.
- Include civil society voices, such as Yemeni civil society, diaspora and international organizations, in aid and development choices.
- That is accountability. That is what international sports bodies like FIFA should demand before issuing an invitation.
Stand for Justice, Not Showmanship
As the world advances into 2034, we must question: What are we becoming as an international community through football?
Do we promote responsibility, openness, and human dignity — or do we give the world’s most vital tournament in football to a government that engages in negotiations by offering classrooms as bargaining chips and humanitarian assistance as public relations? Let us not be fooled by the superficiality of charity.
Let us remember the Yemeni children who remain excluded from education, the human rights defenders gagged in Saudi jails, and the moral responsibility that FIFA has to live up to its ideals. Sign the appeal to boycott the Saudi FIFA World Cup 2034. Not because we are against sport, but because we are in favour of a sport that unites people without deceit, moves people without trickery, and symbolises justice without frontiers.