In January 2025, human rights organisation ALQST released a briefing exploring how Saudi Arabia’s bid to host the 2034 FIFA men’s World Cup allegedly “fails” to meet FIFA’s human rights requirements.

The report argues shortcomings in the proposals create a direct risk of human rights abuse and risks legitimising the Saudi authorities’ “repressive rule”. It also reveals human rights violations at two tournament venues, Neom and Jeddah Central.

The report explores the Saudi “Bid Book”, arguing its limited focus on human rights falls short of FIFA’s human rights policy. Further criticism of the “Bid Book” has been made by several human rights organisations, including Amnesty International. ALQST also critiques AS&H Clifford Chance’s “Independent Context Assessment”, arguing it cannot be seen as a “genuinely independent” account of human rights risks in the country. The assessment was critiqued by eleven civil society organisations in November 2024 for being “shockingly poor”. ALQST’s report also analyses the Saudi Arabian Football Federation’s “Human Rights Strategy”, which it says is based on the “limited findings” of Clifford Chance’s "Independent Context Assessment" and presents an “uncritically positive view” regarding human rights measures. Finally, the report explores FIFA’s Bid Evaluation Report, arguing it minimises the potential adverse human rights risks of the tournament. The Evaluation Report has been further criticized as a “whitewash” by several other human rights organisations.

The report goes on to explore key human rights concerns linked to the tournament, including:

• Labour rights: Prevailing labour rights violations and plans for extensive infrastructure construction create “serious risks” for exploitation and death “on a massive scale”.
• Land seizures, forced evictions and displacement: the report says “grave abuses” have already taken place at NEOM (see further reporting and company responses here) and Jeddah Central (Human Rights Watch has previously contacted Jeddah Central Development Company, which is developing the Jeddah Central project, over allegations of forced displacement).
• Freedom of expression, assembly and association: this includes the criminalisation of human rights activity and journalism, “accentuat[ing] the risks in relation to other thematic areas”.
• Discrimination: including based on people’s identify, gender, religion and sexual orientation.
• Restricted access to justice: this includes a vague legal framework, and a criminal justice system that lacks transparency and falls short of international standards.