What is FIFA Hiding? Communities are Holding FIFA and its Corporate Sponsors Accountable
By Sophia Kahn, critical minerals intern, Public Citizen's Climate Program
Photographed by Neil Rivas
The World Cup brings together communities from around the world for the love of soccer, sparking beautiful moments of joy and unity. And, the World Cup’s popularity is increasingly profitable for FIFA— this year is the most lucrative World Cup in history. But, this bonanza comes at a cost for the very people that make the games possible—the workers, host-communities, and fans.
FIFA and its corporate sponsors are engaging in sportswashing: supporting sports as a way to improve their reputation by diverting attention from unethical practices. FIFA and its corporate sponsors are using our excitement over the World Cup to distract from broken promises, and documented human rights violations and environmental destruction. Luckily, communities across the country are standing up and demanding these corporations take accountability.
FIFA harms people and the environment.
The FIFA World Cup has a long history of human trafficking and forced labor, with documented instances of labor abuses occurring at every World Cup over the past decade. For the 2022 Qatar World Cup alone, hundreds of migrant workers died working on the infrastructure projects needed to make the Cup possible. As a result of global outrage, FIFA finally promised to develop human rights plans for each 2026 World Cup host city. But now, FIFA has broken its promise – many host city committees failed to produce timely plans with concrete steps to prevent harm to workers and communities.
FIFA carries a legacy of environmental harms as well. Every Cup in the last fifteen years has generated millions of tons of CO2 due to factors such as international travel, construction, and match-day operations. In 2021, FIFA pledged to halve emissions by 2030 and achieve net-zero by 2040. Yet emissions have only increased. Estimates for this year’s Cup range from 5 to 9 million tons of CO2, making it the “most polluting” World Cup in the history of international sport.
Sponsors like Hyundai-Kia, Saudi Aramco, and Home Depot have sparked protests across the country.
It’s not just FIFA. The actions of FIFA’s corporate sponsors have led to protests across North America. In Los Angeles, Youth Climate Strike blockaded the Sofi stadium VIP entrance to demand FIFA end its partnership with Saudi Aramco. The Saudi oil and gas company is the world’s single largest corporate polluter and was condemned by the UN for violating international human rights law.
Public Citizen and other organizations led a letter delivery and rally in front of the LA Sports and Entertainment Commission (LASEC) focused on issues with sponsors such as Hyundai-Kia and Home Depot. Community members have raised issues with companies associated with Hyundai-Kia’s supply chain including child labor, environmental abuse, and forced disappearances. And, the Boycott Home Depot movement is calling on consumers to hold the company accountable for its complicity with ICE raids on its parking lots.
Tell FIFA: Protect the People Behind the World Cup.
Corporate sponsors make the World Cup possible by paying FIFA billions to advertise. But such partnerships depend on the assumption that the viewers—you and me—either don’t know or don’t care about the webs of exploitation and violence underlying their businesses. And, that we will be too distracted by images of international celebration surrounding the Cup online to notice FIFA doesn’t actually extend those values to the real workers, communities, and fans that make the games possible.
FIFA wants us to accept its actions as the necessary evils that keep the Cup alive. But as the organization is expected to make $13 billion from this summer’s tournament, FIFA clearly has ample resources to do better.
Join the communities demanding FIFA put its money where its mouth is. Sign this letter calling on FIFA to implement real human rights plans and hold its corporate sponsors accountable.