2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia: Gianni Infantino's critics sound the alarm

It was a great week for Gianni Infantino. On Tuesday, the FIFA president participated in US President Donald Trump's state visit to Saudi Arabia, and during the welcome ceremony in Riyadh, he celebrated his close relationship with the powerful. Infantino joked with Trump and touched Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's upper arm in a friendly manner.

Then things got even better for him. During a speech, Trump encouraged the audience to give the football official a standing ovation. And while even bin Salman rose, the US president praised the FIFA chief: "Great job, Gianni, great job." So flattered, there was no stopping Infantino. At an investment forum in the host country of the 2034 World Cup, he said that football gives humanity what everyone wants: "happiness and health."

The FIFA Congress took place in Paraguay on Thursday, and some participants were displeased to learn that Infantino had also appeared in Qatar shortly beforehand. There, the Swiss national, grinning blissfully, signed a football alongside Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and again with Trump. Delegates in Asunción began to doubt whether the FIFA president would make it to their meeting in South America in time.

Infantino was indeed several hours late in Paraguay, but the displeasure was limited. The FIFA president explained to the congress participants how much money the Club World Cup in June and July in the USA would generate, which would naturally flow back into football, i.e., to clubs or associations. This should have appeased many representatives.

What Infantino didn't mention: A large portion of the revenue comes from Saudi Arabia, made possible by a special television deal. FIFA is increasingly becoming dependent on the kingdom. But as long as the bottom line is sound, any internal opposition within the association is powerless.

External criticism falls flat anyway, as the organization Human Rights Watch experienced this week. While Infantino was floating back and forth between continents, the organization published a study on its website describing dozens of "horrific and preventable" fatal accidents on Saudi Arabian construction sites: migrant workers fell from buildings, suffered electric shocks, and some even had their heads accidentally severed by machines.

To make the fates more tangible, Human Rights Watch quoted relatives of the victims. The widow of a 33-year-old man from Bangladesh said her husband fell from the third floor of a building during construction work. "He didn't die immediately," she said. "But no one helped him. They feared legal trouble."

Human Rights Watch barely made the headlines, even though the London-based analysis firm Fair Square published a report at the same time , highlighting the potential consequences of a failure to properly address the deaths. It warned that projects like the desert city of Neom, as well as the 2034 FIFA World Cup, could cost thousands of lives in the coming years. Football, the cynical conclusion goes, simply doesn't bring happiness and health to everyone. Few have taken notice of this drastic projection so far.

Incidents like the one in March when a migrant worker from Pakistan fell to his death at the Aramco Stadium construction site in al-Khobar are likely to happen again, according to Fair Square. The man was not attached to any safety points when the accident occurred, and witnesses reported that his colleagues were instructed to delete video footage of the incident.

A few years ago, reports of this kind would have provoked a different reaction. When deaths on Qatari construction sites became public, the host country of the 2022 World Cup and FIFA were confronted with a global storm of protest. There are complex reasons why something similar hasn't happened with Saudi Arabia: The public has become desensitized, the zeitgeist has changed. And, perhaps most importantly, FIFA is letting its critics get away with it, no longer paying them any attention.

Mark Pieth refuses to accept this. Together with two lawyers, the Basel-based anti-corruption expert filed a 30-page complaint against the association on Thursday via an internal FIFA platform. Pieth is calling for concrete measures to improve human rights in Saudi Arabia. "The situation of women is very problematic, and that of migrant workers is simply horrific," he says.

At least 100 executions have already been carried out this year, the lawsuit states, often on flimsy grounds, such as "disrupting the social fabric" through participation in protests. Minors are also being held on death row. The document addresses arbitrary arrests as well as the kafala system, which makes migrants dependent on their employers. In Qatar, this system has been abolished, at least on paper.

On Friday, several men who once played important roles at FIFA gathered in the guild room of Zurich's Widder Hotel. Pieth, who had temporarily headed an independent governance commission under Infantino's predecessor, Joseph Blatter, had invited them. He insisted that world football's governing body was compelled to act in Saudi Arabia due to its own policies.

Guido Tognoni, the former media director, advocated for expanding the approach, arguing that numerous other sports associations also hold competitions in the kingdom and should be held equally accountable. And Jérôme Champagne, who lost to Infantino as a presidential candidate, advocated also addressing the oppression of the Shiite minority in Saudi Arabia.

The men at the Hotel Widder shared a feeling of powerlessness. Pieth considered it a success to have received a formal acknowledgement of receipt this time: an earlier document on the same topic had been ignored by FIFA. However, the complaint is not binding. Pieth is counting on national associations or politicians to join the protest.

For now, however, this is only a faint hope: Infantino has moved on to other spheres.

An article from the « NZZ am Sonntag »