How the Saudi World Cup bid could backfire on the country looking to clean up its image

Canada’s former ambassador to Saudi Arabia says the country will use its World Cup bid to whitewash its record of human rights abuses — but the strategy will backfire. 

The Middle East country was the only football association to present a bid to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup before the deadline closed, soccer’s global governing body said on Tuesday.

Dennis Horak says this is a textbook example of Saudi Arabian “sportswashing” — using sporting events to sanitize its image on the world stage. 

The oil-rich country has an ongoing history of human rights violations, according to Amnesty International, including stifling women’s rights, detaining dissidents, torturing and executing prisoners and cracking down on protests. United Nations experts have repeatedly accused the country of violating international law during its nine-year war in Yemen. 

Horak, Canada’s former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, was expelled from the country in 2018 after the Canadian Embassy in Riyadh called for the release of detained Saudi women’s rights activists. Here is part of his conversation with As It Happens host Nil Köksal. 

How would you describe the fact that Saudi Arabia might get the 2034 World Cup? 

It’s consistent with what they’ve been doing … in a number of other sports with LIV golf, with their involvement in the English Premier League football. Also, trying to encourage and pay exorbitant amounts of money for internationally known footballers to come play in the Saudi league.

It’s also consistent, I think, with a lot of countries when they bid for these kinds of events, whether it’s World Cup football or the Olympics — trying to use that as prestige, as a way to show off their country, to encourage tourism, business, what have you.

Is it sportswashing?

The term sportswashing, it applies, I think, in this situation. But it’s also not a very effective strategy.

As we saw a little bit with Qatar with the World Cup, when you have these large events … the press naturally looks at the situation in that particular country — particularly one where people don’t tend to go visit a lot. 

And so any effort to try and sportswash or whitewash or somehow hide whatever warts the country has gets much more attention than it otherwise would have. 

Based on your knowledge of Saudi Arabia, what do you think the strategy is?

They’ve had this reform Vision 2030 program, which is a mostly economic and social reform effort.

The World Cup is going to be … at the end of the timeframe set out for this ambitious reform program. So I think it’s an effort for them to try to … showcase Saudi Arabia as a place to visit, as a place to invest, [and show] that it’s different from the wider perceptions in the world.

It’s all about image burnishing, which is, frankly, why a lot of countries bid for these sorts of events.

If Saudi Arabia does become the host of the 2034 World Cup — and then there’s scrutiny and criticism — how well do you think that will play out there?

They saw …. the attention that was placed on the treatment of migrant workers in Qatar, and they know there’s going to be criticism.

I think they’re hopeful that the reform efforts … will be well along the road, and that there’ll be a lot of good stories that will sort of blunt some of those [criticisms].

We don’t know what Saudi Arabia is going to look like 10 years from now, and it’s difficult to predict.

There had been a lot of very positive changes. And then we saw … the roundup of business people and royals. We saw the detention of women’s rights activists. We saw the horrific murder of [journalist] Jamal Khashoggi.

From FIFA’s perspective … is this, do you think, about money only? Or, as they’ve said, growing the game of soccer?

I think FIFA is always about money. 

Growing the game of soccer, I think, is also an objective. But it’s about the money. And I don’t think, really, FIFA has an ethical lens through which to look at anything, to be honest.

It’s about no other bidders as well, as far as I understand it. Australia has withdrawn. So they want countries that are willing to spend the money.

You get countries like China and Russia and Saudi Arabia and Qatar and others who have the money to spend … and want to convey a certain message. I think that’s sort of where we are in these large events at this point.

Do you imagine we might see any players, footballers or other organizations speak out or even boycott if this goes ahead?

For soccer players, being at the World Cup is the pinnacle of their career. They may feel uncomfortable going. Some may speak out, but I think it’s unlikely.

But it’s really not to them to sort of try and change the world. These guys have committed their lives to sort of trying to get to these events. So I don’t think it’s their responsibility to do that. 

I think most of them would go. I mean, based on what we’ve seen from past experience in other places with some pretty dodgy human rights records, [for] the athletes, the pull of the event, I think, is too strong.