FA still to decide on endorsing Saudi World Cup bid

In recent years, Saudi Arabia has hosted many major sports events, including Formula One, tennis, boxing and golf.

Yet the kingdom's human rights record, restrictions on women's rights and the criminalisation of the LGBTQ+ community has prompted controversy over its ambition to host the men's World Cup in 10 years time.

Last week, Fifa released its evaluation report for Saudi Arabia's bid, awarding it an average score of 4.2 out of 5 - the highest ever - with a conclusion that the tournament posed a 'medium' human rights risk. The assessment sparked condemnation from human rights groups.

The DFB held a committee meeting on Friday to decide its stance, and unanimous approval was given to support the 2030 and 2034 bids.

Its president, Bernd Neuendor, explained: "We did not make the decision lightly and carefully examined the application for the 2034 World Cup.

"There was an exchange with many interest groups and experts, including human rights organisations and fans, on the basis of which a well-founded decision was made.

"We take the criticism of the applicant country seriously and will continue to engage in dialogue. Our goal is to work together with Fifa to improve the situation in the coming years."

In 2022, England and Germany were among a group of European teams that abandoned plans to promote diversity and inclusion by wearing 'OneLove' armbands at the Qatar World Cup after Fifa threatened sporting sanctions. The FA had spoken out about human rights in the country.

The FA declined to comment.

Laura Scott

It is a sign of the complexity of this decision that the FA's hierarchy are still to come down one way or another, with just five days to go.

While Saudi Arabia has become a fairly regular host of top-level sport, this would be another level entirely.

The German FA's statement essentially acknowledges it will be criticised, and makes clear it did not take the decision lightly.

It seems likely, therefore, that whatever decision the English FA takes, it will divide opinion.

Any support of the event comes amid strong criticism from human rights and environmental campaigners, and just six weeks after more than one hundred professional women's footballers wrote to Fifa urging it to drop the Saudi oil giant Aramco as a sponsor.

They called such a deal a "punch in the stomach" to the sport, so awarding the biggest football tournament in the world to the kingdom would likely provoke similar if not stronger criticism.

However, there is a school of thought that sport can be a force for positive change, and that putting a spotlight on Saudi Arabia, if it was to host the World Cup, could help accelerate and enhance reforms.