Why is Saudi Arabia a controversial host country?
The situation in Saudi Arabia is that there is no freedom of expression, there is no free press and there is gender inequality. Women and girls have few rights. It is an absolute monarchy. Human rights groups say the country has one of the worst human rights records in the world. You are not allowed to express political opinions, you are not allowed to criticize the monarchy.
Saudi would say that we are transforming the country, that the country is opening up to the world, 'our society is changing, we are a country dependent on oil, we want to become a tourist destination, an entertainment destination, financially and technically. hub and that is why we invest in sports'.
Critics would say this is only part of the story. The biggest part of the story is that you are doing this to improve your image. You use sports to change your image, to project soft power. So when people think of Saudi Arabia, they don't think of human rights abuses. For example, they think of Cristiano Ronaldo, Formula 1 or golf. I think these are legitimate concerns.
FIFA has said that human rights have been part of the bid evaluation process, but many people believe that human rights have not played enough of a role in the process.
Why has FIFA's process also attracted criticism?
After a hugely controversial vote in 2010, when Russia got 2018 and Qatar got 2022, we thought this would be the catalyst for change, with everything being open and transparent going forward. But now we have a situation where everything seems to be happening behind closed doors. And it is difficult to defend a process where there is only one bid for each World Cup.
Surely there are more countries in the world that want to host the World Cup than the individual bids we have had for each edition?
For example, if a World Cup is held on three continents in 2030 – because matches will also take place in South America, but also in Spain, Portugal and Morocco – Europe, Africa and South America will immediately be left out of the equation when it comes to organizing competitions. a World Cup in 2034.
And FIFA said that due to the confederation rotation principle, the year 2034 must take place in Asia or Oceania. They announced this last October. They said anyone who wants to host it has 25 days to submit a bid. And within minutes, Saudi Arabia had made its bid. No one else had the time to come up with an offer because it takes months and months to make an offer. Australia thought about it, but quickly decided not to bid.
It is hugely controversial to hold a World Cup in Saudi Arabia, but if only we had had an open and transparent process where there had been other bids, or there had been media attention, or there had been a free, open vote been, then we could say that Saudi Arabia won fair and square.
Although FIFA will say that their auditors concluded that both evaluation processes were conducted with objectivity, integrity and transparency.
And the FIFA Congress confirming the World Cup was held online?
Normally you would have a FIFA conference to which all the top people from the 211 member associations would fly. There would be a lot of journalists there, there would be opportunities for us to speak to a lot of people, there would be a press conference afterwards. But it's all happening online, which from our point of view means there's less media attention.
FIFA would say that it makes more sense these days and that we need to consider our carbon footprint if we want to do this virtually.
But should we have ended up in a situation where we only had a FIFA congress online and there was no real voting, but applause? I would have been much happier if we had had a process where there had been competitive bidding, where there had been no expedited process, where we had media attention and we could have asked the right questions and the actual vote had a real voice and we could count up who voted for what and by how much they won.
What is the position of the FA, SFA and FA of Wales?
The FAs of England, Scotland and Wales supported both bids.
Should the FAs have taken a stand? I think a lot of people would say it would be good if they stood up on principle and stood up for what they believed in. But I think sometimes things get very political and you have to take a lot of other things into account in your decision-making process.
For example, we know that if England qualify for the World Cup in 2034, the England team would go there. So would the FA end up looking like hypocrites if they hadn't supported her? And we also know that English companies do a lot of business in Saudi Arabia.
The prime minister held talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman there on Monday and invited him to a football match in England, strengthening defense partnerships between the two countries. So you could say: if everyone else does business in Saudi Arabia, why shouldn't football do business there too?
Will it be a winter World Cup?
Traditionally, the World Cup always took place in the summer, until Qatar moved to winter in 2022. The climate in Saudi Arabia is similar to Qatar, so it is difficult to imagine how we can have a summer World Cup in 2024.
I have spoken to the president of the Saudi Football Association, the head of procurement, and they have always told me that we are not ruling anything out, but that we are exploring the possibility of holding a World Cup in the summer.
The international competition calendar has only been agreed until 2030, so we'll have to wait and see, but most observers would tell you we're looking at another winter world championship.
We already know how busy the competition calendar has become, now that the Champions League is also expanding. I think we're looking at a World Cup in January or February.
There are people – I am not one of them – who would say: 'we really enjoyed having a winter World Cup in Qatar, because the quality of football was better, because the players were not so tired, because it was halfway the season was. and it was long, dark nights in Western Europe and it was quite nice to see a big tournament in the winter.” That's the only positive spin I think can be put on it.
How did the Saudi bid achieve FIFA's highest ever evaluation score?
Even though there were only a few bids for each World Cup, FIFA said you have to go through the correct bidding process. “We will assess the bids, we will send people to the bidding countries to see their bids and their stadiums.” And as part of the bidding process, FIFA is now also looking at the human rights of the countries applying to host the World Cup.
Controversially, in their bid evaluation reports, released around midnight on Friday evening, Saudi Arabia was given the highest grade ever given to a bid. I think it was 4.2 out of 5.
The bid evaluation report stated that the human rights risk of hosting a World Cup in Saudi Arabia was a medium risk. Many people have criticized the process, they have criticized the bid evaluation report.
Is this sports washing?
This is a very important question. Why does Saudi Arabia want the World Cup? The Minister of Sports of Saudi Arabia has officially said that the crown jewels of world sport that they want are F1, which they have, the World Cup that they are going to have soon, and also the Olympic Games, something I am sure they will look into it in the future.
Why do they want it? Okay, critics will say it's all about sportswashing because they want to change their image on the world stage. So that when people think of Saudi Arabia, they don't think of a repressive, oppressive regime. They think of Cristiano Ronaldo instead, or they think of Lewis Hamilton, or they think of the World Cup.
The Saudis themselves, the Saudi officials I have spoken to, will say that this is not the case. It has nothing to do with sportswashing, which is a very simplistic way of looking at it. “The reason we are doing this is because we want to transform our country and our economy from one dependent on oil revenues to one based on tourism and entertainment. We want to make Saudi Arabia a financial and technological center.”
When it comes to human rights and reforms, they will tell you that they have made some reforms, but there is still a lot of work to be done. Critics will say that many of these reforms are superficial and done for PR purposes only.
And the situation on the ground when it comes to civil liberties and human rights has not really changed in Saudi Arabia.
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