The German Football Association (DFB) will vote for the only two applications when awarding the 2030 and 2034 World Cups – and thus also for Saudi Arabia. DFB President Bernd Neuendorf confirmed this in a media round on Friday in Frankfurt/Main. The tournaments will be awarded next Wednesday at a digital congress of the world association Fifa.
The DFB Presidium had “unanimously” decided “that we will agree to the award to Saudi Arabia in 2030, but also in 2034,” said Neuendorf: “It was unanimously seen that way, there was not a single voice that said that we are on the wrong track here. The decision is supported by the entire association.”The award to Saudi Arabia is considered a formality. The 2034 World Cup will be decided “en bloc” with the 2030 tournament – reportedly by acclamation. If the DFB refuses to give Saudi Arabia its consent, it would automatically reject the application of its UEFA partners Spain and Portugal with Morocco, Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay for the tournament four years in advance.
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The FIFA Council around Neuendorf unanimously agreed on this procedure in October. Critics see the double award as a departure from the reforms that were introduced as a result of the FIFA scandal in 2015. If the DFB took a stand against Saudi Arabia, “we would have taken ourselves out of the game,” said Neuendorf: “We have to work with FIFA to ensure that the situation in Saudi Arabia improves when it comes to human rights and sustainability.” The DFB President described the human rights situation in the kingdom as “critical” and “not something we are glossing over”.
Human Rights Watch makes serious allegations about the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia
With regard to voting behavior, however, he is “not in favor of us as the DFB isolating ourselves internationally”. The association also has to ask itself: “What can we achieve in our cosmos? We must not get ahead of ourselves.” Rejecting the application from Saudi Arabia would be “purely symbolic politics”. And: You have to see that “in large parts of the world” there is a “different view” of the country than in Germany: “We have to come to terms with that.”
The human rights situation in Saudi Arabia in particular has been criticized. Just this week, Human Rights Watch made serious allegations again in a new report. It’s about forced labor, exorbitant recruiting fees, rampant wage theft and inadequate protection from extreme heat. Restrictions on job relocations and uninvestigated worker deaths are also documented.
Fifa, on the other hand, certifies that Saudi Arabia has a “unique, innovative and ambitious vision”, and the most recent audit report assumes a “medium risk” when it comes to human rights. FIFA also relies on an assessment by a law firm based in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, which human rights activists describe as “artificially limited, misleading and overly positive”.
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