“It can’t be that lying wins the race”

The Futis World Cup host for 2034 will be chosen today.

There is no big surprise, because there is only one applicant: Saudi Arabia.

The international football association Fifa already ensured the selection of its favorite by limiting the regional search to include only Asia and Oceania.

When the application period was reduced to four weeks for oil, a democracy like Australia had no chance to participate in the competition.

– I have previously criticized the way Saudi Arabia’s candidacy was brought up. However, there is ten years before the Games. It was not in line with good governance or Fifa principles, the president of the Swedish Football Association Ari Lahti start.

– This has also been criticized by the chairman of the Australian Federation, and I agree with him.

On Wednesday, there will be a final blow to the competition host. Finland – or any other country – can no longer prevent that.

– Now we are in a situation where in practice we can’t do anything. The best way to influence Fifa’s decisions would be to be inside preparing them at an earlier stage, Lahti continues.

– The Nordic countries do not have a representative in the Fifa Council, and that is a bad thing. We have been the most active in these human rights issues.

This time, it was the Fifa Council of a small circle that made the decision on behalf of the wider Fifa Congress. In the latter, several candidates would be submitted to the vote of all countries (as in the 2026 World Cup selection).

21,000 dead

It is not even worth starting a discussion about Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations.

When the 2022 World Cup was held in Qatar, the futsal world was abuzz about the emirate’s problems. The closer the opening kick came, the greater the international pressure became, and Qatar had to, for example, give up the Kafala system of foreign workers, which resembles modern slavery.

In Saudi Arabia, the situation is many times darker. Kafala is still valid there.

About 21,000 Indian, Bangladeshi or Nepalese migrant workers have died in the country in the last eight years.

– As president of the Swedish Football Association, I don’t want to criticize any country. And that’s not the job of the Balloliitto either. As far as Finland is concerned, it belongs to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, says Lahti.

For example, in the case of Qatar, Finland’s relations with Qatar became closer just before and immediately after the World Cup. Today, it is strongly about an allied country, at least at the level of the energy economy.

Saudi Arabia is not involved in any political boycott like, for example, Russia.

– The task of the Swedish Football Association is to think about whether the games will be granted according to the rules and criteria that have been set for Fifa. It’s the right angle of entry.

A promise of better

The number of dead foreign workers will increase many times over the next ten years, when the de facto dictator Muhammad bin Salman wants to build no less than 11 new stadiums and increase accommodation capacity by 185,000 hotel rooms.

Crown Prince bin Salman wants to guide Saudi Arabia gently away from its oil dependence, but at the same time he is clinging to the ultra-old social structure, where victims of sexual crimes go to prison and those who criticize the regime face the death penalty.

– Saudi Arabia’s competition application is based on promises about what changes the host country is making, says Lahti.

The application clearly states that the country’s human rights situation will improve. In addition, fans belonging to sexual and gender minorities must feel welcome at the World Cup.

In addition, all construction work must be done in humane conditions. Special attention must be paid to their safety.

And, of course, no restrictions must be placed on the work of the media.

– Fifa’s responsibility is definitely to monitor these to ensure that the changes are implemented. It can’t be that you win the race by lying.

– We are concerned about these types of things and we want Fifa to be too. Promises have been made regarding these, so hopefully they will also be respected.

Close connection

The connection between Saudi Arabia and Fifa has strengthened recently. For example, last week the streaming giant Dazn saved the umbrella organization from trouble when it promised to pay an absurd premium for the television rights to next summer’s World Cup tournament for club teams.

There didn’t seem to be an iota of sense in a billion-dollar deal, because traditional TV channels had estimated the tournament to be worth a few tens of millions at most.

Even less sense was made in the streaming giant’s promise to distribute the matches for free to viewers. The company has been making huge losses practically throughout its history.

The pattern behind the arrangement became clear only when you connected it Reuters to the news about the Saudi Arabian state investment company’s desire to buy a 10 percent slice of Dazni.

Coincidentally, the price would be exactly the same billion dollars.

“Reformer Infantino”

The whitewashing culminated in a human rights report commissioned by Fifa, which found absolutely no problems in the entire kingdom.

The report was written by the Clifford Chance law firm’s branch in Saudi Arabia.

One of the “criminals” in the story is the Fifa boss Gianni Infantino, which, after a promising start, has turned in a rather authoritarian direction.

– He came as a reformer, and he has made some clear reforms. At least the control of money traffic has become much more precise, Lahti defends the Swiss.

Finland receives approximately two million euros in grants from FIFA annually. It doesn’t get better to fight against it.

– I look at it as sad that it has come to such a situation. There’s not an awful lot left to do at Wednesday’s Congress. The process did not comply with all transparency principles.