Member countries will decide host of 2030 event this month
As Saudi Arabia is most likely to host the 2034 men’s World Cup, concerns surface about the Gulf nation’s controversial human rights record.Australia dropped out on Nov. 1 from the competition for the 2034 World Cup, practically making the only remaining bidder Sauri Arabia the host of the quadrennial sports event.Headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia recently held a series of sports events, including Formula One, boxing, the LIV Golf Tour, and the Saudi Pro League, to face criticisms that the country disrupted sports’ world order.It has been accused of sportswashing, the practice of using sports to distract attention from the country’s human rights abuses, as shown by the act of killing hundreds of unarmed Ethiopian migrants in August.According to Amnesty International, last year, Saudi Arabia had the highest number of annual executions in the kingdom in three decades as almost 200 people were killed.Early this week, the Sports & Rights Alliance urged world soccer governing body FIFA to secure human rights protections for the 2030 and the 2034 World Cup games.It is an international collation of nine human rights and anti-corruption advocates in sports, like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Transparency International.“Barely a year after the human rights catastrophes of the 2022 Qatar World Cup, FIFA has failed to learn the lesson that awarding multi-billion-dollar events without due diligence and transparency can risk corruption and major human rights abuses,” Human Rights Watch Director Minky Worden said.“The possibility that FIFA could award Saudi Arabia the 2034 World Cup despite its appalling human rights record and closed door to any monitoring exposes FIFA’s commitments to human rights as a sham.”After the 2022 World Cup, Qatar came under fire that it had abused migrant workers in building and servicing the infrastructure, such as stadiums and hotels.Against this backdrop, critics come up with doubts about whether Saudi Arabia will be able to hold the 2030 World Expo of which the host will be decided late this month.Currently, Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh stages a three-way competition for the 2030 event along with Italy’s Rome and South Korea’s Busan.“It is nonsense for an authoritative and closed country to host the World Expo, which should be a festival for democratic countries,” Seoul University of Foreign Studies politics Professor Son Tae-gyu said.“In consideration of Saudi Arabia’s abysmal human rights record, the World Expo should not take place there. In addition, we also have to think about the safety of more than 10 million migrant workers in Saudi Arabia in case it hosts the Expo.”이 기사를 공유합니다
Kevin Chung
(jumphigher55@aol.com)