Opinion: Now that the 2034 World Cup has been awarded to Saudi Arabia, let’s not forget the ‘lessons from Qatar’

Leaving the raised finger at home and seeking connection is fine when it comes to World Cup organiser Saudi Arabia. But that does not mean there should not be a particular focus on the many workers who will be needed for the event.

Louis Everard, Willem van Genugten and Evgeniy Levchenko

This letter also appeared in the Volkskrant on 12 December 2024.

What was coming is now final: the 2034 World Cup will go to Saudi Arabia, following a decision by world football federation Fifa that was partly prompted by human rights pledges by the host country and Fifa itself. That raises the question of what that means for Fifa member KNVB. We already know from an interview with director Gijs de Jong of the Dutch Football Association in this newspaper that the KNVB says it has learned from the discussion surrounding the 2022 Qatar World Cup. The gist: leave the finger wagging at home and seek the connection.

We too are in favour of leaving the finger wagging at home, not least because it quickly degenerates the discussion into ‘and you then?’ (‘you-buckets’) and because the dialogue produces little more than a lot of noise. We also think the KNVB would be wise to focus on human rights issues that can be directly linked to the World Cup.

Construction of stadiums

Shoemaker stick to your last and leave other discussions to others (governments, NGOs, trade unions, each with their own channels). Furthermore, ‘football-related’ is already a broad term, with special attention, as far as we are concerned, to the many workers that will be needed for the (re)construction of stadiums, which are now often too old and too small, with a few exceptions.
Qatar’s World Cup will always be linked to the many deaths among builders, however much denied by the country itself and Fifa. It was painfully admitted afterwards that there were some 40 World Cup-related deaths. Many other migrant workers died ‘a natural death’ and there were also many suicides.

Bangladesh

As with Qatar, Saudi Arabia’s economy relies heavily on migrant workers, often from India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. It is still too early to talk about ‘World Cup-related deaths’ but recent reports show that mega construction projects in Saudi Arabia are associated with many deaths anyway, some 21 thousand since 2017 (ITV documentary Kingdom Uncovered: Inside Saudi Arabia).

Behind that chilly number are people who went into debt to pay for the trip, who wanted to provide for their families, who thought they would set up their own businesses after returning. Governments like those of Qatar and Saudi Arabia take the position that all these people took a risk and should bear the consequences themselves.This cannot be entirely denied, but it is also the easiest route to take.

Liability

Liability for preventing violations and, if necessary, providing relief afterwards, lies with the organising country and contract partner Fifa and with the companies working with migrant workers. For Saudi Arabia, that legal mandate lies in, among others, the so-called human rights conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), with their focus on humane working conditions, 10 in number. The country has voluntarily acceded to seven of them, but as an ILO member is bound by all 10 anyway.

Saudi Arabia has also voluntarily joined the convention on allowing labour inspections. For companies, standards are set out in, among others, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, adopted unanimously by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011. Although it is a so-called soft law instrument, and not a treaty, it has since been widely recognised as a source of rights and obligations for companies, such as recently in the case of Milieudefensie v Shell.
The Hague Court of Appeal aptly spoke of ‘a global standard of behaviour that all companies are expected to adhere to, wherever they operate. It is not enough for companies to follow developments and measures taken by states’.

Not to be abandoned

In its 2017 human rights policy document, Fifa itself refers to the Principles, including a willingness to do even more than they require if necessary. Tough language, although ‘just comply’ would already go a long way. This can be done not by looking away as in Qatar, but by working with Saudi Arabia to have strict controls over construction companies and, as a follow-up, not financially abandoning the migrant workers or their dependents should they be injured or worse.
How hard can it be, in an industry where so much money is involved? The Qatar World Cup earned Fifa over $6 billion, making the tournament ‘the most profitable in Fifa’s history’, according to the organisation itself. After the World Cup in Qatar, the British newspaper The Guardian wrote that the Netherlands had paid more attention to the interests of stadium builders than other countries. Well that mainly says something about those other countries, but still.

Let it be a stepping stone for Fifa member KNVB (and ILO member Netherlands) to ‘step up a gear’, either in front of or behind the scenes.

About the authors
Louis Everard is director of the Association of Contract Players (VVCS). Willem van Genugten is professor emeritus of international law. Evgeniy Levchenko is chairman of the board of the Association of Contract Players (VVCS).