The Current - Saudi Arabia’s 2034 World Cup deal causes controversy

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

Saudi Arabia has been named host of the 2034 World Cup despite a track record of human rights violations. An investigative football journalist tells us why the decision is a “middle finger” to fans of the game.

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On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway and this is The Current Podcast. officially confirm that the hosts of the FIFA World Cup 2030 will be Morocco, Portugal and Spain. The dramatic music signals it all. That's FIFA President Gianni Infantino announcing the hosts of the 2030 World Cup in a live stream yesterday to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first World Cup which was held in Uruguay. The first three games will be in South America, a match apiece in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay. And then, after that, came the announcement for 2034. And last but not least, it is a great pleasure that I can confirm that the host of the FIFA World Cup 2034 will be Saudi Arabia.

Madhub, Madhub, to our friends. Perhaps the dramatic music and pause was not necessary because Saudi Arabia was the only bidder for the 2034 World Cup. It'll be the second country from the Middle East to host this tournament. Qatar was the first in 2022 following years of accusations of serious migrant labor and human rights abuses. There are many fears that this could happen again in Saudi Arabia, a country with a known track record of violating human rights. Arabia, a country with a known track record of violating human rights. Hovard Malnes is the editor of the football investigative journalism outlet Yosimar, is in Oslo this morning. Hovard, hello.

Hello, Matt, and thanks for having me. Thank you for being here. As I mentioned, perhaps not a lot of drama around this, given that Saudi Arabia was the only bidder for the 2034 men's world cup what do we know about about why it went to saudi arabia uh because uh fifa president gianni infantino wanted it to be uh saudi arabia that was uh gonna be hosting the 2034 world cup last october fifa suddenly decided to open the bidding for the World Cup in 2034. And they gave a deadline of 25 days.

And by no one's surprise, the only bidder was Saudi Arabia. So it was kind of infantino paved the way for the bid and for Saudi Arabia hosting the 2034 World Cup. What would make that attractive for FIFA to have the World Cup, the Men's World Cup in Saudi Arabia? That's a really good question and with a really easy answer. It's all about money. So Saudi Arabia is investing heavily, heavily in sport, as we all know. They more or less bought the sport of golf.

And the last few years, they've turned their eyes to football as well. And they have, you know, the Saudi Pro League, have some really good players like Cristiano Ronaldo, who reportedly earns $200 million per season playing in Saudi Arabia. So FIFA is all about the money, and Saudi Arabia has a lot of it. And also Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy with a dictator, Mohammed bin Salman. with a dictator, Mohammed bin Salman. So it's really convenient for FIFA to kind of cooperate with a dictator,

much easier than cooperating with democracies, because then you have to have transparent governance, and you don't need that for 2034. What do you think Saudi Arabia is trying to do in terms of building up its image through sport? As you mentioned, Saudi Arabia has spent something like $6.2 billion on high-level sport since 2021. Yeah, well, you know, it's a long time since football was just football. Football these days is a geopolitical tool. And, you know, hosting a mega event like the World Cup, maybe the biggest sports event in the world,

it gets you a seat around the best table in international politics. Last week, French President Macron opened Notre Dame, and all the leading political figures in the world stage. And that is, you know, that is actually happening now and will happen with the World Cup. It's quite amazing. Since five years ago, when the Saudi Arabian journalist Hamal Khashoggi was beheaded, and both, you know, U.S. authorities, the U.N. concluded that this beheading was ordered by Mohammed bin Salman himself. Amnesty International has called Saudi Arabia's human rights record atrocious. This World Cup bid is already being compared in some ways to the World

Cup that was held in Qatar in 2022. You were there in Qatar, what, half a dozen times covering that World Cup and the construction of the stadiums leading up to the tournament and then what happened after. What did you take from that? Well, you know, every time i went to qatar it was to to to kind of um uh to tell the stories of the migrant workers uh because in the gulf in the gcc countries you have something called the kafala system which means as a worker you're kind of the your employers hostage. So what happens when you're working under the kafala system is that once you arrive, your employer will confiscate your passport. You will have no possibility to leave your employer or the work without him allowing it.

You can't change job. So in practice, you are kind of a hostage. And these migrant workers, you know, they're getting paid between $1 and $2 per hour. Many of them work 12 to 14 14 hours a day seven days a week uh 365 days a year and their their work is hard and also it's uh it's under a burning sun you know the temperatures both in qatar and in saudi arabia can reach can reach mid-40s, almost 50 degrees Celsius. And laying asphalt for 12 hours a day, 12, 7 days a week, that's, you know, not too many can take it. And what we saw in Qatar was that the majority of workers that died they died of

something called heat stress so you know uh which is a week which is you know they they died of exhaustion so um and what we saw in qatar because the project in in in saudi Arabia, it's much bigger. You know, they're going to build 11 new stadiums. They're going to have something like 200,000 new hotels. One of these stadiums is going to be, what, 350 meters on top of a building in a city that doesn't exist yet. Yes, Neom. One of our journalists was in Neom three days ago, and he could tell that the real construction hadn't really started yet. They're still doing the groundwork. But just for Neom, it's expected that, you know, the Saudis need to bring in hundreds and hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, maybe millions.

So, and the biggest, you know, the biggest scandal here is that FIFA is awarding the World Cup to a nation that, you know, practice modern slavery. And all, you know, all the human rights organizations, they fear that as a result of yesterday's decision, you know, thousands of thousands, if not ten thousands and all of the attention that was paid on the construction of those stadiums, the World Cup, from many perspectives, was a huge success. The stadiums were full, the fans showed up, there was record TV ratings, there were great sporting stories and triumphs. What is the message to fans, do you think? Yeah, well, I think it's a middle finger to the fans, this decision. Because football is about unity, it's about fair play, and nothing about yesterday's decision reflects that. Do you think fans care about that? You know, we live in a time where it's kind of like a constant information war.

You know, it's a kind of like a constant information war you know it's propaganda everywhere so fans should care about other people's lives and no tournament you know can be defended when it has a human cost like we're gonna what we're gonna see in Saudi Arabia Havard Malness I'm glad to talk to you about this. Thank you very much. Thank you. Havard Malness is editor of the football investigative journalism outlet Yosimar. He was in Oslo.